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MERRITT HERALD FREE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2012 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
City limits increase By Emily Wessel THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
Merritt RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore holds an example of the type of spray paint a new vandal on city streets could be using to paint a modified anarchy symbol (insert). She said this is the first graffiti spree she’s seen in about four years in the Nicola Valley. Phillip Woolgar/Herald
Vandal sprays buildings, cars By Phillip Woolgar
‘We even had a lady
THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
One or more graffiti artists are on the loose in Merritt, causing major issues for business owners and residents who want to keep their walls clean. Since mid-September, at least five images of a heart and anarchy symbol with a message of love have been sprayed on Merritt buildings and vehicles. The images stretch between six and eight feet. The vast majority of the vandalized properties have been in the Nicola Avenue and Charters Street area of Merritt. “This person has been pretty busy lately,” Merritt RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore said. “We even had a lady come in and tell us that someone spray-
come in and say someone spray-painted her car.’ —MERRITT RCMP CONST. TRACY DUNSMORE
painted her car. It rained a lot that night so much of it washed off.” The traditional anarchy symbol features a circle with black lines running through it to form an A, but instead of using a circle, Merritt’s vandal is using a heart. “The graffiti is pretty blatant,” Dunsmore noted. “It sounds like there are other ones that haven’t even been reported.” The anarchy symbol is used often in music and on a television series called
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owners of that land look at some development for it...’ —MERRITT MAYOR SUSAN ROLINE
the land’s eight owners were “eagerly awaiting” the acquisition and that the city plans to work with them on development projects. No word yet if this will affect the 2.5-mile Active Mountain Raceway course associated with Active Mountain Resort, but Roline said there are perks for the land owners too. “It lets the owners of that land look at some development for it, and they’re assured that they’ll have access to the city water and sewer. It creates a new tax base for the City and allows us to grow.” The property will also be included in the City’s snow ploughing and road maintenance projects, and in return, Roline said the city will benefit from taxes it wasn’t receiving before. She said expanding Merritt is challenging, namely because of the surrounding terrain and the amount of Crown land nearby.
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“Sons of Anarchy,” which premiered in 2008 on cable network FX. The show is about an outlaw motorcycle club. Dunsmore said she doesn’t believe the TV series necessarily promotes anarchy, but the show has gained the attention of pop culture. A few of the locations are on Nicola Avenue, with one being an old abandoned car dealership and the other is Garden Sushi. The difficulty with the Garden Sushi graffiti is the wall is brick and can’t be painted over. The material is also very difficult to clean. As the owner of A.D. Property Maintenance, Jason Arnold has been called to clean up much of the graffiti throughout town.
The City of Merritt is getting bigger, thanks to a recent acquisition of the Active Mountain Raceway lands south of the city. The 120-hectare acquisition is one of the features of the “Expanded City” plan for residential, industrial and commercial development that the city drafted in 2006. “Adding new land to the City of Merritt’s development base enhances our strategy to expand our local infrastructure to support and attract industrial and commercial investors,” James Umpherson, the city’s economic development manager, said in a press release. The privately owned land was part of the Regional District, so the city had to submit an expansion application to the province with cooperation from the landowners. “Cities aren’t allowed to do expansions around private land without the full cooperation of the landowners and it has to be initiated by the land owners,” Mayor Susan Roline said in an interview. “We can suggest it but we can’t push the process.” The press release said
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