Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 10/99) - Two old-timers are about to make the next move in a clash between old and new that has been brewing for years.

Johnny Rocher and Marcel Bourget have lived here for longer than the city has been a city.

The two are planning to assemble a mini Old Town out of equipment and buildings they own that they say the city considers trash.

"The city says this is just an eyesore, it's just junk and has no heritage value," said Rocher. "I feel differently."

Rocher said he is now negotiating with a businessman in Alberta to build a truckstop somewhere between Edmonton and Yellowknife.

The truckstop will include a hotel and a replica of the Yellowknife in the 1940s and '50s.

"The tourists don't come here to look at high-rise apartments," said Bourget as he showed a few samples of the old mining equipment the two are moving south.

"I hate to move this, it belongs here, but I have no alternative," said Rocher. "They want to haul it to the dump."

"The problem is the stuff belongs here but we don't," said Bourget. Both Rocher and Bourget said they will be relocating to Alberta.

Much of the equipment being moved is coming from the property known as the Rocking Horse Ranch, located just off Highway 3, beyond the former site of Tuaro Dairy.

Along with that equipment, the men are planning to move shacks from the Woodyard area.

City staff say Rocher has received a permit required to move buildings on roads, but has not applied for permits required to remove any buildings.

The move southward comes in response to a number of long-simmering disputes, the most recent being the city's decision last fall not to renew Rocher's lease for the Rocking Horse Ranch.

Since 1987, when Rocher took over the lease of the property, the ranch has served as a storage area for items and material salvaged by the two men. Under the lease, the land was to be used for a game farm.

A staff report prepared for a discussion of the fate of the ranch noted the property presents "an unsightly appearance to highway travellers." Highway 3 is the only road access to Yellowknife.

Rocher said he moved material and equipment to the ranch from other properties in town on orders from the city. He said he also complied with a subsequent order to move material and equipment out of sight of highway travellers.