The City of Grand Forks has filed for an injunction with the B.C. Supreme Court in its latest bid to move a camper off city property near the Granby River’s so-called “Bare Ass Beach.”
Mayor Brian Taylor confirmed that the city went for “the extreme measure” of petitioning the Supreme Court in Rossland last week after council and staff reached “an impasse” with the owner, Melanie Jennings.
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If granted, the injunction would give the city the authority to move the RV off city property. Taylor said the city would rely on its partners in the RCMP to enforce the court’s order.
Taylor and Chief Administrative Officer Duncan Redfearn repeatedly emphasized that council instructed staff to work with Jennings at every step of the way.
“We have done everything we could to avoid putting in for an injunction,” said Taylor, who added that staff had put Jennings in touch with “a list” of government and community agencies that tried to help Jennings find suitable housing.
“It can’t be stressed enough that council’s instructions to staff have always been to work with the individuals [in the RV] to try and resolve the matter without having to rely on an injunction,” Redfearn said.
City officials are expected to post further information to its website Wednesday, Sept. 16, clarifying the injunction.
Reached by phone Wednesday morning, Sept. 16, Jennings said she’d moved her camper a few hundred feet away, where she said it was no longer on city property.
“I knew they were going to do it, but I think they’re wasting their time,” she said.
Jennings has two children and three animals.
“They’re going to take my only home, the only shelter me and my children have left.”
Jennings said she hadn’t seen any signage indicating the area was owned by the city when she first parked her camper this spring.
– with files from Brennan Phillips.
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