LangleyAdvance
Ho, ho, ho pg A11
Your community newspaper since 1931
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Metal thieves short-circuited
Gold
Top dollar paid on the spot!
Langley Township will try to convince neighbouring cities to adopt a single scrap metal bylaw.
Cash in on high gold prices.
KEY LARGO
Jewellery & Loans Ltd. 20369 56 Ave., Langley (Behind the Baseline Pub) 11020378
604-534-8845
O P E N 7 D AY S A W E E K
WE HAVE WATERPROOF
11161177
HARLEY BOOTS
www.stampede.ca (Closed sundays and holidays)
Starting at
PACKAGES
599
CY
CL OV AC
Mobile In Home Service
$
604-530-7501
09219105
LANGLEY
#1-19638 Fraser Hwy.
Audited circulation: 41,100 – 28 pages
Crime
We Buy
BUILT-IN VACUUM
Your source for local sports, news, weather, and entertainment: www.langleyadvance.com
it,” Fassbender said of the Township’s efforts. Municipalities and other victims agree that there are just a few scrap dealers who are accepting stolen scrap. Hall said he hopes that a uniform bylaw will help police crack by Matthew Claxton down, and that they mclaxton@langleyadvance.com can be driven out of business. New rules to control While Telus has been scrap metal sales could hammered by wire be one aspect of the thefts in recent years, war against wire and Langley Township metal theft. has gone from being a Langley Township major victim to shutis hosting a private ting down the thieves. forum on Nov. 24 for In the worst year in mayors, councillors, recent memory, the bylaw officers and Township spent about police from around the $200,000 to $300,000 Lower Mainland. The replacing copper wire info session will try to that had been ripped hash out a stronger, out of street lights, and uniform, bylaw for recalled Terry Veer, scrap metal. roads and drainage “As it stands, thieves manager. will steal in one muniTo stop thieves, cipality then pawn the Township started it off in another, if installing special access there is a lax second plates at the base of all hand metal bylaw in their new streetlights. one place but not the “So that you can’t other,” said Township reach your hand in and Bylaw Enforcement access the wire,” Veer Manager Bill Storie. said. “Everyone is affectIn the past year, ed in the Lower there has been no sigMainland, so we need nificant wire theft from to be closely aligned. A Township streetlights, bylaw that is universal Veer said. will benefit every“This system has body.” worked very well for “Safety, I think, is us,” he said. one of the biggest However, the issues,” said Township Township is still at the Mayor Rick Green. mercy of metal prices. Langley Township’s When prices were at many quiet rural roads their highest several make it a particular Troy Landreville/Langley Advance years ago, thieves were target for wire thieves. Martin Sanches from Cobra Electric, which is contracted with the Township of Langley, held a Wire Sentry, which taking anything they Many times in the could pry loose. past decade, thieves prevents thieves from having easy access to wire inside light poles. “We were losing have torn down phone railings off of bridges,” Veer and power lines, and even felled theft in the Lower Mainland in up by former Langley City manutility poles. 2010. ager Cliff Gittens worked to draft recalled. Parks were seeing thieves take aluminum grandSeveral times in the last few A third of them were in the a tougher bylaw, but it didn’t stand seats. months, Langley residents have Langley area, Hall said. find wide acceptance. Then prices dropped steeply, lost phone service for hours It costs about $50,000 to repair Some communities, includand for a time nothing was being or days because of wire thefts. the average wire theft, Hall said. ing Langley City, Richmond and Green himself lost phone service Telus will have Surrey, independ- stolen. Copper thefts began as metal prices rose following the for more than 30 hours a few representatives at the ently toughened “Safety, I think, recession. months back. Nov. 24 Township their bylaws. Telus can’t lock up its overThere have been public outmeeting and supHowever, City is one of the head wires, but a technological cries from several residents who ports both provincial Mayor Peter biggest issues.” change is improving the phone were worried about being withregulations and uniFassbender company’s situation. out 911 service for so long. form bylaws, Hall remembers that Rick Green The firm is replacing a lot of “It’s putting our customers’ said. a court challenge lives at risk,” said Shawn Hall, a This is the second to part of the pro- its large cables with fibre optic wire. It’s intended to speed up spokesperson for Telus. time in the past few posed bylaw, and service, but a side effect is fewer The cost is also a big concern years that an effort has been indifference by some communwires worth stealing. for Telus. made to create a broad-based ities, prevented it from being “The technological fix has got As of October this year, Telus bylaw on metal theft. universally adopted. to be part of it,” Hall said. has had about 180 cases of wire In 2007, a committee headed “We’ll be keeping our eye on