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CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
TUESDAY, SEPT. 25, 2012
Trailer park shut down
Photo by CYNTHIA RADFORD/Advocate Staff
Simon Hagjord holds his eviction notice outside his mobile trailer home at Les’s Trailer Park. Residents of the trailer park have been evicted due to the owner’s inability to pay for water and sewage upgrades. Residents must move by September 2013. BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF A complaint-ridden trailer park in Red Deer County is shutting down and kicking all its tenants out. Eviction notices were handed out to all the tenants in the 72 mobile homes in Les’s Trailer Park on Burnt Lake Trail earlier this month. Mike Nelson, the site manager, said the Calgaryowner cannot afford the estimated $2.5 million price
tag to bring the site’s water and sewer lines up to standard. Nelson handed out the notices to the residents, indicating tenants have until Sept. 13, 2013, to leave. “Some of them have been here for 20 years,” said Nelson. “There is no place to go for these older homes. Most of these people quite frankly will end up leaving their home behind for a bulldozer because quite frankly they have no choice.” Owner Robert Bresciani was not available for comment on Monday. Bresciani has owned the trailer park since the 1970s and has faced complaints over the years about water quality, sewer drainage,
safety compliances and maintenance. The park, on the outskirts of Red Deer, is located west of Hwy 2 and south of the Burnt Lake Business Park. John Gillander, 80, has lived in the park since 1998 and recently bought a new $104,000 trailer after his home burned down last July. “I am pissed off,” said Gillander. “I’ve been here for so long. I like it here. I’ve probably put in $50,000 into this place.”
Please see HOMES on Page A2
Diseases put a crimp Council to pay $55K to fix slump on pond on bumper crop LACOMBE CITY COUNCIL
BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF
BY HARLEY RICHARDS ADVOCATE BUSINESS EDITOR With much of the 2012 crop now in the bin, reality has come up short of potential for many Central Alberta farmers. Yields have been lower than expected in the case of canola and cereal grains, confirmed Harry Brook, a crop specialist at Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development’s Ag-Info Centre in Stettler. While still in the average range, the outcome is probably disappointing for producers who were gazing at robustlooking fields just a few weeks ago. “The crops had the growth for probably a bumper crop,” said Brook. But beneath the leaves, a number of diseases were undermining seed development. “You could think of a rat chewing on a bag of grain. Huge potential, but by the time they got to open the bag, half the crop was gone.” Aster yellows, a phytoplasma infection that causes misshapen pods and flower buds, hit canola hard, said Brook. “In some fields it took upwards of 30 per cent of the yield. That’s huge.” There were other diseases lurking as well. “Some producers had some major losses because of sclerotinia, others had major losses due to blackleg,” said Brook. In the latter case, blackleg-resistant canola was infected by a different strain. “So, all of a sudden we’re getting losses again.”
PLEASE RECYCLE
Other types of crops were also adversely affected, said Brook, with wheat and barley hit hard by leaf diseases. Even aster yellows could be found in the cereals. Cool, damp conditions early in the year were mainly responsible for the severity of the disease problems, said Brook. The temperature has already dipped below zero on a few occasions, but not far enough to cause damage. With harvest more than 90 per cent complete, frost is no longer a concern, said Brook. However, high winds a few weeks ago took their toll, causing fluffy canola swaths to tumble and lose seeds. And earlier in the year, hail pounded many fields in Central Alberta and beyond. The last report by the Canadian Crop Hail Association, issued on Aug. 31, said claims in Alberta were at their highest level of the past decade. The number at that point had reached roughly 4,650, with these limited to straight hail claims and not crop insurance endorsements. Agriculture Financial Services Corp. reported a few days earlier that the hail claims it had processed were about double the annual average. Still, 2012 yields should net out to average overall, said Brook. Quality is good, he added, and prices remain relatively strong. “It’s still going to be a good year,” he summed up. “It’s just not going to be a once-in-a-lifetime year.” hrichards@reddeeradvocate.com
WEATHER
INDEX
40% chance of showers.
Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-B3 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D4 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C7 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-B6
FORECAST ON A2
LACOMBE — City council has agreed to spend $55,000 to fix a land slump on Henner’s Pond. A stretch of slope behind homes that overlook the scenic pond in the city’s north end crumbled last year, destroying part of a walking trail. Some residents feared the slumping could spread to nearby backyards. On Monday evening, council voted to fix the damage, plant some new vegetation and trees and repair the trail. Council also heard that the owner of a vacant lot near the landslide must have a geotechnical report done before starting work on his home. The city wants to be sure that there is no risk of further slumping when the lot is built on. An engineering report prepared for the city says the slumping was caused by a high water table in the pond and poor grading on the vacant lot that contributed to nearby soil becoming saturated. The grading is expected to be improved when the lot is developed. Coun. Grant Creasey asked why the city was contracting out the repair work instead of using municipal staff. Matt Goudy, city engineering services manager, said staff are already trying to catch up on other projects and wouldn’t be able to get the repairs done this fall.
Please see POND on Page A2
ALBERTA
BUSINESS
PSYCHIATRIST RESIGNS PIPELINE’S MERITS AMID SEX SCANDAL DEBATED A psychiatrist facing an allegation that he had sex with a patient in Ontario has resigned from his new job as department chair at the University of Alberta. A3
Comments made by the late Peter Lougheed hung over public hearings Monday about a pipeline that would ship bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to Asian markets. B1