By Thia James

Boarded-up homes frustrate residents, officials

May 5, 2013 | 8:21 AM

A home on Seventh Street East in Prince Albert still stands boarded up after a fire ripped through the interior several months ago.

The large sheets of plyboard can`t hide the scorch marks that peek out from underneath. The house that no one lives in anymore sits beside a fenced off construction site, and across the street from Holly Dmyterko.

She said that before the house was completely boarded up, the windows were still open and pigeons moved in during the winter. The house was completely boarded up only two weeks ago.

“And so they were coming across to my house and sitting on my roof and defecating all over my front step,” she said.

Then, the boarded-up home began to attract attention from other sources.

Making a splash

P.A. Pikes sees numbers nearly double during 2023/24 season

35m ago

Golden girl

'Super special': P.A.'s Zablocki reflects on Esso Cup win, reveals plans for next season

3h ago

Court proceedings

'I didn't shoot anybody': testimony wraps up at Prince Albert murder trial

21h ago

On another occasion, Dmyterko said she saw kids entering and exiting the burnt-out home after breaking through a piece of board that was covering the door. During the winter, someone was sleeping outside of the structure. The person had a sleeping bag and a bag full of belongings.

“So I was a little bit concerned that, you know, we might wake up to a frozen person, so I called the police about that one and they came and removed the stuff, so that went away.“

Having a property like this one in her neighbourhood doesn`t make Dmyterko feel good.

“You get up in the mornings, especially (when the) sun shines now, and you open the front curtains and you just sort of wonder `gee I wonder what`s going to be living in the mess across the street today.”

Neighbourhoods like Dmyterko`s that have an abandoned homes in them, exist in various parts of Prince Albert. And the story behind their abandonment in some instances are similar.

Further west, for example, another house has been sitting boarded up and uninhabited for months on 18th Street West. In July 2012, the house was damaged by a fire.

The fire was deemed to be “mysteriously set.”

They are just two of a number of homes around the city that now sit empty and abandoned by their owners. It`s a problem that city council is also trying to tackle.

During Monday’s council meeting, Coun. Lee Atkinson requested a report to account for all of the empty, boarded up homes in the city.

The report asks for administration to compile a list of those properties and if there are files on them, outline what action has been taken, if any.

“Because, quite frankly, there’s a number we look at, and some of them I don’t believe are … viable to rebuild,” he said.

He pointed to one property that had been sitting vacant after it was damaged by a fire that he inquired about, but no files existed for this property.

“I think we need to make more of a reasonable effort of being on top of these things and not just letting them sit in our neighbourhoods,” Atkinson said.

Earlier this month, council passed a motion to direct administration to look at the Winnipeg bylaw dealing with vacant residences to see what can be gleaned from it to upgrade Prince Albert’s bylaws.

Mayor Greg Dionne added a friendly amendment to Atkinson’s request asking administration to also detail what is holding up administration in the bylaws that can be changed to make action swifter.

“If it’s something that we can do to change or amend our bylaws, our standards,“ he said, and agreed with Atkinson that seven months of nothing happening with the property Atkinson inquired about is problematic.

“Well, if that building is not savable, we should be able to take it down within 30-90 days,” he said.

What happens after a fire

When properties are damaged by a fire, they are turned over to the homeowners after the Prince Albert Fire Department inspectors have concluded the investigation and have determined the cause of the fire, acting battalion chief Curtis Mickelson said Tuesday.

“After the fire, we secure the site prior to our investigation, and then it`s up to the property owner to secure the site or to secure his building,“ he said.

And Atkinson said Tuesday that there was a fire at the Seventh Street East home seven months ago, and beyond the fire department taking care of the fire, “`there was no follow-up from building inspector(s) or bylaw about the condition of this building.“

Holly Dmyterko would like to see the house demolished – she said she doesn`t think it`s a viable house. Then, she said, a new house should be built on the property or the property should be sold to someone who will clean it up.

But she proposes another change she`d like to see that extends beyond the boarded-up house in her neighbourhood.

“I`m kind of in the belief that we need to have the right hand working with the left hand, so that everybody is aware of property like that in the city so that … something can be done about it in a timely manner.“

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames