A Penhold woman is accusing the town of discriminating against her trailer park after the town cut off access to 15 driveways in Penhold Estates with a new square sidewalk.

Wanda Currie said Tuesday residents were expecting rounded curbs that would still leave access to the trailers along Lucina Street.

Instead, the town sent letters out Sept. 14 announcing square curbs would be poured, eliminating access to driveways.

Currie said there’s a house at the north end of Lucina Street with rounded curbs and driveway access, and expressed disappointment the town couldn’t extend the same courtesy to Penhold Estates.

“We don’t understand why they’re not treating us like everyone else in Penhold. They don’t like the trailer courts, so they are discriminating against us, and why? We’re all hard workers, we fixed up our trailers, we pay taxes like anyone else,” she said.

But Penhold Mayor Julia King insisted town council was more concerned about safety issues when they made the decision to cut off access to the driveways.

“There’s 15 mobile homes on the front of Lucina, so if they’re backing out all the time. We felt it was a major safety issue,” she said.

Construction of a $19-million multiplex in the same area as Penhold Estates should begin next spring, and once the centre is up and running, King said too many cars backing out of driveways along Lucina St. will be dangerous.

“More so than not, everyone has more than one vehicle and that street is going to be in a major recreational area in the future. There’s going to be kids running around,” she said.

King said the town sent letters to Penhold Estates inviting the public to an open house in May, but only two residents showed up for the meeting.

“Since that time they’ve received different letters, they were well advised, and we only had two residents at the meeting. We were there until 8 p.m. I was there, numerous councillors were there. The two residents that actually lived along there, they were cordial with the plans and they said ‘This will enhance the area,’ ” said King.

In fact, since the sidewalk has gone up, King said that people have been calling to thank the town for beautifying the area.

Currie and other residents have made complaints to Penhold chief administrative officer Rick Benedict, but Currie said Benedict told them nothing could be done.

After that, a petition circulated the park, gathering about 130 signatures.

“They’re paving (today) and we would be happy if they could fill concrete in on our driveways, make it rounded and allow us to go over the sidewalk. Some people here have two or three cars and there isn’t enough room to park them on the streets,” she said, adding that the only back alley leading to the rear of the Lucina St. mobile homes has been inaccessible for years.

King said the parking issue is one to take up with the park owner, not the town.

“The residents there, because they are under one landowner, they need to speak with the landowner and ask what provisions they will have with the off-street parking. We’ve actually sent a few letters out now asking the same question,” she said.

Currie said she doesn’t think there’s much residents can do now that the concrete’s been poured, but said some people have been talking about hiring a lawyer.

“If they would have answered us or sent something we would have acted a lot sooner. If we can get something together we’ll probably take it to a lawyer, since this is only happening because we’re a trailer park. They don’t want us here,” she said.

Contact Paige Aarhus at

paarhus@reddeeradvocate.com