Clean-up commitment
CEO of national mobile home company vows to remove trailer and get rid of scrap metal pile
The national owner of a mobile home community in Charlottetown has committed to cleaning up one of its properties in East Royalty.
Mark Kenney, president and chief executive officer of Capreit (Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust), told The Guardian on Thursday his company will be acting quickly on a couple of issues that were brought to The Guardian’s attention by the public.
Capreit manages the Riverview Estates subdivision just off Acadian Drive in Charlottetown. Across from that subdivision on Longboat Drive is a property the company uses to store homes that have been removed from Riverview Estates or are about to go into the subdivision.
That property also abuts Andrews Pond and a trail system that circles the pond. Recently, someone who was exploring the trail system came upon the property and noticed that one of the two mobile homes being stored on the site had not only fallen into disrepair but the siding had been completely ripped off in places. The person also noticed a pile of scrap metal at the back of the property.
Kenney said one of the two mobile homes sitting on the site is schedule to be moved into Riverview Estates soon. He added that he will personally see to it that the home that has fallen into disrepair will be addressed immediately.
“We will absolutely follow that up,’’ he said from Toronto. “That is a derelict home that we’ve just been unable to get to. There is one (mobile home) hauler in P.E.I., and we’ve been unable to get that hauler, but the idea is to get that home removed. We will not be fixing it, but we can secure it. The idea is to get that (home) out of there as soon as we possibly can.’’
While Kenney was on the phone with The Guardian, he called a company staff person in P.E.I., Carmen Perez, to see what the situation was.
Perez said a hauler has been scheduled to remove the derelict home from the site next week. In the meantime, Perez said he would have staff go over and secure the home so it doesn’t become a safety issue.
“As far as security, I will have our staff go over there and ensure that the doors and windows are all boarded shut,’’ Perez said.
As for the scrap metal pile, Perez said those items are part of a regular pickup and will be removed on Friday. Kenney added there may have been a delay in removing those items due to the ongoing situation with the pandemic.
“We don’t know the source of that and we will investigate that and commit to the community to cleaning it up. That is not acceptable,’’ Kenney said.