Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Nov 19/99) - Nelson Dicks says Millennium Homes is proposing to bring a touch of class to Inuvik.

Manager at Norcan Leasing, Millennium's parent company, Dicks said the company is ready to offer a variety of single and double-wide mobile homes to the local market; some of them luxury homes.

"You're only going to go through this life once," he said, "and you want to go through it where you can come home from work to your home in Inuvik and jump into the jacuzzi."

Dicks said one of the Millennium trailers currently on display in Inuvik features not only a jacuzzi but also a state-of-the-art giant screen TV. There are also more modest models available.

The only problem with the trailers is that Norcan is still looking for a place to put them.

Dicks appeared before town council late last month to discuss the proposal to set up a double-wide trailer on Ptarmigan Hill. Council said it would prefer that new trailer developments be set up at either of two proposed new parks -- the site of the old arena or on Reliance Street.

But as Dicks explained, the arena site has yet to be surveyed and neither location is serviced by utiladors. He said it simply isn't cost-effective for Norcan to buy the land and have to establish its own connections to the main water and sewer lines.

"The reaction of the town, in my opinion, has been that they've got lots of land to sell you but no utilador to service them," he said, adding, "Why wouldn't the town look at selling the land and running one utilador line to them at a time as it's needed?"

Council discussed the need to rethink Inuvik's trailer parks and said it was open to allowing Dicks to set up one double-wide trailer on Ptarmigan Hill, where single units are not allowed. Dicks said he'll go ahead and make a formal application to do so in the next couple weeks.

"I keep working on the town, and the mayor knows I have trailers waiting for land," he said.

Dicks said he already has a double-wide home sitting in Whitehorse, where company owner Robert Stack is based. Dicks said single homes go for roughly $25,000 and double-wides start at $40,000.

Council has talked about the need to deal with an impending development boom, which Dicks said can only help the housing market. But if the town is slow to meet Millennium's needs, the company might also look at taking over an existing, functioning trailer park -- gradually phasing in the new homes, he added.

"A lot of people are asking why we're looking for land when we haven't sold a trailer yet," he said, "but you can't sell anything from an empty shelf -- what's the good of trying to sell something like bananas, for example, if you don't have any."

Don Howden, Inuvik's senior administrative officer, could only say that once a formal proposal is made it will open up the dialogue among the parties.

"Mr. Dicks is at liberty to make that proposal before council," he said.

Howden cautioned, however, that because it's a development issue that's at stake, future discussions would take place behind closed doors until a decision is reached.