Resident asks for time

By Dan Hilborn
Published Aug. 26, 2006


City council members put on their kid gloves Monday night while dealing with a 70-year-old resident whose unsightly property has raised the ire and concern of both his neighbours and the local health inspectors.

Mayor Derek Corrigan and the rest of council extended the deadline for David Price to clean up his west Burnaby property, which is piled high with scrap metal, yard and garden waste and storage containers of recyclable materials underneath a series of giant blue tarps.

"I plan to clean it all up, but what takes you a day would take me several days," the slight septuagenarian told city council on Monday night. "I have done a lot of work. A lot of stuff has been thrown out."

According to a report from the city's finance department, Price's dilemma first came on the council agenda on May 29 when city staff were given the authority to enter the property and conduct the cleanup themselves.

But when Price showed up at the July 10 council meeting to complain about what he described as the unrealistic demands of city staff, he convinced council to give him the opportunity to do the work himself.

The most recent report from the city staff recommended that Price be given an Aug. 31 deadline to finish the work himself, but council agreed to extend that deadline to the end of September.

While the mayor noted that staff "will exercise discretion" in making sure the cleanup progresses, he emphasized that the work must be done or else a city crew will be assigned to the task and the cost of the cleanup will be placed on Prices' 2006 property tax bill.

Coun. Colleen Jordan noted that Price could ask for assistance from one of several volunteer agencies that work with seniors in the city, although Price insisted he wanted to go through all the material himself to ensure he does not lose track of any important documents or papers.