Tru Market, the Kamloops mayor’s used automotive dealership, stays closed months after his election. It isn’t clear when he’ll open it once more.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

March 25, 2023 – 7:00 AM

The proprietor of a used automotive lot in Kamloops cites the almost 100 instances he is reported crime and vandalism at his enterprise when requested about its efficient closure. 

The lot is empty. Bringing in additional autos merely invitations extra harm and prices more cash in his eyes, so there’s little level in conserving stock.

“I used to have anyplace from 30 to 50 automobiles, all late-model with one proprietor,” he stated. “All people downtown has had this expertise. It is most likely why I am the mayor right this moment.”

Reid Hamer-Jackson usually repeats the actual fact he has 95 “police recordsdata” with Kamloops RCMP, but it surely’s a quantity he talked about months earlier than the October election. He is since both stopped counting or stopped reporting to the detachment.

Hamer-Jackson has stored the entrance door to Tru Market Truck and Auto Gross sales locked — prospects are by appointment solely — for 3 years on a property he is owned for greater than 20. He sells pre-owned autos, starting from SUVs and sports activities automobiles to bucket vans. Now there’s only one car on the lot on the market and one other he owns personally.

His frustration is ultimately what made him run for mayor. There’s been virtually no autos on the lot since earlier than the election as he steadily resorted to easily ordering autos on buyer demand.

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“There is not any level. They only get vandalized or torched,” he stated, referring to an SUV that was lit on fireplace at his Victoria Avenue West dealership simply days after he was elected.

Since his election on Oct. 15, Tru Market is successfully closed, however Hamer-Jackson stated he nonetheless plans to rent somebody to handle the enterprise whereas he is in workplace. He did have an worker lined up for after the election, but it surely’s not clear what occurred to that association.

Hamer-Jackson is not the one enterprise proprietor on the road grappling with the stress and prices of crime, and he pointed to his neighbours within the space reasonably than his personal expertise.

“The one factor that is modified is issues have gotten worse,” Steve Smoliak of Boomers Auto Middle stated when requested how crime on the road has advanced prior to now three years.

Somebody just lately broke into the roof and stole insulation, simply the newest in a sequence of break-ins, fires on the property and theft over the previous few years.

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Simply this month, Spoke Bike and Ski had its third tried break-in over the previous yr. The Enterprise rental lot will not maintain giant vans on its lot as a result of catalytic converters might be stolen. Totem Metropolis Motors stopped conserving motorhomes on the property as a result of employees usually discovered individuals making properties inside them.

These companies aren’t the one ones going through challenges, with extra east of 1 Avenue additionally going through vandalism and crime within the downtown core, Downtown Kamloops government director Howie Reimer informed Metropolis council at a January assembly.

Nevertheless, Hamer-Jackson sees Victoria Avenue West as an epicentre for felony behaviour and social points, the place there are two homeless day areas, two homeless shelters and a supportive housing web site on the stretch from metropolis corridor to Overlander’s Bridge.

Individuals experiencing homelessness gave iNFOnews.ca a couple of names some use for Victoria Avenue West, like “Skid Row” and the “Inexperienced Mile.”

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Hamer-Jackson usually claims he was the rationale the world had a safety firm posted to patrol the road after calling B.C. Housing employees in 2020.

“Hastily my (surveillance) cameras gentle up at evening and it is safety jackets, not buggies and fires,” he stated.

It did not resolve the issues at his enterprise, but it surely stored among the vandalism at bay.

Considered one of his solutions to the issue has been to push Kamloops metropolis council to think about a drug restoration facility outdoors town’s core since not less than 2021.

That effort was shot down by the earlier council and once more to this point below his lead as mayor, however he continues to advocate for drug recovery-focused approaches for drug customers in Kamloops.

Whereas he leads town as mayor, Hamer-Jackson is unlikely to reopen his enterprise on his personal. It is successfully closed and he solely sometimes steps foot inside.

Hamer-Jackson has owned the property for the reason that mid-Nineteen Nineties and stated he has no plans to promote it whereas he is in workplace.

To contact a reporter for this story, e-mail Levi Landry or name 250-819-3723 or e-mail the editor. You may as well submit images, movies or information tricks to the newsroom and be entered to win a month-to-month prize draw.

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