Three tickets were handed out by bylaw enforcement in 2017 - all for parking violations.
Jeff Shemilt, coordinator of community and corporate services for Keremeos, said the village’s approach is to educate residents first and ticket only when necessary.
“The majority of our efforts is public awareness. We wrote 200 to 300 warning tickets and put flyers on vehicles parked in parking lots overnight,” he said.
Of those three tickets, one was voided and the other two were issued for parking in prohibited areas. One was issued because a van was parked in a prohibited area and people were living in the vehicle. Despite warnings being left the vehicle did not get moved and was eventually impounded.
“We try to be sympathetic because we know there are people that come here to work,” he said.
The village made the decision to impound the vehicle after the warnings were given, ticket written, letter sent to the vehicle owner and discussions with those living in the van.
Although only the three tickets were given, 89 complaints were received for bylaw infractions in 2017 down from 94 the year prior. Two files are still outstanding but the rest were looked into and no tickets issued.
The complaints breakdown as follows:
Two complaints were received for dog issues down from five in 2016. Sixty-one complaints came in about property maintenance standards up from 58 received in 2016. Four zoning issue complaints were filed, six in 2017; nine traffic violation, eight in 2016; zero burning complaints, two in 2016; two noise complaints compared to six in 2016; and three dogs were impounded compared to eight dogs in 2016.