Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jul 2007
Source: Now, The (Surrey, CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Now Newspaper
Contact: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/forms/lettersform.html
Website: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1462
Author: Ted Colley, Surrey Now

FIGHTING BACK

Whalley Neighbours Band Together To Drive Out Illegal Activities

The file is thick, maybe 100 pages with 13 lines per page and each 
line records one instance of drug activity in the trailer park Fred 
and Judy Kenmuir call home.

The Kenmuirs live in a small park at 9525 King George Hwy., and 
they're fed up with the drug dealing, prostitution, theft and other 
criminal activity there.

They got together with their neighbours last September and began 
organizing to clean up the place. The log of drug deals is part of that effort.

The file equals 1,300 buys since residents started keeping records in 
November. The information is passed on to the RCMP, but putting a 
stop to all the crime is slow going.

"We've got drug dealers bringing drugs into the park. We've got 
people who live here buying from them and selling to others. We've 
got thieves in here. We've got prostitutes bringing johns in here to 
do their business. Stolen cars get dumped here and there are assaults 
- - there's been two or three in just the last few weeks," says Fred.

He was so tired of the all the trouble he was ready to sell his 
trailer and move out. When he talked to Judy about leaving, she had 
other ideas.

"She said since when do you give up without a fight? That's when we 
decided to organize," he says.

Seventeen people signed up to take back the park at the September 
meeting and they went looking for help from police, city hall, MLAs 
and MPs. Kenmuir has nothing but praise for the backing they've had 
from the RCMP and Green Timbers MLA Sue Hammell. He was less 
impressed with the response from city hall.

"I called the mayor's office and someone there told me there's 
nothing they can do. She said we should call a councillor. I left a 
message, but nobody ever called back."

Mayor Dianne Watts said Thursday she had trouble believing anyone in 
her office would blow them off like that and promised to use city 
resources to bring pressure to bear on the park owner to clean up. 
"I'm going to call our bylaws manager right now. We'll get something 
happening down there," she said. "People should not have to live with that."

The park is owned by Gurmukh Gill's Score Holdings. The residents say 
they've tried to get Gill to deal with the troublemakers without success.

"He took it over in 1995 and it just got worse since then," Judy 
says. "He doesn't care. This used to be a really nice place to live."

Gill tells a different story.

He says he's tried to get rid of the drug dealers and other 
miscreants in the park, but says it's hard to do.

He claims to have handed them eviction notices, but they refuse to leave.

"I'm going to clean it up in there. I'm working on it."

He'd do well to follow through on that promise if he wants to avoid 
trouble from city hall.

"We've got specific bylaws to make sure trailer parks are well cared 
for and that's the responsibility of the owner," Watts said.

"We'll deal with unsightly premises, we can do building inspections. 
We can get fire down there to deal with all this."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom