Couple face campsite eviction after dispute over sewer line

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This article was published 13/07/2018 (2668 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SOURIS — A couple is set to be evicted from their campground in Souris after a weeks-long dispute with the local volunteer parks board.

Don and Barb Lair were handed eviction notices in June and July after the couple connected their site to the sewer line at the Victoria Park campground.

The Lairs, who have been coming to the campground for more than four years, claim they were given permission to proceed with the work, but have been unable to speak with and resolve the situation with the board since.

The couple asked the Souris-Glenwood council to reconsider the eviction, but the municipality decided not to overrule the board’s decision.

The Lairs have until next Wednesday, July 18, to leave their campsite.

The news of the Lairs’ eviction was first reported by Southwest Post.

“I’ve never been through anything like this before, so I have no idea what our next step is, except for starting to pack up,” Barb said.

The dispute began when a sewer line was connected to several sites in the campground, but came short of the Lairs. The Lairs asked park board chair Phil Dornian if they could do the work themselves, but were told no. Dornian declined to comment for this story.

The couple claim they were given permission from park board member Jim Ludlum and had their site connected in late May. The Lairs did not receive any written confirmation from the board and say Ludlum told them verbally that they could proceed.

Ludlum, meanwhile, denies ever giving the couple permission.

“I know he’s (Don) been telling that story, but I did not,” he said.

On June 11, the Lairs received a letter through registered mail and signed by secretary of the parks board, Cindy Locke, informing them that they were specifically told not to proceed without board approval.

“We just can not have people altering the Park infrastructure at their own will,” the letter read, a copy of which was provided to The Brandon Sun.

The letter continues, saying the Lairs would either have to make a $500 donation to the park by June 30 or remove their camper.

The Lairs have referred to this letter as “blackmail” and have not given any money to the park.

“If we knew how far this was going to go, $500 is nothing,” Barb said. “But in hindsight of losing my sanctuary, all we were trying to do was find out why. What was the $500 for?”

The next month, after trying unsuccessfully to reach members on the parks board, Don ran into Ludlum and his wife in town.

Don confronted Ludlum and told him to “grow some balls” and tell the parks board the truth about what had happened.

Not long after, Don received another letter from the board dated June 20, saying it would not tolerate “aggressive behaviors, verbal abuse or harassment towards staff or board members.”

The Lairs were given 72 hours to remove their camper.

They took their case to the municipality and in a written statement apologized for Don’s previous actions, while asking council to reconsider the eviction.

After meeting with members of the parks board, council decided not to intervene.

“Both sides were quite different,” said Souris-Glenwood Mayor Darryl Jackson.

As Jackson explained, council did not want it to appear as if it was overreaching.

Instead of changing the decision, he said council asked the board to make sure it was comfortable with what it had decided.

“As far as I’m concerned, as head of council, it’s over,” he said.

The Lairs said they have made several changes to their site in the past, including installing a retaining wall and fence, and would have removed the sewer pipe if asked.

The couple says the Victoria Park campground rules, which are posted online, do not require them to get written permission to do any modifications either.

The issue, they say, is that no one from the parks board has spoken to them. But more than anything, they’re disappointed.

“We’ve given them the (benefit of the) doubt trying to be the better person and talk to the town, talk through it,” Don said.

“It just doesn’t seem that they care, it really doesn’t.”

The Lairs have received several letters of support, including one from Kent Kowalchuk, owner of Kowalchuk Construction in Souris, who hauled gravel to the couple’s campsite when they were putting in the sewer pipe.

Kowalchuk said he saw three members of the parks board there when he came and not one told him to stop.

“It’s stupid actually is what I think,” Kowalchuk said, adding the matter could have been straightened out, but was made worse because of egos. “It’s just been a black mark on the Souris campground and on Souris to begin with.”

Souris-Glenwood Coun. Sande Denbow said while she wasn’t taking sides, she was sympathetic to the situation.

“It makes me sad that this has come to this point,” she said.

“There was a lot of miscommunication and a lot of he said, she said, I believe, and I don’t know.”

She suggested the rules be tightened up in order to avoid incidents like these in the future.

As the “eternal optimist,” Denbow said Souris was a welcoming community, but she did not want to shed a bad light onto it.

“I just kind of shake my head because things should never reach to this degree, never.”

» mlee@brandonsun.com

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