4. OPEN FORUM 08-18-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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41 ,ndb U-7� + 1. Good evening city council members and Mayor Dietz, 1 am here tonight as a representative of the Pascal Street neighborhood. Over the past 16 months our once quiet, middleclass, CRIME FREE neighborhood has been poisoned by criminal activity perpetrated by the residents of 19055 Pascal St. On the morning of May 13, 2013, while we were having breakfast, driving our children to school or heading off to work, we witnessed the SWAT team; ERPD, St. Cloud Violent Offenders Task Force, Child Protection and Sherburne County Drug Task Force execute a drug raid; serve outstanding felony arrest warrants, remove several firearms as well as several children from this residence. As a result of this action we discovered who was really living next door on our nice quiet street in Elk River, a level two sex offender, an arsonist, a burglar and drug dealers. We like most up standing citizens thought "Great" the police did their job and now they will go to prison. Oh how naive we were, they were out of Sherburne County jail and back in our neighborhood with in DAYS! In the months that followed we the honest hard working residence of Elk River were sentenced to months of drug deals on our street, drug paraphi!ia in our yards, acts of animal cruelty, child endangerment, gun shots, domestic violence, assaults, harassment, intimidation, threats, and an increase in suspicious traffic, not to mention a tremendous decrease in our property values. Never being faced with this in the past 25 years of being a resident of Elk River we discussed our concerns with the Chief of Police, the Mayor, the City Attorney, our Ward Representative Stewart Wilson and the City Building Code enforcement department. On the recommendation of the Chief of Police we organized a neighborhood watch group and stepped up our awareness of suspicious activities. We worked tirelessly for months with the ERPD,we have made countless 911 calls, we even assisted in the apprehension and arrest of Andrew Newell on an outstanding felony drug warrant, we have gone above and beyond to reclaim our neighborhood. We have been told that there have been an estimated 300 calls regarding suspicious or illegal activity associated with the property at 19055 Pascal St. and that we are the most patrolled neighborhood in Elk River. Recently it appears that the house has become abandoned, we occasionally see beat up cars drive up and drive off with unsavory looking people in them. P&Jj) jh �hat v!!e� ===Oe re J gkg iipalb wity. To enlighten you as to the conditions of the house at one point ELEVEN dogs, three goats, two cats and eight people lived in this house single family home. At the time the property was abandoned they left the property unsecured, ankle deep in garbage, holes in the walls, garage doors broken, smashed abandoned vehicle in the front yard, old mattresses stacked on the side of the house along with, broken TV's, couches, broken glass shower door, four large garbage cans over