No booze for big box
On-site liquor sale option restricted to large grocers Page A8
NEWS: Seven people to take on mayor, council /A5 ARTS: Addams family promises thrills /A14 SPORTS: Rams star stares down Islands /A36
SAANICHNEWS Friday, October 17, 2014
Cattle lot threatens 100 trees Travis Paterson News staff
Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard is promising to fight any attempt to cut down more than 100 trees at a Gordon Head cattle feed lot. A staff report made available Tuesday notes several ongoing concerns around the Alberg family cattle feedlot on Mount Douglas Cross Road. The five-acre lot is being used to raise 42 head of cattle while the Albergs and the municipality remain at odds over how to proceed with rezoning the land for residential use and removing it from the Agricultural Land Reserve. The Albergs plan to add another 12 cows to the feed lot this season. In the meantime, about 100 Garry oak trees on the property are under threat after the Albergs applied for a tree removal permit from the Distrit of Saanich to make room for manure storage. About 25 trees were already cut down because the owners believed a tree cutting permit had been obtained, said Don Alberg, who co-owns the feed lot property with his siblings, Gordon Alberg and Florence Davis. “We paid for it [the permit] and we figured we had the permit and everything,” Don said. PlEASE SEE: Cattle clash, Page A29
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The eye of the tagger
Daniel Palmer/News staff
Graffiti vandalism hotspots an ongoing issue as police target the worst offenders Travis Paterson News staff
Graffiti vandals usually start by scribbling their nameplate, or tag, with permanent marker along telephone poles, mailboxes and school walls close to home. But the longer those “bubblegum level” tags are left unchecked, the more likely they’ll progress into prolific – and costly – vandalism for Saanich or any other community, says Saanich police Const. Mark Pamminger. “Leave tags there for a month, and it might as well be a 4,000 per cent chance of increase,” says Pamminger, who leads Saanich PD’s anti-
graffiti program. In Saanich, the battle against tagging has made great strides in a short period of time, though it remains an ongoing problem. The community has come forward to help paint over and reclaim tagging “hotspots,” such as the Seaton Street pedestrian underpass, Mount Tolmie, Tillicum Bridge and areas along the Galloping Goose and Lochside trails. Tags have also been increasing in Gordon Head recently. While residents tend to associate an increase in graffiti with other types of crime, Pamminger says property crime and tagging aren’t usually connected. “Generally speaking, there is a decrease in
crime (in Saanich), but graffiti is the most visible crime in our community,” he says. “Graffiti promotes an image that an area is unsafe and it can attract other crimes. This is why it’s important to report and clean up the graffiti immediately.” A former hotspot is Tolmie Lane, which borders Victoria and Saanich on the east side of Douglas Street. Like the Seaton Street tunnel below the Trans-Canada Highway, Tolmie Lane is now largely tag-free, thanks to community initiative and a surge of clean-up work. PlEASE SEE: Graffiti battle ongoing, Page A7
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