A A

David Barrett says safety concerns and some people’s irresponsible choices have forced his company to block the public from their property in Lower Sackville.

Cement blocks were placed along the large gravel section, previously Barrett Lumber Company’s logging weigh facility, on Beaver Bank Road earlier this week.

“This has been going on for 16 years,” said the co-owner of the lumber company in a phone interview. “As much as I like to be neighbourly, it was getting out of hand.”

The area had been popular for flea markets, clothing donation bins and as a spot for vehicles to turn around.

Safety complaints started to roll in around 2002, when Barrett received letters from the Halifax Regional Municipality and RCMP, requesting the land no longer be used by the public.

“The concerns raised centre on the number of cars being parked on both sides of Beaver Bank Road during the time of market,” states the letter from HRM.

“But we’re from the country where you don’t hit people over the head, you just work with them,” said Barrett.

So he sat down with two regular vendors, “John the lobster man and the flower family,” to come up with a safe solution. They agreed only four vendors would be allowed at a time and photocopies of the letters would be distributed to everyone else.

“John, as long as he lived, he was good at it. At times people didn’t pay much attention to him, but he passed everybody the letters,” recalled Barrett.

The lobster man patrolled the area for 12 years, but after he passed away the vendors returned in full force.

“When you’re not there, people don’t pay too much attention to you when you stop by,” said Barrett.

The lumber company co-owner then noticed the land was becoming a dumping ground for “not just garbage, but couches too.”

“To top it off, the chap from the HRM gave me a citation,” said Barrett, noting the clean up will cost up to $1,000.

The tipping point came about a month ago, when the co-owner was handing out letters. He noticed a little boy was standing about 20 feet away from the road.

“And then the young fella almost ran out into the road,” Barrett recalled, “so that made it that I had to close it off.”

Closing off the land resulted in the clothing donation bins being moved and items such as used wood pallets are no longer available.

“One single mother was using our wood left there to light her furnace,” he said. “I’m going to try and work with people, but I can’t just go out and do it like I did before.

“It’s just too bad because before everybody used the land, but everybody respected it,” said Barrett. “I guess times are changing.”