Dear Editor
I am an 80-year-old widow living at Valley View Tower II. Before retiring I worked as a registered nurse for 42 year – 38 of those years at Cut Knife. I have worked with all kinds of people and have gotten along very well with every one. As a nurse I worked in a very structured environment. Policies, procedure and practices were followed to the letter. I know what good management looks like and I know an incompetent manager when I see one.
What we have here in the Battlefords Housing Authority is the picture of incompetence.
The staff at the housing authority are excellent. Maintenance is top notch. The administrative staff is courteous and efficient. And, tenant relations staff are first class. I have never heard an ill comment from anyone about how the women in tenant relations do their job. What I can’t believe is how they stay there. They hear complaints every day about the goings on in this and other buildings.
I have talked with the manager well over a dozen times and he just doesn’t get it. I even called him at home one night and talked with him for almost an hour about a situation that was occurring in the building. I told him to come down and see it for himself and he refused.
I have personally called the RCMP more than two dozen times about various disturbances. I know many of them on a first name basis. They have attended this building at least a hundred times in the last six months and hauled away countless troublemakers. I have found drunks sleeping in the laundry room and the third floor lounge many times.
My neighbour has countless pot parties in the middle of the night and what appear to be prostitutes and street people are common visitors to my floor. Just last week I was awakened at 3 a.m. by a loud pot party. I banged on their door to see a blanket across the bottom of the door and six or more stoned female visitors dancing with my neighbour. I told them to shut up and get the hell out.
When I report any of these occurrences to the office, I am told to write it up and they will look into it. When I talk with the manager about it, he tells me they can’t prove it and everyone deserves a second chance.
Everyone in this building is sick and tired of the disgusting lack of management. Last week a handful of us received letters from the manager telling us we had been nominated to sit on a committee to draft a code of conduct for our building. No one I have talked with wants anything to do with it.
We have enough rules in this building. All we want is a manager who will apply the rules we have and give us back our peaceful and happy retirement community. I don't think that’s too much to ask for what are supposed to be our golden years.
Natalie Berrecloth
RN (Retired)
North Battleford
