They’re often unsightly, rusted out and inoperable.
Now city hall is looking to rid Flin Flon of derelict vehicles.
“There’s quite a few through the whole community,” said Mayor Cal Huntley. “[A clean-up] won’t happen overnight, but it will happen gradually.
“We have a bylaw around derelict vehicles and we are trying to facilitate a change over a period of time within the community, for sure.”
Huntley made the comments at Tuesday’s city council meeting after Dennis Hydamaka, an uptown resident, asked about the city’s efforts in this regard.
Hydamaka said he is aware of three to five derelict vehicles near the Lord’s Bounty Food Bank, where he volunteers. He said one of the vehicles has been parked in the same spot for at least five years.
Huntley said council would make the bylaw enforcement officer aware of those vehicles.
The mayor said there is some concern about the wording of the city’s current bylaw around derelict vehicles and whether they are insured or uninsured.
“We may have to do some work around some of the bylaws as well, but the intent is to start cleaning that aspect of the community up,” Huntley said.
The issue of insurance on derelict vehicles surfaced in 2015 when Flin Flon resident Dan Trojan appeared before council to speak about an order regarding his abandoned automobiles.
Referencing past incidents involving derelict vehicles, Coun. Ken Pawlachuk told Trojan that once people buy storage insurance on a vehicle, it is no longer considered derelict.
“We’ve had other people that have more than two vehicles, they have 15 vehicles in their yard, and when we went to deal with it, they put storage insurance on all of them and then they still have them,” Pawlachuk said at the time.
At that time, Huntley said that was not the approach favoured by the city and that “the idea is if you’ve got a yard full of vehicles, that’s not what the yard is for.”
Speaking on Tuesday, Huntley said he thought the city’s recent spring clean-up campaign and holiday on landfill tipping fees were well utilized.
He added that the community is looking more spruced up and that council continues to push its Clean and Green community clean-up initiative.
