SUNSET RESIDENTS SPEAK OUT ABOUT METH

Hinton Parklander -- Hinton town council and RCMP Staff Sgt. Harold Milroy
received some unexpected guests at the May 11 standing committee meeting.

Seven residents of the Sunset trailer park made an empassioned plea to
council and the RCMP for something to be done about the methamphetamine
problem in neighbouring trailers, saying that drug-related crime has
reached `ridiculous' levels.

"I have had to have people stay at my home when I've gone away," said Mike
Jodoin, who acted as main spokesperson for the residents. "I know I don't
live in the best neighbourhood but I should be afforded a little more
personal freedom than that."

Residents said they were tired of having `crackhouses' next door, adding
that they watch between 50-60 people walk in and out of suspicious trailers
on some days. Others spoke of seeing people brandishing swords and rifles,
money exchanges, and the suspicious transport and transfer of goods.

For his part, Milroy was sympathetic to the plight of Sunset residents.

"We are well award of the address and the issues you have. The unfortunate
reality is that we work within a prescribed legal framework," he said. "You
also live in a province with the third-worst per capita (policing) ratio in
the country. Resources are limited and policing is an expensive business."

Jodoin and other residents, in turn, sympathized with the plight of the
local RCMP detachment and the limitations under which it operates. However,
the Sunset residents insisted on knowing what steps they could take to
affect change.

What followed was a fairly meaningful, if unscheduled, dialogue between
residents, RCMP and council about what could be done, legally, to improve
the situation in that neighbourhood.

Coun. Glenn Taylor summed up the conversation with three main points.

He said council should: petition the province to bring justices of the
peace back to Hinton from a central location in Edmonton; continue to
support restrictions on the sale of meth ingredients in large quantities;
and look closer at policing levels in Hinton.