DRUG DEALERS SENT PACKING

A local motel owner is spiffing up his property after drug dealers
were forced out by the work of a city-wide anti-drug task force.

The unnamed motel was the first target of the Community Partnership on
Drug Initiatives, set up two or three months ago to help clean up the
city.

"I'm very pleased," Mayor David Perry said Tuesday. "In a relatively
short period of time, we're seeing significant results. In this
particular case, it was with the co-operation of the motel owner. It
was not a heavy-handed approach, but a true partnership."

The Community Partnership on Drug Initiatives includes the RCMP, the
city, the fire department, the Liquor Control and Licensing Office,
the Mental Health Centre, the Residential and Tenancy Office, social
services, public health and business and tourism associations.

Their plan included additional police patrols, visits to problem
tenants, seizure of drugs, change in the client registration process,
eviction of undesirables, monitoring by Citizens on Patrol and issuing
a list of problem guests to other local hotel and motel owners.

"This is just one little tool we're using in the overall issue of drug
enforcement," said Insp. Dan Fudge of the Penticton RCMP. "We're a
group of concerned people who get together to solve a particular problem.

"The motel was known as a place where police were called a great deal.
The problem is not completely eradicated, but it's been cleared up
considerably."

Asked whether the problem has moved to another location in the city,
Fudge replied: "That's certainly a possibility, but you try and deal
with each problem as it comes along."

Though the RCMP mounted extra patrols in the area of the motel in
question, no extra funding was needed, he added.

"That was our commitment to this process."

The group will move on to other known drug houses and motels in the
city, said Perry.

"I want to state very clearly today that any landlords or renters
operating drug houses in the vicinity of schools in Penticton better
be aware that their time is coming," he said.

"I'm personally aware of a number of those as a result of citizens'
complaints to me, and I intend to point the task force in that direction."

Perry receives three to five calls weekly complaining about finding
drug paraphernalia or witnessing illicit drug activity in city
neighbourhoods.