A social media post from a downtown food business is the latest to raise concerns about safety and security for business owners and the public in downtown Lloydminster.
The owner of Taco El Habanero Food Truck is thinking of relocating. He posted concerns for his wife’s safety after she was confronted at the food truck on Monday, Aug. 10 by people who reside on benches downtown.
“She was harassed by drug addicts,” says Aristides de Jesus Priego Martinez. “We reported the situation as when we arrived in the Parklet there was almost 20 of them. It was around 9:30, 10:00 a.m. We could not get in to even open the business.”
Taco El Habanero Food Truck has been operating in Lloydminster for nine years with two seasons in the downtown core in the Parklet on 49 Street.
“We called the police. They did not do anything to them. They just asked them to move.”
Martinez says hours later after he left his wife at the food truck, the unhoused people came back to the Parklet.
“They came back to keep drugging themselves. Then they started to harass her. Then they were bugging each customer that came for tacos, asking for money and things like that.”
The RCMP was visiting with Martinez on Tuesday afternoon and foot patrols were heading down the alleyways off 49 Street. The police were unable to attend on Monday.
“They (police) are sorry that they could not handle the situation,” says Martinez. “I think the intention is there but the resources are stretched.”
Martinez says he has picked up knives, needles and other drug paraphernalia from the Parklet near his business. He has also witnessed people having sex behind the bench located across the street from the Parklet. He wants the community to brainstorm some options.
“I think we should patrol as community. We as community we have to face it. We can no longer keep with the mindset of mind your own business,” says Martinez.
He sees Citizens on Patrol being a useful option downtown, even as he contemplates whether the food truck will remain in the Parklet.
“If things as we have witnessed so far are unchanged, then, yes we are going to move.”
Martinez says he will wait a few weeks while he weighs his options to relocate.
MyLloydminsterNow has reached out to the City of Lloydminster for further comment.
Downtown Area Redevelopment Committee
The Downtown Area Redevelopment Committee from its May 5 meeting noted the city’s AGENT program in which businesses authorize municipal officers and RCMP members to act as the property representatives for enforcement purposes.
The city also started its Clean City Team and the Enforcement and Navigation Unit (ENU). The ENU can be contacted at 780-870-0440. The ENU must be contacted for non-emergency issues only.
The May committee session discussed disorder outside the Atrium Centre and Parklet and suggested that the city remove two benches located north of the trees near the Parklet and investigate landscaping changes that could help reduce social disorder in the area.
The committee is also referencing bylaws on loitering, and public nuisance and other strategies used in communities like Wainwright, Cold Lake and Saskatoon.
