The Bainbridge Roller Hockey League summer season recommenced Tuesday after a brief hiatus for rink repairs following a suspicious fire last week.

The blaze, set sometime late Saturday or early Sunday, charred and melted a large section of the rink, located at Battle Point Park, making it temporarily unplayable.

Though the incident remains under investigation by the Bainbridge Island Police Department, both league and Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation officials said they believe the blaze was deliberately set, the latest in a persistent spree of vandalism at Battle Point.

There were no injuries, and the fire was reportedly extinguished quickly.

The halt, however unfortunate, was ended with equal speed.

The response to the crime was immediate, as members of the island roller hockey league spread the word.

According to an email “letter to the community” sent to members and supporters by the Bainbridge Roller Hockey League board in the immediate wake of the vandalism, “Overnight, vandals lit a fire on the roller hockey rink surface that smoldered and melted a small but significant portion of the tiles.

“There was no damage to the boards or shed,” the notice read. “We did lose one of our new goals.”

Following an immediate collaborative effort by the league and island parks department, the rink was repaired and open again on Tuesday.

“The league got pretty energized to come in and start cleaning up,” said Park Services Director Dan Hamlin.

Roller hockey volunteers tore out the damaged tiles that could be removed, he said, and then the parks department stepped in.

“We took our staff out and chipped away all the stuff that was stuck to the asphalt,” Hamlin said. “We ended up heating and spreading the rest of it so we could smooth it out.”

A cache of surplus tiles proved the saving grace of the roller hockey season.

“They had a stash of about 1,000 tiles they’d purchased just in case something ever happened,” Hamlin said. “We were able to utilize those tiles and get the court playable for them. Then they came in and cleaned the whole court again and repainted lines and they’re back to playing.”

All games that had been slated for Sunday, July 8 were rescheduled to Sunday, July 15.

“We were really fortunate we were able to do that because there were some pretty big holes in the asphalt,” Hamlin said. “We had to use some coal patch in spots, and some patch-all material, to get it level underneath so that when they’re rolling across the tiles they don’t feel it.”

Battle Point Park is, Hamlin said, the most vandalized park — and maybe even the most vandalized spot overall — on Bainbridge.

“It’s a large space, you can get lost pretty easily in it,” Hamlin said. “For an officer to go through it, he’s obviously not able to see every corner.”

Not for lack of trying, though. According to Hamlin, island police regularly patrol Battle Point Park at night, sometimes making as many as three sweeps in a single night — including the night of the rink fire.

“The police department is working with us and they are patrolling the park at night,” he said. “They were in the park at least three times that night that I’m aware of, and it just happened when they weren’t here.”

Arson isn’t the only form of damage being inflicted on the park, either.

“The biggest thing we’ve had recently is kids doing donuts in the parking lots,” Hamlin said. “We’ve actually caught a couple of them, and they will be trespassed from park property — all park property. And any legal charges that can be brought will be brought.

“Typically,” he added, “it’s harder to get legal charges [filed] for that type of activity, [but] we’ve got multiple instances and severe damage.”

The parking area has been rendered unusable at least a dozen times so far this year, Hamlin said.

“When we go out there my staff has to stop everything they’re doing, we have to pay for gravel, we have to regrade the parking lot so it can be used,” he explained. “It’s time-consuming for the staff and it costs taxpayer dollars.”

Even vandalism is given to fads and trends. Last year, the parks department’s biggest challenge was “kids driving out on the ball fields and getting stuck,” Hamlin said.

Also, periodic bouts of graffiti have been a semi-regular nuisance.

Though Battle Point is covered by video surveillance, the imagery is often insufficiently clear so as to enable a definite identification of the vandals, Hamlin said. Typically, it gives authorities the make and model of the car used, if any, and little else.

Police also regularly encounter people in the park after hours, Hamlin said, who, despite not actually committing any destructive acts, are technically breaking the law.

“They’re encountering folks that aren’t really doing anything,” Hamlin said, “but we don’t like people being the park after dark — especially when we’re having a bout of vandalism.”