Sunday, July 09, 2006

Impropriety in Bayview?

Recently, allegations of egregious flaunting of the County and State building codes have surfaced. According to the parties that have complained, Waterford Park Homes, LLC is the suspected culprit.

A long list of items, such as permanently setting park model mobile homes in a flood plain, illegal filling of portions of the lake, building showers and rest rooms in the Vista Bay Marina, all without permits.

Two of this companies' R.V. Parks are alleged to have sewer and water lines in the same ditch, no backflow prevention installed, all done without licensed plumbers or permits.

The list goes on. If these charges are true, one has to ask, since regulatory agencies have been complained to, where is the enforcement? It seems that the water district, EPA, Building and Zoning all have been informed, yet rumor has it that red tags have been torn up and ignored, and business as usual with arrogant references to the local folks as "local yokels."

3 comments:

Bill McCrory said...

Herb,

Free advice being worth nothing more than what you've paid for it, let me give some.

Encourage people to carefully document every single apparent violation. Digitally image the violation if it can be photographed. The basics of who, what, when, where, and how need to be contemporaneously logged. If there appears to be some illegal contamination, get samples if you can do it legally (no trespassing) and safely (like bullets, 1-methyl-2-ethyl-icky-gooey-bad-stuff can be harmful to your health). People documenting an event should work in pairs for safety and credibility. Idaho is a one-party consent state, and making notes into a tape- or digital-audio recorder is not a bad way to go since the recorder can legally be left on should any confrontation occur. All complaints to regulatory agencies should be in writing, and for goodness sake, keep copies! If you believed projects have been red-tagged by a government agency, ask that agency for confirmation, but also ask if the tag has been legally lifted. If it has been, follow up with appropriate questions. If state or county or city agencies seem unresponsive, provide them with an Open Records Law request. You may not get the information you want, but agencies must respond to ORL requests in writing and state why the request was only partially filled or why it was completely denied. Do everything in writing; do nothing verbally if you can avoid it (too much wiggle room).

stebbijo said...

Gad - it is just thick, isn't it?I have found that what cynm says is true -- however, you can get the evidence and put it on the internet yourself. Take that tape recorder with you and if you get the good stuff -- just send it my way and we will make it available for everyone to hear. Some justice in exposing it yourself. The only other recourse is to file your own private action in a court of law and well that is spendy for the everyday person.

I also agree with Bill that working in pairs gives you more credibility and is safer.

I can't believe they are referring to folks as "local yokels." The only "local yokels" I know live in Clark Fork, Idaho and parts of Bonner County.

Anonymous said...

Bob Holland and his crew are cool!