FHCA Minutes – Sep 28 2011

President’s report

• Web site – www.fhca.ca
• The high school is now charging $60 for non-profit organizations to use the school for meetings so we have decreased the number of meetings from 5 down to 4 meetings per year – Sept, Nov, Feb, May (dates listed at end of minutes)
• For pressing issues that come up between meetings, please communicate via email or on the website

Treasurer’s report

• Financial statement – total account balance is $4544.92. Liability insurance is now being charged for groups renting out/using the school facilities – Leanne was able to get a good rate of $235.

Police and Security – Constable Dibblee

• Constable Chris Dibblee can be reached at: 604-839-6971, 778-593-3559 or at christopher.dibblee@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
• Corporal Croll (Constable Dibblee’s team leader) and Constable Dibblee presented information and answered questions
• There has been a spike in break and enters in Fraser Heights – they were focused in certain areas – about 7 or 8 over the past month were reported.
• If you see something suspicious, please call police right away. Until proven otherwise, men going door to door selling children’s books are possible suspects – if they come to your house, please call police immediately after they leave or while they are there and make sure you take one of their brochures to give to police. Remember – they may not be the culprits but need to be investigated because they were in the areas where the break-ins occurred. Let the police investigate.
• In all or most of the break-ins, the back sliding door was the entry point – they have not done a lot of damage to get in and tend to lift the sliding doors out of the tracks. Remember to keep your doors locked. Put a piece of wood or metal in the track if you have a sliding door. If you see something out of place or suspicious looking (e.g., cars/people), please call police. Break-ins have mostly been during the afternoon or evening between 3 to 11 p.m. (they appear to have a similar profile so are possibly the same people for each B&E).
• 4 break-ins on 157^th (around 109^th) – the 5^th place to be targeted had its alarm go off.
• The half-way house on 108^th was relocated to a house in Port Coquitlam so these individuals are no longer in Fraser Heights
• There were a few break-ins around 155/154 by 108, some around Arbutus Wynd/Chestnut Place, and a cluster around 169A Street and 104 A Ave.
• Total break-ins for Fraser Hts that look like they can be attributed to the same suspects would be about 7 – they took mostly cash, foreign currency and jewelry (they didn’t take electronics)
• Mail theft – a thief was arrested about 2 weeks ago and police recovered lots of mail from various municipalities – the thieves appear to steal people’s identities. Do not leave mail in your mailbox overnight – pick it up daily. If you note anything suspicious about the community mail boxes, contact CFIT (through the police dept).
• Due to the increase of B&Es, there are more marked police cars and officers patrolling in FH. With this criminal activity, FH is on the list for priority responses for break-ins in FH (remember, they won’t come if you don’t phone in anything suspicious). There were several break-ins last week on Wednesday and Friday.
• 102 Ave/168 St – there has been underage drinking, smashing bottles, vandalism, breaking trees and throwing bottles onto Highway#1 (10 p.m. to 4 a.m.) since the 168^th overpass was opened. Surrey has funds for extra patrols on weekends to deal with this. Please call police if you encounter these situations.
• 103 Ave/170 St – a boat was stolen from a resident’s driveway. A white pick-up truck had been seen driving around the area many times. The boat was eventually found at a drug house in Mission. Report suspicious vehicles.
• Grow ops – ongoing pursuit of these – the police have a website that makes these houses public – they show a leaf on the map where these houses are so neighbours will know the locations. You can ask to be put through to the drug section when you phone the RCMP to report suspicious houses.
• If you buy new electronics (or expensive items), don’t put those boxes in recycling as it is an advertisement to the thieves. Cut the boxes down, invert them or take them to a recycling depot. Record a list of what is in your house. Take digital photos of everything in your house and keep that information on a memory stick. This helps police recover your items – they will check Craig’s list, pawn shops etc. and will set up a “meet” with sellers they suspect.
• Criminals tend to go after motion detectors – they unscrew lights around the backyard. The homes targeted were not secluded homes and they did not have back lanes. The thieves made sure no one was home and they targeted many of the houses during dinner time.
• Speed of reporting is essential – this will give police the opportunity to block entries/exits to Fraser Heights so they can catch the criminal(s).
• Suggestions to make it look like someone is home – put boots on porch by front door, leave lights, TV and/or music on, leave a car in the driveway, have neighbour park in the driveway or get a relative or friend to stay in the house if you will be away on vacation.
• Alarms don’t make houses invincible as thieves can dismantle them.
• There was a level of professionalism with these B&Es – the criminals seem to be doing their homework so it doesn’t appear to be high school students – there was a description of taller males in their 20s.
• The police in other cities/municipalities of Metro Vancouver are checking for similarities between the crimes here and possible ones in their jurisdiction.
• Not a lot of damage has been done by these criminals as they seem to be taking their time to get the doors off but there may be some damage to the door when they either break the lock or pry the door out of the track. Once inside, the thieves will riffle through the drawers etc. dumping things.
• Keep a list of serial #s that are on the TVs etc. (engrave your driver’s licence # on the electronics – engravers can be bought at Canadian Tire)
• Phone or email Constable Dibblee if you have any information on the criminals or the B&Es – he checks email and voice messages in the morning
• It was suggested that a screecher alarm would be the best protection as it is piercing and hurts your ears. If you have an alarm with cameras – make sure the DVR is hidden or they will steal that. The cameras are worth a fortune and are often stolen.
• Atop a light post on the south side of 108 Ave at 157 Street, there was a camera mounted this past week as part of a traffic study – statistics are being collected from this.
• Traffic patrolling – there may be quite an increase over the weekend (watch your driving as they will be targeting that as well as the possible criminal activity).

Traffic Issues

• The lane realignment on 156^th Street on the north side of 104 Ave. has been completed – when you are heading south on 156^th, there are now 3 lanes (one right turn onto 104 Ave. to head west, one straight through (heading south) and one left turn (eastbound).
• A new pedestrian light was installed at 162 and 108^th Street last week and will soon be put into operation.
• The Port Mann project has been causing a lot of traffic in Fraser Heights – Kiewit said they need to keep progressing onward with the work to get the highway project completed – the schools have been phoning them about the traffic issues.
• When 100^th Avenue closed, the traffic had to find alternate routes to get to 104 Ave. The intersection of 170A Street and 104 Ave. has become a very dangerous spot. Traffic had been alternating during peak hours, adding to the congestion. There have been 2 accidents in the past week (the one this morning was very bad and looked like high speed was involved) and 2 pedestrians were hit fairly recently (one had very serious injuries). The crossing guard has had many incidents with cars ignoring him or narrowly missing him. Please notify Surrey’s traffic/engineering department about this intersection (or other local traffic issues that are not part of the PMH1 project by emailing Jamie Boan, Manager of Transportation, at jaboan@surrey.ca. Make sure to cc. the mayor and councillors in the email. Their email addresses are available on the City of Surrey website at www.surrey.ca
• Parents of Pacific Academy students have had their access to PA via 100 Ave closed off so they have had to find alternate routes and are adding to the traffic congestion. Traffic throughout the area has significantly increased so drivers must be more vigilant to watch for children walking to school. Several times, drivers have stopped to let people go across the street and the driver behind them has driven around that driver who had stopped, thereby narrowly missing the pedestrian(s) crossing the street. There are often drivers passing other drivers on the hill at speeds way above the speed limit. The visibility is poor so it has become a serious issue for the residents of this area to safely cross 104^th Avenue. 100^th Ave is closed and is not slated to be opened again so this problem is not going to go away.
• Note: Council is very receptive at this time of year due to the elections coming up on November 19, 2011 so be sure they also get a copy of your concerns. The more emails that are received concerning an issues, the more likely action will be taken. Emails from administrative staff at the schools holds a lot of weight.
• TI Corp – they are the consultants for Kiewit (these are feeder roads for the Port Mann/Hwy#1 project (e.g., 176 Street intersections, 160^th Street etc.) Emails concerning issues to do with the PMH1 project should be directed to Sheila Hui at shui@ticorp.ca
• The 160^th Street overpass date to open is dependent on weather so no date was known at this time. The 152^nd overpass opened yesterday. Once the new 160th overpass opens, the old one will be dismantled so until all of this is done, there will be disruptions to traffic flow.
• If residents would like to receive regular updates from the Port Mann Highway #1 project, they can email info@pmh1project.com or phone 1-866-999-7641 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting to ask to be put on the mailing list or they can visit the website at www.pmh1project.com or Twitter at www.twitter.com/portmannhwy1.
• It was noted that there were no sidewalks along 104^th between 176 and 168^th. The side of the road is like a mine field – students and parents of young people have been seen struggling to walk or push buggies over this rough terrain. Sidewalks are needed here.
• There was a question about homes that have too many cars parked in front of the neighbour’s houses. There seemed to be no bylaws for cars parking in Surrey. They can legally park in front of houses for any length of time. In many of the municipalities, there is a 3 hour limit for parking in front of houses during daylight hours. This needs to be taken up with the City of Surrey. There may be a restriction as to how many cars a house can park off their property if they have secondary suites – it would be worth pursuing this problem from the secondary suite angle.
• Abbey Glen – there is a house running an auto wrecking yard from the home – every once and awhile they have been forced to clear it up (it is in the vicinity of 170 Street and 103^rdAve).

Parks and Recreation

• Dog off-leash parks – out of all the parks/areas suggested by Surrey Residents for the off-leash parks at the Open Houses, 12 parks made the short list. Of those parks, 6 will be chosen to become off-leash parks. Residents are encouraged to vote or fill in the questionnaire that is on the website (you only need to comment on the park in your area and not the parks throughout Surrey).
• There were two parks chosen in Fraser Heights – the first was Fraser View Park that is on the north east corner of 160^th Street and 112^th Ave. This park is rarely used by residents and was said to be an ideal park to use as an off-leash park. Information on how this park would be transformed to become an off-leash park and a picture of the park are on the website: www.surrey.ca/dogparks If you want any further information, you can email Doug Merry at djmerry@surrey.ca or phone him at 604-598-5778.
• The second site in or near Fraser Heights was the Port Mann Landfill area. This would be a destination park (like Tynehead Park is – meaning you’d have to drive there). It would not only have the off-leash areas but would have an agility training area where there would be culverts to crawl through, things to climb on and an area that would be like a slalom (dogs would wind in and out between poles). The problem with this site is it is not known when the land will be ready to use. Access, at this point in time would be via the #1 Highway or through an underpass under the #1 Hwy from Birdland.
• Doug suggested that Fraser View Park would have the best chance of being developed. Please vote – the more people who vote, the better chance we’ll have of getting a dog-off leash park.

City Beautification Grant

• The Fraser Heights Community Association has chosen to apply for a grant to put a sign at the intersection of 160^th Street and 104^th Ave. Surrey said we can put in a proposal of where we might want the sign and the City will get the ball rolling on the approval. FHCA is looking into the sign. The grant allotted for the project is around $3000 which may or may not cover the cost of a sign (we may have to raise more money for that). Location of sign may be on the north east side of 160^th Street/104 Ave but it is not known what the road layout will be once new overpass opens up so the location decision will be made later.
• It was suggested that the sign be made of a material resistant to vandalism, weather damage and possibly elevate it so vandals can’t reach it.
• There are several community signs throughout Fraser Heights and most have been maintained by the neighbours living around them.

Development in Fraser Heights:

• There are 2 lots at 10145 173 Street that have a proposal to divide them up into 12 small lots. If residents have concerns about this, they should contact Stephanie Long, City of Surrey, at 604-591-4753 and give her the File # 7911-0190-00. The proposal is at the early application stages to develop this land so residents now have the opportunity to voice their opinions. This proposal amends that area of the community from suburban to urban to allow for this development.

Member’s concerns

• Some residents had been on the FHCA email list and no longer are – not sure what happened. Mail chimp is now being used so if an email bounces back to FHCA, it drops that person off the list. Let FHCA know if you’ve been dropped off the list or if you want to be added to the list to receive emails. You can subscribe on the website. There are currently about 400 subscribers on the email list – emails are usually only sent when an important issue arises or just prior to meeting dates.
• Dave Hayer, our MLA, is now a resident of Fraser Heights. He is interested in our community and its issues.
• Several Surrey Civic Coalition candidates came to the meeting and introduced themselves. The FHCA is non-partisan but we do like to support those who work with us. The candidates were: Rina Gill (she ran in 2008), Sukhy Dhillon (her pet project was collecting books and sending them to Nigeria), Steve Wood, Gary Robinson, and Ijaz Ahmed Chatha.
• One resident stated that he carefully looked at his Property Tax bill and found a charge for a secondary suite. It is up to the homeowner to prove that there is no secondary suite as many of the new houses have completely finished basements and may be billed. The extra charge for a suite is about $200 to $300. Another resident stated that it is cheaper to have your water metered if there are few people living in your house as it reduces both the water and sewer utility bills.
• Residents said there was an Increase in train horns during night. Langley has a bylaw for the train noises. You can phone the train yard about the noise. Some train engineers give a little toot while others lay on the horns. Whistles should not go off during midnight to 6 a.m. – individual trains make a decision to toot horns. Dave Hayer has info on this. It is possible to get silent crossings – must apply for them but there is a liability issue – so if someone gets creamed, it states who is responsible.
• Surrey Bend Park – plan to develop it – Gary Robinson was involved in this proposal – It was under a 10 year plan and plan is coming into focus. Work has started on it.

Next Meeting will be Wednesday November 30 , 2011 at 7 p.m. in the theatre at Fraser Heights Secondary School.

The meeting schedule for the 2011/2012 year will be:
Wed Nov 30, 2011
Thurs Feb 2, 2012
Wed May 2, 2012