What some might see as a harmless prank during Thanksgiving weekend didn’t amuse the representatives of Tillsonburg.
Oct 21, 2025 • Last updated Oct 21, 2025 •
Tillsonburg town staff responded to a pair of incidents of industrial-grade soap being poured into the stone fountain at the Tillson Family Parkette over Thanksgiving weekend. Photo by Mark Renaud /Facebook
What some might see as a harmless prank during Thanksgiving weekend didn’t amuse the representatives of Tillsonburg.
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On both October 12 and 13, parks and recreation staff were called to deal with the problem of heavy-duty soap being poured into the brick fountain at Tillson Family Parkette located at the corner of Broadway and Simcoe Street.
Soap bubbled over the sides of the fountain, prompting staff to shut off the pump to avoid more damage.
“Although people perceive it as just kids having fun, the difficulty is that it does cause a lot of problems,” said Mark Renaud, executive director of the Downtown Tillsonburg BIA, who shared a photo of the scene on social media.
“Whatever it was, it wasn’t regular soap; it was an industrial-grade soap and it ruins the granite fixture where the water is decanted, it’s not good for the pump and most importantly, when the water and suds overflow, it undermines all of the interlocking stone and washes away the polymer sand that holds all the brickwork together. Over time, it’s going to lead to thousands of dollars in repairs.”
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Both police and witnesses reported these incidents to town staff.
“I think a lot of people think it’s innocent and funny; they need to realize there’s a cost to stuff like that, and we’re lucky that this incident was minor,” said Adam Kannawin, Tillsonburg’s manager of parks and facilities.
“The message (to the public) is to treat your town with respect because our infrastructure is funded by taxpayers. They may find it funny, but such actions can be costly. We were fortunate on Sunday (Oct. 12) that we had staff available; however Monday (Oct. 13) was a holiday so our on-call supervisor came in herself to handle things.”
“Whether it’s private or public property, we have to respect that property,” added Mayor Deb Gilvesy. “If it’s not yours, you should take care of it.”
A shopping cart was also left on top of a large granite rock in front of fountain creating an eyesore for passersby. Renaud’s social media post suggested that incidents like this are becoming almost routine occurrences.
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“Especially in an area where we have busy downtown traffic with many transient visitors driving through during Thanksgiving weekend; seeing things like this gives off a very poor first impression about what Tillsonburg represents,” said Renaud. “People judge books by their covers-the town needs to be clean and orderly because that’s how we’ve built our reputation over recent years through hard work from those who care deeply about its operation and appearance; when situations like this arise they undermine our efforts.” If anyone knows anything about these incidents they can reach out to Crime Stoppers of Oxford at (519) 421-8477 or call toll-free at 1-800-222-8477 or visit oxfordcrimestoppers. com. Share this article in your social networkSource link
