Pubdate: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 Source: Packet & Times (CN ON) Copyright: 2007, Osprey Media Group Inc. Contact: http://www.orilliapacket.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2397 Author: Karel Sana COST OF DISMANTLING GROW-OPS SHOULD NOT FALL ON HOMEOWNER Letter to the editor: Recouping the cost of dismantling grow-ops from property owners is the most ludicrous idea I've heard in a long time . Police departments, just like fire departments, or city council and city works departments, are all funded by the taxes property owners are paying yearly . If you have an accident on the road, or your house burns down, there is no charge for the fire, police or ambulance coming to the scene, even if it is you that screwed up. When there is a crime committed, police do not charge for coming to the scene. So, why should property owners have to pay to have police dismantle grow-ops? I own rental properties and if one of my tenants sets up a grow-op in the basement, I have no way of knowing or finding out . Not even the police can enter private residences to make inspections, unless they have a search warrant. If and when there is a grow-op discovered in one of my rental houses, I will have to bear the cost of renovating the house to make it habitable again . And you want me to pay for police shutting down the operation? You must be joking. That is just as ludicrous as me demanding that the police should pay me for not nipping it in the bud before it became a grow-op. With all of their resources, informants and law properly enforced, there should be no grow-op in the city in the first place . If anybody should bear the cost, it should be the lawmakers and judges for being too lenient with the potheads and the growers. Karel Sana - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom