Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (July 05/02) - The residents of Husky Trailer Park will have to find a new place to park their trailers, following a decision made at last week's town council meeting.

Council decided to cut off services at the 12-pad trailer park effective Aug. 31, 2003.

The trailer park was taken over by the town when the previous owner defaulted on tax payments in 1994 and has been an issue of debate with council since.

Town manager Jerry Veltman said the town rents the pads out and profits between $5,000 and $10,000 each year from rents on the property, but the old utilidette has caused sewer back-ups, a fire and insurance claims.

He says a new utilidor would cost the town too much to make the replacement feasible.

"Since 1994, the utilidette has been declared a disaster to replace," Veltman said. "In today's dollars, it would be close to $500,000."

He recommended to council that they should dismantle the utilidette and turn the area into a playground.

Deputy Mayor Arlene Hansen said the area never had any proper planning and has been a problem for years.

"The trailers were not placed properly as it is surveyed," Hansen said.

"The trailers are just placed helter skelter."

Veltman said this is the third time this issue has come before council, but the closure was always postponed.

"In the past, council was reluctant to make a decision on it, because there was no place to move these trailers to," Veltman said.

"Now that we have mobile home properties for sale, the push is on again to close the park down."

The new lots are located at the end of Adams Street and Ruyant Avenue. Veltman said the new cost of the lots is yet to be determined and will be based on cost of servicing the lots.

"They should be around the $35,000 range," he said.

Residents at Husky Trailer Park will be given $5,000 relocation allowance to be applied to moving costs or the purchase of land.

Hansen said once the trailers are moved the utilidette will be removed and the plan is to build a playground in the area.

"It's such a high density area and there are a lot of children in the area," Hansen said, adding that there have been complaints recently of children playing in the streets.

"This might be a way to entice them off the road and give them a proper area to play," she said. "You can develop in an orderly manner and include green within your plan."