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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015
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Courts deliver justice Superboxes put on hold, while mail thefts still a big problem BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
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Paul J. Henderson/TIMES
Barry Johnson Jr. and Willie, a 33-year-old Arabian, at the barn next to Mountain View Home where he lives near Yarrow. BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
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NOPLACELIKE
HOME For the residents of Mountain View, there’s just no replacing it
Mountain View she sees all the ideal elements of a place for individuals, some of whom will never get better, whose mental illness symptoms will only ever be masked. “Barry is working with horses out there, he
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arry Johnson Jr. washes a piece of equipment outside a barn that has to be one of the tidiest in the Fraser Valley. The 48-year-old has a smile on his face as he greets a visitor, and proudly shows off the 33-yearold Arabian horse Willie inside. The barn is on the grounds of Mountain View Home on Boundary Road on the border between Abbotsford and Chilliwack. Johnson, who has suffered with schizophrenia since he was 14 years old, has lived at Mountain View for two decades, a year after his military father Barry Sr. was transferred to CFB Chilliwack in 1994. Johnson’s mother 70-year-old Tove Olsen is one of nine Chilliwack-based families with a relative at Mountain View. Olsen has dealt with mental health issues for 60 years, since her own mother had a breakdown when she was just 10. And in
worked cutting hedges, raking leaves, fed the birds, looked after goats,” Olsen told the Times. “It’s a wonderful little facility.” But Mountain View’s days are numbered, the facility is set to close and few residents or families are happy about it. Fraser Health announced in August the facility would close by August 2016. The single-level building located on a rural property has 25 rooms, each with ensuite bathrooms, a courtyard in the centre, home-cooked meals and 24-hour nursing care. “The residents living at Mountain View care facility consider it home,” says Patrick Newby, RN and director of care for Mountain View. The replacement for Mountain View is a new 50-bed mental health facility under construction on Marshall Road in Abbotsford. A groundbreaking ceremony for the facility to be run by the MPA Society, a Vancouver-based non-profit organization, was held in May.
s debate once again fires up over community mailboxes in Chilliwack and across Canada, yet more cases of mail theft go through the courts. On Oct. 26, Canada Post announced it would temporarily suspend conversion from door-to-door mail delivery to community mailboxes, where this has not already occurred. “All conversions planned for November and December 2015 and those announced for 2016 will be placed on hold,” a Canada Post statement said. Meanwhile, critics of the community mailboxes point to the problem of theft, something that has yet to be rectified as evidenced by numerous incidents in Chilliwack and surrounding areas in recent months. A Chilliwack man was sentenced last week to 31 days in jail and 18 months probation for a string of mail thefts at community mailboxes from Agassiz to Mission in the summer. David Charles McGill, 47, of Chilliwack pleaded guilty to four of the eight counts of mail theft he was charged with, as well as one count of possession of break-in instruments and one breach of undertaking. Then there is prolific offender Jeffrey Michael Kizmann who is currently in custody facing mail theft
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