Naked man wreaks havoc

There’s nothing quite like calling 911, and being asked to "please hold."

It was an experience Vicky White didn’t enjoy, and she’s hoping something can be done to remedy a situation that left her feeling vulnerable and without protection.

On Saturday, May 13, White was awakened just before 6 a.m., by the sound of someone screaming. A quick peek out her window, and White got her first glimpse of a young man who was standing on the bumper of her van, parked in the driveway of her home near the post office.

"I heard him banging on the back of my van, and screaming. Mostly it was profanity," said White. She could also hear him using the word "kill."

She immediately called 911. She waited a few minutes before peeking again. By that time, he had crossed the street, and was throwing rocks at her van.

"What he was saying was, ‘Open your door so I can kill you.’ He was out of control."

At that point, the man was wearing a white shirt and blue shorts, and she didn’t recognize him. The man came back across to her house, pounded on the side of her house, then seemed to go away.

But the reprieve was short. He came back.

"He was minus his shorts at that point," White said. He was still beating on vehicles, and the police still hadn’t come. Again, the man disappeared momentarily.

"Then he came back again, naked. He climbed up on the fence, and he was just screaming and shaking the fence," she said.

At that point, she called 911 again.

"It just seemed like forever," she said, estimating about 20 minutes had gone by. "I called them back, and they put me on hold. It was unnerving." She was advised they had already had others in the neighbourhood call in, and they were attempting to send someone. By this time, the young man was throwing himself against the neighbour’s door, smashing the glass window.

Finally, the RCMP arrived.

"They had to use the taser on him."

According to RCMP Sgt. Kevin Schur, the man seemed to be high on drugs.

"He’s lucky he came out of it uninjured," said Schur, adding in the state the man was in, it would have likely taken about four officers to restrain the 21-year-old man. No charges are being laid.

"He’s not a bad young fella," Schur said. "It’s a good example of what crystal meth might do to you."

White wants to make it clear she is not upset about how the situation was handled by the local RCMP members. But she’s not happy that there was such a delay before help came – and she wonders what can be improved with the system.

"It seems to me if you call 911, you expect someone to come help you faster than that," she said. "I don’t want to fault the RCMP officers, but I do fault the system that isn’t giving us enough protection."

She said if this had happened to someone elderly, with health problems – or, if the man had decided to throw rocks at or break into a house instead of a vehicle – the consequences could have been much more serious.

White said she found out there was only one officer in the area at the time, and he was held up at the hospital, working overtime. Other officers were on call, but were as far away as Osoyoos.

The damage was limited to $2,700 on White’s van, and some damage to the neighbour’s door. But the repercussions are much more serious for White – namely, sleepless nights spent wondering about safety – and she has decided to be proactive, and try to make some changes. She is writing local politicians with her concerns, and is hoping for some action.

"All I can do is hope nobody else has to live through that terrible feeling," she said. "It just tells you how vulnerable you are."

Legendary Vancouver developer buys into Oliver Place Mall

Andre Molnar, a major Vancouver developer and builder, has bought into two Oliver properties: the Oliver Place Mall, and some vacant property behind it.

Molnar has confirmed his purchase of the Oliver Place Mall, with a completion date of later this month. The mall, which was built in 1981, sits on nearly five acres and has been listed with Coldwell Banker for the last two years at a price of $5.2 million. Major tenants in the 60,800 square foot shopping center include SuperValu, Home Hardware and the Valley First Credit Union.

Molnar said he is one of the principals in a newly formed company called "Oliver Place Mall Ltd." composed of a consortium of old friends from Vancouver.

"These are people I have known for 20-30 years, who have bought into the mall as an investment," he said.

Although Molnar said it "would be pretty much a passive investment" for them, he did reveal that his company is also purchasing a one acre triangular piece of vacant property immediately behind the mall, and adjacent to the BC Government buildings. He said they have no immediate plans for expansion.

"(But) perhaps in two or three years we might put in something there," Molnar said.

He said he has had some preliminary discussions with municipal manager Tom Szalay about the possibility of development.

"The property has nice views, so we might do a mix of commercial and residential," said Molnar.

Szalay confirmed the present zoning and Official Community Plan is appropriate for a development that could be added on to the present Oliver Place Mall without too much difficulty.

SuperValu owner Wally Brogan has yet to meet Molnar, but indicated he was interested in talking to his new landlord about the importance of some fresh paint and general sprucing up of the mall.

Musing about finding a tenant for the mall’s vacant 1,500 sq. ft., which used to house Valley TV, Molnar said he was "…thinking of approaching the 15 local wineries and perhaps setting up a little wine centre."

If you lived in Vancouver in the 1980s you couldn’t help but hear of Andre Molnar. Molnar was a Hungarian immigrant who rose to become a legend in the condominium building boom in Vancouver following Expo 86. In 1997, he was even the Honorary Consul General of Hungary at Vancouver. His condominium projects were famous for their flare and imagination. One of his most creative projects, built in 1990, was a $17 million development of 240,000 sq. ft. in Coquitlam, which featured a Northern Italian Venetian motif created by bringing in the Fraser River to make artificial canals and lagoons.

Unfortunately like many other builders, he saw his projects were caught up in the "leaky condo" fiasco, which saw an estimated 50,000 condominium units in BC experience "building envelope failures." Simply put, the builders and architects were encouraged to make buildings more airtight to save heating costs. Unfortunately the tight walls wouldn’t let the moisture get out, so it stayed in, rotting studs, joists and gyproc. The result was financial disaster for many builders and owners, and lawsuits galore. Molnar remembers those days as a nightmare.

"Everybody had a miserable time. The whole thing was a disaster."

In this decade, Molnar has turned his attention to building in the U.S. The town of Fairhaven, is a historic seaside community, a suburb of Bellingham, Wash. In 2005 he completed a $10 million project there, involving 88 residential and 15 commercial units. He has a similar $10 million project in the works for 2007, which will incorporate 15,000 sq. ft. of commercial space on the main with 60 residential units above.

Local Realtor Karen Lewis has watched Molnar’s career for many years and is ecstatic about his coming to Oliver.

"He is such a creative man. It is exciting to have him here," Lewis said. "I’m truly eager to see what marvellous new concepts he will introduce into the building of Oliver."

Planning for the future

Oliver could be growing in a smart direction, thanks to the ongoing work of those taking part in the Smart Growth program.

Maintaining conservation areas, preserving agricultural land, and taking care of our water quantity and quality were just a few of the top items discussed during the presentation section of the local Smart Growth charrette team, held Tuesday, May 16th.

"The river was a big issue," said Area C director Allan Patton. "As well as environmentally sensitive areas, highways, and development issues."

The charrette team, made up of 24 local people and designers, were part of a program called Smart Growth on the Ground (SGOG). It was a joint venture between the town of Oliver and the Regional District of the Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS), whose goal was to come up with a vision for the year 2041 and present their recommendations for a more sustainable future for the Oliver region.

"We brought in a design team, consisting of architects, landscape architects, and urban planners," said Josie Siu, the outreach coordinator for the program.

Siu, who was also one of the facilitators, explained the three recent public events were for the benefit of Oliver citizens, so that they would have opportunities to see and respond to the charrette teams’ plans as they were created.

"They were sort of check points."

All events were free.

Siu goes on to tell the story of the meaning of the word ‘charrette,’ which is an exciting, intense, design event. The French word goes back to the 18th century, she said. She tells of an architectural school in France that gave out extremely tough design problems with short deadline times to their students.

"Someone with a charrette cart would come along, and people were to toss their drawings onto the cart, but if they weren’t complete, they’d jump on the cart too and ride along, trying to finish their drawings."

The local charrette team didn’t do any cart jumping, but they did deal with complex design problems, working on creating land use, transportation, urban design, and other design plans in a short period of time. It was meant as a planning program to envision the shared future of the town of Oliver and the surrounding rural region.

It all began with the kick off event, which took place on Tuesday, May 9th with an orientation. Then, the second half of the evening was open to the public. "We talked about resources the team had, such as maps, existing plans, and policy documents, and we talked about the results of public workshops held earlier in the year (January and February)."

The mid-course review was on Thursday, May 11th. "The team had already started to work," Siu said. "It was a chance for the public to see some preliminary ideas, and to give feedback." The charrette team wanted to make sure they were moving in a positive direction before they got into more detail.

"The overall feedback was quite positive," Siu said. "The ideas the team were having were moving in the right direction. And people also came up with ideas that the team hadn’t had time to look at. So, the team learned a lot."

The presentation, held, Tuesday, May 16th, was the last night of the charrette.

"The local team members talked about what they’d worked on and presented it to the public. It went very well, was well received, and we had lots of good feedback and questions."

Patton worked alongside Mayor Ron Hovanes and was encouraged by the participation. "There was lots of lively discussion, and that’s good," he said. "People were passionate. There are a lot of people very concerned with the growth of Oliver and area. The growth rates are very high, and we have to manage that.

"I think there will always be lots of pressure in the Oliver area. It’s a beautiful place, but there’s a good opportunity here. We haven’t ruined things."

Much of the discussion included keeping most of the growth contained as close as possible to the downtown core and to discourage growth away from the core, explained Patton.

"So many things are changing in communities like Oliver," said Siu. "It’s important to grow in such a way that’s not too costly or that will deplete the environment, and still create a nice place to live."

Siu went on to say that people talked a lot about how much they loved the rural areas of Oliver. "It was the guiding theme," she said, "how to maintain the rural character and small town theme, even as more people move to the area."

Overall, Patton believes the charrette team project went really well. "I think we could’ve had more time, but that’s the deal. You intensify it and deal with it in a fast, hard fashion and work it out. It’s like labour negotiations. You deal with as many topics as you can in a certain amount of time. I think the process has been very good. We got a start on it; it’s a beginning."

From here, the SGOG team will take all drawings and put them into a concept plan. That will be given to the Town Council and the Regional District Board. Siu said the goal is for those players to adopt it.

Patton added, "The idea is to make changes now to get to where we want to go. The long-term plan is to figure out where we want to go and work backwards to make changes for today.

"There’s lots of plans going on: the Regional Growth Strategy (RDOS), the Okanagan Partnership (growth in the Okanagan Valley), and the Oliver Smart Growth (specific to Oliver area). If we get good Official Community Plan (OCP) changes and good zoning, then I will feel it will all have been worth it."

He said one big issue that they didn’t get very far with was the urban-rural boundary. "The town and rural will deal with that separately and hopefully incorporate it as time goes on."

Patton stated that there are lots of planning sessions ahead of them. The charrette was just the fourth section of a process of seven for the SGOG project. "It’s far from finished," he said. "Now, we get into more detail. We don’t want to go through all that process and get plans built then have it sit on a shelf forever."

To learn more, please visit www.sgog.bc.ca/greateroliver.

More boots, please

The incident with a naked man running amok in the early morning hours illustrates a concern that Oliver residents have been expressing for a long time. It isn’t the issue of the man terrifying local people but of the long response time before the police appeared on scene.

Problems such as this will arise from time to time. People with mental issues or drug problems will always be with us. Their condition makes them very difficult to deal with. A naked man screaming death threats in the early morning is not going to be deterred by the usual constraints that moderate the average person. What is needed is quick intervention. Force, albeit minimal and appropriate, is the immediate need. Our police force must be there for these situations.

This is not a problem with our local RCMP detachment. Their limits are set by a budget that doesn’t provide for enough boots on the ground.

We recently spoke of the need for more police and were heartened by the most recent federal budget that promised a hefty increase in resources for policing.

What is needed now is action that allows greater night-time security for the community. The recent incident ended without serious harm. Let us more than just hope that the next incident ends as well.