Progress
The Chilliwack
Wednesday
19
3
29
Concert
Relief
Golf
Homage to Fantasia in Chilliwack Metropolitan Orchestra finale.
Backpackers reach for more in Nepal.
Clapp a contender on Canadian tour.
Scene
News
Sports
Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • W E D N E S D AY, M AY 6 , 2 0 1 5
Bills coming for nuisance alarms Jennifer Feinberg The Progress
Continued: ALARMS/ p13
Landlord Tony Rapaz says the dogs left behind in the garage at his Trethewey property pose a risk and he wants them removed.
Evicted tenants leave dogs behind Jessica Peters The Progress Removing bad tenants may be difficult, but getting rid of the animals they leave behind can be almost impossible. It’s a lesson learned by landlord Tony Rapaz this week, when the tenants he evicted from his Trethewey Avenue property left behind a pack of large and possibly dangerous dogs. On Saturday morning, he said he had the people removed from the home with the help of the RCMP. “They sell drugs, and I’m not going to be nice about it,” he said. But when they left, nobody packed up the dogs. And by Monday at 4 p.m. they were still there, barking and yelping at passersby from a ramshackle set-up in
O CONTEST PHOT
Retail 85¢ Box $1.00
PLUS PST
an open garage. He guesses there are four or five dogs in the garage. There is no garage door on the building, but the tenants recently built a half wall out of plywood, set inside the garage. On Monday afternoon, dogs’ faces could be seen through an open slat in the wood. By Tuesday morning, someone had covered the slat with a blue tarp. Rapaz is furious, and said he’s getting no help from the FVRD and the SPCA. “What a friggin’ mess,” he said, as he tried on Monday to navigate myriad organizations in search of help. The RCMP told him the dogs are dangerous and he should stay away. But that keeps him from accessing his own property. He believes it’s possible the dogs are guarding a drug stash.
He’s contacted the City of Chilliwack, the FVRD CARE Centre and the SPCA, looking for anybody to take possession of the dogs. “Does somebody have to get hurt before they wake up?” he said. However, the FVRD’s Jennifer Kinneman said that the tenants have not left the property, and therefore nobody has any right to remove the dogs. “Our understanding is that the property owner may have evicted the tenant on May 1, however the tenant is in fact still living on the premise, and we have no legal authority to enter a property and remove the dogs,” she said. “He has been advised to seek legal counsel.” Kinneman said there is “no contravention of any bylaw,” but that
UPLOAD PHOTOS OF YOUR ER ENT FAMILY’S MESSY MOMENTS TO at www.progress.com/contests p g / A WIN UM Photo submission starts Friday, April 17. Readers may vote U for their favourite “Messy Moment” until May 21, 2015 VAC at midnight. Photos with the most votes will win a vacuum system from Southgate Vacuum.
they are monitoring the situation. “They’re in an enclosed space and they’re not a threat to public safely,” she said. But Rapaz insists the house is empty, and said he’s been inside since he evicted the tenants – with RCMP standing by – over the weekend. “There is nobody in the house, it’s 100 per cent empty,” he said. He is also unaware if anyone is feeding the dogs. “They’re just going wild in there,” he said. “As you walk in the driveway, they sense you and just start barking and yelling and crying.” He said he worries about the animals’ well-being, but isn’t about to put himself in danger to care for the dogs. Continued: LANDLORD/ p4
SOUTHGATE VACUUM JANITORIAL SUPPLY #35-45905 YALE RD., SOUTHGATE MALL
604-792-2344
5/15W_SV6
Not one invoice has gone out from City of Chilliwack to charge for the nuisance of false alarms. But they’re coming. Officials are moving ahead this summer with plans to enforce the false alarm bylaw first passed by Chilliwack council in 2011 — but they’re doing it incrementally. Council voted recently to launch an information blitz this summer, with phased-in fees to be charged to property owners in cases where emergency services are called out unnecessarily after a security or fire alarm sounds. Up until this point, city officials relied on RCMP staff to notify them manually, and it was thought computerized software would be devised to automatically bill people for false intrusion alarms. But it turned out there was no way to do that, and as a result no false alarm invoices have ever been sent. But now the technical issue has been resolved and they’re ready to move forward, said city staffer Rob Carnegie at the last city council meeting, in a report to council. Staff started a project last year to tackle the false-alarm problem by developing invoicing software inhouse, using city hardware. “The systems are now ready for implementation however, with the amount of time that has elapsed since the bylaw was first introduced, staff are anticipating that property owners will have forgotten the requirements implemented through the enactment of this bylaw,” according to the staff report. It’s a problem because excessive fire alarms that call out police or fire services are considered a “nuisance.” The number of false alarms