SUMMERLAND REVIEW THE VOICE OF OUR COMMUNITY SINCE 1908
VOLUME
67
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ISSUE
WHAT’S INSIDE:
NO.
41
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S U M M E R L A N D,
WWW.SUMMERLANDREVIEW.COM
B.C.
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T H U R S D AY,
OC TOBER
9,
2014
•
20
PA G E S
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$1.15
INCLUDING
GST
Living on the fringes Carla McLeod
Helping hands
Local group gets Agur Lake Camp on the air.
Page 14
Elections
Forum to discuss good governance in advance of municpal election
Page 6
Orchards
Green solutions send orchard pests packing.
Page 8
School board
One incumbent and one new contender announce for school board.
Page 9
Music
The Contenders return to Summerland with new music.
Pages 10
Running action
Runners head crosscountry in sweet race.
Page 16
YOUR SMILE Not only does a smile cost less than electricity, it also brightens your day.
Allan Carter, a Summerland business owner, says the community needs to be made aware of people living in substandard conditions at a local RV park. “I think the people of Summerland should know what is going on up there and it should be stopped,” said the owner of the Dollar Store. “People are going to react and say this shouldn’t be happening in our town.” Paul Pearcey is one of the tenants living in the Pleasant View Motel and RV Park. He and his wife have been renting one of the trailers at the RV park and paying $700 a month, he said, though the trailer has nothing working in it. “The propane stove doesn’t work, the plumbing doesn’t work properly, there is black mould in the trailer and this whole area is infested with ants,” he said. “One of the electrical outlets caught fire one night and I had to put it out. The wiring in the trailer is faulty.” Others, Pearcey said, have even less, pointing out a blue car with a tarp over it, which, he said, the motel owner was renting out for $500 per month. Another unit, a dilapidated van with an extension cord running through the window, has also been rented out, according to Pearcey. Summerland bylaw officer Gary Ellis went out to investigate the situation on Oct. 1, only looking into the two abandoned vehicles as he had no complaints at that time about the trailers in the RV Park. “I talked to the people in the vehicles (old van and car) and they said that the owner had evicted them and that they would be complying with the eviction.” Ellis added that he will be visiting the site again to re-inspect the situation. Pleasant View is owned by Shanguang (Walter) Wang who claims all of the units he rents are properly serviced, and in good condition when he rents them. If there is a mould problem, he adds, it was caused by the tenants living in them. Wang said it just wouldn’t make any sense for people to rent units
Bottled up
Carla McLeod Summerland Review
Paul Pearcey, a resident at the Pleasant View Motel and RV Park, fills up milk jugs with his neighbours water hose, because the trailer he is renting does not have running water.
“People are going to react and say this shouldn’t be happening in our town.”
Allan Carter
without water and other services. “Who would be that stupid?” he asked, adding that he has problem tenants, but laws make it hard to evict them quickly, like one tenant that was living in a car over the summer. According to Wang, they owed him “thousands of dollars” in back rent from living in a Penticton motel he also owns. When he evicted them earlier this year, they claimed to have no place to go, so he told them they could set up a tent at Pleasant View until they found a new home. They weren’t, however, paying rent. Tenants like that, he said, caused him problems by making a mess and refusing to clean up when ordered. Carter said he became aware of
the problem after a series of thefts he attributes to some of the people living at Pleasant View. “We know there are two or three people from up there that we keep an eye on whenever they come down,” Carter said. “We have to escort them through the store.” But theft is a common problem and can happen anywhere, Carter said. The real problem, he said, is that the owner of the motel should not be renting out the vehicles. “A lot of these people are downtrodden and I guess it is a catch-22 as there is no place for them to live,” he said. “I am sympathetic to a degree, but it’s hurting me and our company.” Pearcey said they are looking for a different place to live, but that it was not easy to find some’thing in
Summerland. His wife has a drug problem she is trying to kick and they just recently had a baby. He said they will not be allowed to bring the baby home unless they find a more suitable place to live. Another tenant living in the RV park said the landlord should be commended for trying to help people on low incomes and for giving them another option. He said people were happy to rent a vehicle if it meant they would have a roof over their head. He wished to remain anonymous because of concerns for his safety. Constable Jacques Lefebvre of the Summerland RCMP would not comment on the situation, except to state an investigation is underway.
Research station celebrates centennial For over 100 years what is now the Pacific Agri-Food Research Station has been a growing concern. The work that has been done at the centre during that time has had an
impact on agriculture around the globe ranging from pest control to species development and refinement. On Oct. 4, the the Pacific Agri-Food Research Station (PARC)
celebrated its 100th anniversary with a special open house. Scientists, technicians and field staff were at the event to teach people about apples, cherries and more through inter-
active exhibits and activities including guided field tours. The Summerland Research Station actually started out in 1909 when Sydney Fisher, the then federal minister of agri-
culture, visited Summerland at which time officials J.M. Robinson, H.C. Mellor and MP Martin Burrell urged him to set up an experimental farm in the area. See PARC Page 3