| | Associated Press
MIDWAY, Utah -- Security has been tightened at the
cross-country skiing venue for the 2002 Olympics after dozens of
college students broke into a new building and threw a rave party.
Deputy Sheriff Wayne Winterton was passing through the normally
quiet residential area around 1 a.m on Friday, Sept. 22, when
blaring music caught his attention. In his report, Winterton said
he saw at least 15-20 cars driving at high speed around the
cross-country skiing oval.
The students fled when Winterton called for help. Police stopped
as many trespassers as they could but failed to catch the
ringleaders. No arrests were made.
Investigators said nearly 100 students from Brigham Young
University and Utah Valley State College's Orem campus were at the
rave.
Damage to the $1.7 million building was surprisingly limited: A
doorknob was broken and the carpets will require about $2,000 to
$2,500 to clean.
The event organizers apparently charged $3 a head for admission
and even hired disc jockeys to provide music.
"It was very creative and somewhat humorous in hindsight,
although that night it wasn't," said Kevin Jardine, the venue's
construction manager.
Jardine said the partygoers broke into the newly constructed
venue -- called Soldier Hollow -- at "its most vulnerable," only
days before dead bolts were installed and just weeks before the
Salt Lake Organizing Committee planned to post around-the-clock
residents at the approximately 200-acre site.
The students cut the locks on the area's gates as well as the
padlock on the building's front door.
Wasatch County Olympic Coordinator Bob Mathis said security a
month later still is not what it should be.
"They dodged a bullet," said Mathis, noting that the county
looks to the state and the organizing committee to secure the site
because Soldier Hollow is a joint SLOC-state venture.
Jardine said a groundskeeper will take up residence this weekend
and that permanent locks have been installed on the main building.
Posting a full-time guard is doubtful, however.
"It gets back to budgetary issues," Jardine said.
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