COAL GROVE — For the past 20 years, Coal Grove’s Paul Porter Park has been a place of Christmas tradition, thanks to the village and the Coal Grove Betterment Club. But as of Thursday morning, the tradition’s fate for this year is up in the air.

Most of the electrical wiring used to decorate the park each year is missing. Vickie McDaniel, Coal Grove Betterment Club president and the the village’s First Lady, was at the park along with Jae Roush, betterment club member, when they discovered the building had been broken into and the wiring was gone.

“They broke the lock off,” McDaniel said. “They took $1,500 to $2,000 of electrical wiring.”

McDaniel said there were other items in the building, but the wiring was all that was missing. Chief Eric Spurlock, of the Coal Grove Police Department, said the wiring was likely stolen because of the copper in the wiring.

“We checked in the scrapped yards,” Spurlock said. “I’m sure that’s where it will end up. What they’ll do is strip the rubber coating off of it. It’s copper, and they’ll turn the copper in and sell it.”

Spurlock said there have been so many people at the park this week, they don’t have a lead at this time. But he said when the person is found, action will be taken.

“As soon as we find out, we’re going to prosecute them,” Spurlock said. He would like for anyone with any information to let the police department know.

“If anybody saw anybody around the park in the evening, or (Wednesday) night, contact the Coal Grove police,” Spurlock said. “We’d deeply appreciate it.”

Vickie McDaniel said the group usually works for five weeks to get everything ready.

“I don’t know if we are going to be able to light it now,” she said. “I hate it. … It might have to be put on hold,” she said.

McDaniel said she doesn’t know where the money would come from to replace such a great loss.

Mayor Larry McDaniel said the Betterment Club had given a $5,000 donation for decorations this year, but with no way of knowing something like this would happen, most of the money has been spent on items to decorate with. Mayor McDaniel said Coal Grove hasn’t had to worry about a crime like this at the park.

“We’ve never had that. This is the first time,” he said. “You have small stuff. People might do something to the restroom. This is the first time to have anything stolen.”

Mayor McDaniel said the yearly tradition means a lot to Coal Grove.

“We get a lot of traffic driving through park,” he said. “We estimated last year 5,000 cars went through to view the lights. The people, the community, enjoy it.”

Vickie McDaniel said the yearly display is just as lovely as the display at Ashland’s Central Park.

“It makes our community proud to see our community have something like this,” she said.

Mayor McDaniel said he wishes whoever did this would just make it right.

“I don’t like a thief,” he said. “I just hope they realize what they’ve done. For a little bit of money, they might have hampered the community for a few weeks. If they would bring them back, there would not be anything said.”