A ‘NOW’ EDITORIAL: YOU MEAN HOSPITALS HAVEN’T BEEN REPORTING GUNSHOTS AND STAB WOUNDS? PAGE 10
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TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2010
❚GUILDFORD/Surrey man fed up with neighbourhood that ‘looks like hell’
❚CRASH
A ‘MANICURED’ DUMPSITE
Mayor Watts resting, on mend
City starts clean up after Brian Fowler blows whistle on garbage
Ted COLLEY Staff Reporter
Ted COLLEY Staff Reporter
The view from Brian Fowler’s front window isn’t pretty. In fact, it’s a disgrace. Fowler lives in the 15400-block of 99A Avenue in a home he and his wife bought there in 1986. It’s one of 11 houses built back then along the south side of 99A. More homes were supposed to be built on the other side of the avenue, but that never happened and the large parcel of privately owned land opposite Fowler’s place remains undeveloped. The land, from 99A to 100th Avenue on the north and from 154th Avenue to 156th on the west, is overgrown with brush and scrub trees 15 to 20 feet high. It’s also a huge, unofficial dumpsite. The whole parcel is strewn with junk and a litter of old car parts hides at the centre of the plot. A week ago, the landowners, prompted by the city, sent a crew to trim the brush back from the edges of the property. “It looks like hell,” Fowler said when the Now paid a visit last Friday.
Surrey’s Brian Fowler sits among some of the trash that was exposed when the owners trimmed the overgrown brush back from the edges of a Guildford property. ❚PHOTO/Brian Howell “They were supposed to clear a 10-foot swath all the way around. Some of it’s six feet and some of it’s 100 feet.” A remarkable amount of garbage was exposed when the brush was cut back from the road, junk that now lines the edge of the street where Fowler put it. “Everything you see here,” he said, gesturing at the roadside, “was in the 10-foot strip. I pulled it out.” Fowler and his neigh-
bours were angry that city hall didn’t seem concerned about the mess, that officials didn’t even seem to think there was a mess. “A bylaws officer for this area was here and looked at the work that was done, the brush cutting. She told me, and I quote, that this property looked ‘manicured.’ Manicured, for God’s sake,” Fowler said. The only part of the perimeter that looks wellkept is a strip opposite an elementary school at the
corner of 99A and 156th Street, two blocks from Fowler’s home. “We want something done about this. I talked to the head of bylaws and he told me it would be two weeks before he could tell me what, if anything, can be done. That’s just not good enough.” On Monday, Surrey city manager Murray Dinwoodie had some good news for Fowler and the other residents for 99A Avenue. “I talked to the man-
ager of bylaw and he tells me the property owner seems co-operative. My understanding is she will begin action today on the cleanup and it should be completed over the next few days,” Dinwoodie said. He also said he will instruct city operations crews to regularly tidy up the road allowances along the property’s edge. “Between those two things, I think that should help.” tcolley@thenow newspaper.com
Surrey’s mayor is recovering at home from injuries sustained in a car accident Friday night. Mayor Dianne Watts and husband, Brian, were heading home from a civic event around 11 p.m. when their SUV was struck at the intersection of 24th Avenue and 128th Street. Watts and her husband were taken to hospital and later released. The mayor has a cracked rib and both she and Brian suffered soft tissue injuries. The lone occupant of the other vehicle was also treated in hospital. “She’s resting,” Brian Watts told the Now Monday morning. “She’s on the mend. I’m stiff and sore, but I’m OK.” Tara Foslien handles communications for the mayor’s office. She said Watts was heading home from a “work function” when the accident occurred. Foslien didn’t know what the function was or where it was held. “I think she’s in a lot of pain right now with the cracked rib. The doctors have told her not to move so the ribs will heal. As for how long she’ll be away, your guess is a good as mine.” Wishes for a speedy recovery flooded Watts’ Facebook page.
see ALCOHOL page 3