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PANAMA -- A "Grinch" might have swept through the village of Panama over the weekend, but according to Mayor Bill Schneider, it hasn't dampened residents' Christmas spirit.
Several houses within the village had their Christmas lights cut and other decor vandalized on Saturday night, according to a Facebook post by village officials. Schneider told The Post-Journal Monday morning that an investigation has been opened with the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office.
"For village residents, it's been upsetting because we've been working hard over the last several years to build this Christmas community spirit," he said, noting that the village usually holds a "Christmas in Panama" celebration. COVID-19 forced its cancellation this year.
"We thought we would try to ramp up our community decorating contest and promote that,' he said. "This year we had many of our residents put up Christmas decorations and register online. We have an online lighting contest so anyone from outside of the community could take a cruise through Panama. When this happened on Sunday morning, it was demoralizing that anyone felt the need to damage that."
Still, Schneider called any "dampening of the Christmas spirit" as being "minimal."
"This is not keeping those folks from moving forward," he said. "Several of them have already had their light displays fixed and are back up and running."
Residents have also been kindly lending a hand to help repair the decor, he said.
"In a small community, it's really nice to see that people are offering to help out," Schneider said. "We've had people offer sets to the residents that had their lights damaged and destroyed. Everybody is trying to back their neighbor so that the lights can go on at night time."
He added, "Whoever the 'Grinch' is found out to be, we're very sorry you felt you had to do that but you can't keep Panama down in terms of Christmas spirit. We're rallying around it."