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Tuesday morning was perfect for Bill Bevis to make ice for Pineview Park's popular skating rink – cold and clear. Instead, he found that images of male genitalia had been spray-painted on the surface.

Bevis and other volunteers have kept the rink pristine for 40 years, and it has become a beloved tradition for Missoulians. About 30 to 50 people skate on the rink every day during the winter, he said. Volunteers spend 10 hours a week resurfacing the rink, and 100 hours before every season getting it ready.

During an approximately two-hour window Monday night, vandals broke into the rink's shed – you have to enter a code to get in – stealing the key and disassembling the ignition housing on a tractor used to maintain the ice. Later Tuesday morning, Bevis spotted fresh truck tire tracks on the field between the rink and Rattlesnake Elementary School. And Tuesday afternoon, a city parks employee told Bevis that he had put out a fire in the portable toilet about 4:30 p.m. Monday.

That's about the same time Bevis swept the rink. Neighbor and longtime volunteer Paul Sharkey went to the rink about 7 p.m. Monday – at which point the vandalism had already occurred.

"It doesn't look like anything, but when the sun hits dark spots, those melt into the shape," Bevis said of the graffiti.