CHILLIWACK TIMES TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2012
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Bradley Gionet stands in one of the many potholes that make a trip down the forest service road to his family home treacherous.
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BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
B
radley Gionet’s family home is about 500 metres from the Chilliwack River Valley Fire Department and the Pointa Vista Cafe on Chilliwack Lake Road. But getting there isn’t that easy. That’s because Bradley and his family live on private property uniquely situated on a forest service road (FSR) on the south side of the Chilliwack River. “It’s just us,” Gionet said of their remote rural home adding, “We are the forgotten family of Chilliwack.” Bradley lives with his father and mother, Bill and Debbie, along with his grandparents, Herb and Doreen Spratt, who are in their 80s. The remote living arrangement along with a steep $844,000 assessment means the Gionet/Spratt fam-
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The Gionet family knows living in a remote rural location comes with some drawbacks, but they say it’s become a Catch-22 situation with the FVRD
ily pay considerable property taxes for which they get virtually no services. Obviously they have no water, sewer or garbage pick-up. Mail goes to a box on the other side of the river but given the nebulous address, not all the mail arrives. (The family generally refers to their address as 48701 Tamihi-Liumchen Forest Service Road. The Ministry of Forests calls it the Liumchen Forest Service Road. B.C. Assessment says they live at 48701 Tamahi Rd. And Google Maps say they live on the Vedder Logging Co. Road.) Whatever the road’s name, the
main complaint over the years has been the quality of that lone access to the home. During the wind storm in 2007 a transformer hit the family’s power lines causing a fire. It was that emergency and a call to 9-1-1, that led them to realize that the fire department wouldn’t travel the road and the property had been removed from the service area in 1992. An FVRD staff report from 2007 said: “The Forest Service Road leading to Mr. Spratt’s property is about two kilometres of unpaved very rough road filled with pot holes. Previously the bridges had been in
poor shape but have been replaced in the last year. In other words, it has been and at times can be unsafe or impossible to take a fire truck down to his property.” No fire service is one thing but when Bradley’s father had a stroke in April of this year, it took the ambulance 45 minutes to get to the house. “One reason being that maps and GPS systems couldn’t locate us, as the road has several names,” he said. “Another being that the ambulance could only travel about 20 km/h down the road.” See SERVICE, Page 10