As the snow melts, the rusted broke down vehicles and algae covered boats become more apparent in the District of Port Edward, where council pondered how to clean up the blemishes on their community.
“It’s a junk yard,” Councillor James Brown said at the District of Port Edward meeting on March 14. “Can you look into that?”
Port Edward council lamented about the few eyesores in the community. Brown brought up the issue of abandoned vehicles left on private property along the road and then the ongoing issue with Tenerife Packing Co., where there are two derelict canning vessels by the boat launch. The property also has several inoperable cars on the property.
“We have a bylaw in place now that we have to enforce. But we have to pay all the legal fees and all the towing fees,” said Bob Payette, CAO for the district. “It costs us $150 per car plus the towing.”
Vessel removal at Tenerife was brought up last year in the Nov. 8 council meeting, and on March 15 councillors added vehicle removal on Tenerife proprety to the action list.
Two days later, Al Johnson of Tenerife, said the district paid him a visit and he intends to remove three of the unused vehicles on his own accord.
“Actually, we were planning on doing it earlier just it’s been snowing the last couple of weeks so no one did anything. There are three cars that aren’t running cars. I want them out of here worse than they do,” Johnson said.
When asked about the two vessels by the boat launch, he said although they don’t look like it, the boats are still working. One of the vessels hasn’t been washed in a while and has algae growing on it.
“Those are the same problem, just spring has come late. Those have a plan to be tidied up and dealt with,” Johnson said.
The district also mentioned the ongoing court action with the trailer court, which is halting the removal of the trailers on the site.
Another frustration for council is “grow-op house” that has their hands tied. The district turned the water off about a year ago, and to their knowledge no one lives there, but the mayor is concerned about the health safety of the building. However, a building inspector recently paid a visit and it passed inspection.
“It was reviewed structurally and it passed so there’s nothing we can do about it,” Payette said.