Troublesburgh

Bayfield to respond to neighbours’ heightened worries

The neighbours of six youth homes scattered across Ameliasburgh have fresh worries about their safety and security—just days before the chief operating officer of Bayfield Treatment Centres is to appear before a committee of council.

A week ago Monday, just after 9 p.m. a 15-yearold male slipped away undetected from one of Bayfield’s group homes, this one located on County Road 28, south of Rossmore.

The youth then entered nearby private residences while the occupants were at home. In one case the youth walked into an unlocked home without knocking and asked the resident for a glass of water. He left a few minutes later. The youth then entered another unlocked home and stole a cell phone from a purse. The resident was home but unaware the male had been inside.

Just after midnight a Prince Edward OPP officer observed the suspect hiding near a tree on the property of another County Road 28 residence and subsequently arrested him.

A variety of stolen personal items was found in his pockets. The suspect also had a stolen child’s bicycle with him.

The accused, a 15-year-old male from Ameliasburgh, was kept in custody and brought to bail court in Belleville yesterday to answer a series of charges.

Police asked nearby residents to check their property for missing items or damage. Police further urged residents to lock their homes and cars and store all possessions securely, even if they are home.

It is just the latest black eye for Bayfield Treatment Centres, an organization that has struggled in recent years to curb vandalism, theft and breakand- enter crimes by youths living and receiving treatment at its six facilities in Ameliasburgh.

Just last month several area homeowners went to Shire Hall to tell their stories of vandalized homes, stolen property and graffiti-stained vehicles.

One Carrying Place resident described coming home to find that his home had been ransacked— every drawer dumped on the floor, water left running until the well was dry and butcher knives poised and concealed beneath sheets in each of the beds. The home invaders had the time, however, to visit and update their Facebook pages on the computer in the residence—making it easy to later identify the young offenders.

Other neighbours complain of inadequate security measures maintained by Bayfield. Some worry the facility has taken on too many children for this size of community. They also suggest the province is putting higher risk kids in this community with a broader goal of deinstitutionalizing youth offenders in its care.

Most neighbours understand that this community has a responsibility to help these children—but many feel Ameliasburgh residents are being asked to bear too great a burden—particularly on behalf of a for-profit commercial business.

They want the municipality to regulate such facilities, arguing that any other commercial business would be precluded from operating in a residential area; particularly one that risks interfering with the enjoyment of private property.

Bayfield’s lawyers told council in May his client is a good corporate citizen and asked for the opportunity to address council this week to provide a “more fulsome response” to the concerns levelled toward the facility by its Ameliasburgh neighbours.

These residents say Bayfield has responded effectively to issues and damage, but they want to see more done to prevent the children in its care from fleeing these facilities and bad things happening—before they happen.

“Police have responded to more than 100 calls related to Bayfield homes in the past two years,” said Michael McCartney, a Scoharie Road resident whose home was vandalized earlier this year by children on the run from Bayfield. “We have to find solutions. They care for 100 clients. Is this too many?”

Many of the neighbours will be in Shire Hall this Thursday to hear what Bayfield has to say to them.