Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 06/02) - Junk has been leaving the old Rocking Horse Ranch by the truckload after a territorial Supreme Court decision upheld a city eviction order.

The city ordered owner Johnny Rocher off the property on July 21, 2000. He appealed a month later.

Rocher initially took ownership of the property Sept. 1, 1987 with a 29-year lease. Annual rent was $2,931.70.

The property was originally leased to Christian Goisnard in 1984, who said he would use the land to operate a game farm.

When Rocher took the property over, he began accumulating junk at the site about 10 kilometres out of Yellowknife, across the road from Trapper's Lake spiritual centre.

A decade later, the city got fed up with the junk on the property, calling it an eyesore on the sole access road into the territorial capital.

"We were receiving complaints from tourists and people coming into town about the junk and everything, so we attempted to have the property cleaned up," said city corporate services director Tim Mercer.

In 1998, the city gave Rocher one year's notice that it would not extend his lease. In 1999, Rocher said he was planning to build a truck stop and mini Old Town out of the old buildings and equipment he was collecting.

The lot was covered with old cars, obsolete machinery, bundles of paper, old wood and barrels.

The Old Town replica was never built, and the city eventually ordered him evicted from the site.

The appeal was dismissed in a Sept. 16 decision by Alberta Justice Allan H. Wachowich, who ruled that Rocher "is ordered to vacate the land within two months, with leave to appeal to extend the time if necessary."

The eviction appeal cost the city about $10,000 in legal costs. It will not seek to recoup those costs.

Yellowknifer was unable to reach Johnny Rocher, but his son Les said much of the junk is being taken to the dump, while some of it is being salvaged. He said there are no immediate plans for the property, although "there may be in the future."

"A lot of the stuff was put there not necessarily by Rocher, so they're cleaning up other people's mess, too," said Mayor Gord Van Tighem, who said the decision was "expected."

"It's the entrance to the city so we like it to look nice," he said.

The city doesn't have plans for the land yet, although it still has control of the land through a lease with the Commissioner of the NWT.

"I think anything that's happening there will wait until after the general plan (is reviewed, scheduled for completion next year)," said Van Tighem.