ALBERTON, P.E.I. — Whether it was a complaint about unsightly properties or garbage piling up near two apartment buildings, Mayor David Gordon offered the same refrain during the recent Alberton Town Council meeting: “We can send him off a letter.”
With no bylaw enforcement officer in place, the mayor admitted there is little more the town can do.
Council received written complaints about three Church Street properties, two of which were unoccupied and a third where a shortage of waste carts is causing garbage to overflow.
They also heard a complaint about the way garbage carts are maintained in an alley beside a Main Street business and apartment complex.
Gordon said he got two complaints last week about the property along Main Street.
“I was talking to him Friday. He’s got no business containers yet. The containers he has there are just for residents and that’s it. And I asked him why and he wouldn’t tell me,” Gordon told council.
“We will continue to keep plugging away at them, but we can’t promise you nothing. If they don’t want to do it, it’s pretty hard for us to force them to do it. We’ve got no bylaw enforcement officer.”
"I said, ‘If you get a bylaw enforcement officer,’ I said, ‘can we hire him every now and again when we have issues?’ He said, ‘You know what, a good idea would be to get a bylaw enforcement officer for Prince County, not just Summerside.’”
-Alberton Mayor David Gordon
But Gordon said he had a conversation with Summerside Mayor Basil Stewart about that city’s interest in hiring a bylaw enforcement officer.
“I asked Basil point-blank. I said, ‘If you get a bylaw enforcement officer,’ I said, ‘can we hire him every now and again when we have issues?’ He said, ‘You know what, a good idea would be to get a bylaw enforcement officer for Prince County, not just Summerside.’”
“It is a really good idea.”
Gordon said he expects the suggestion will be discussed further at a meeting Stewart is proposing for Prince County mayors in June.
Church Street resident Shirley Phillips, who raised concerns last month about garbage piling up at an apartment building beside her home, was back for the May council meeting.
“Can you not make him buy containers?” she asked about her neighbour.
“Once again, I don’t know,” the mayor said. “We can send him a letter and state we want more containers there.”
