https://www.facebook.com/pg/disgustedwiththis/posts/?ref=page_internal
If this doesn't get cleaned up - it's all going straight downriver as soon as the snowmelt starts, baby! Hopefully someone will invent hypodermic needle proof water shoes to protect all of the kids wading on PS beaches with the thousands of needles make their migration into the sound in the spring! Be sure to remove any valuables, hubcaps, antennae, catalytic converters on your shuttle rig if you are taking out at the Lewis street bridge!
Anyone involved with law/code enforcement have any idea how this could persist for this long?
"I took this video Today Jan. 24th 2017 Southeast of the Lewis Street Bridge, right next to our home and place of business.
We walked the entire area with a reporter from our local paper The Monroe Monitor.
I would like to clarify a few things here: it has been over 8 years now that all of this started with a handful of vagrants squatting here next to us on our neighbor's property. Then gradually over time more and more squatters/drug addicts started coming and were bringing in stolen materials and items donated from our community.
They were coming and going 24 hours a day on bicycles, in vehicles, in run down motorhomes and on motorcycles that were stolen and had no license plates. The property owner was letting all of these people squat on his property and was refusing to work with law enforcement in regard to the crime and drug use and drug trafficking. As of approximately 3 months ago law enforcement was trying to get the property owner to Sign a No Tresspass order which would legally allow Law Enforcement to evict the squatters from our neighbor's property along the Skykomish Riverbanks and therefore a Hazmat Team could be called in to professionally clean the area and make it safe again for humans, Wildlife and the environment as a whole.
My husband would call the property owner when we had a major problem here to let him know what was going on and he would do absolutely nothing.
The property owner was paying them to work his fields and letting them squatt on his property. He was letting them live in his agricultural work sheds and if the squatters had a vehicle, he was letting them sleep in their vehicle. He was letting one woman named Christine trim his Christmas trees and live in his work shed right behind our barn, we had to call 911 one night because she was screaming at the top of her lungs like she was being attacked. Come to find out Yes, that's exactly what was happening..... one of the guys that he was letting live in his truck and also in his field was beating the living hell out of her. Unfortunately this guy was found in his truck on Lewis Street deceased from an overdose a year or so ago.
The drug addicts that he was letting work and live on his property were stealing from us and our customers. They were siphoning gas out of a gas tanks & stealing anything that they could cash in by recycling.
They would leave garbage on the side of the road and at the stop sign on 168th and Highway 203. It was a complete nightmare. Our neighbor owns approximately 300 acres around us. We own 7 Acres here with approximately 325' of Riverfront on the beautiful Skykomish River.
We have lived here for a little over 8 years now and also have created a business here that caters to our community.
I don't think the squatters/drug addicts knew where our property lines were, or simply didn't care. When we caught them on our property we would kindly ask them to leave and not come back but they told us that they thought it was our neighbor's property. They told us that they were told that he owned our property and buildings as well. WRONG.
We would catch the squatters filling up their water jugs behind our place of business from our water faucets and they were using our Sani- can as well. One female tweaker drove into our private driveway one Sunday morning in her Red Van and parked right beside our Sanican. We watched her get out of her van from our bedroom window. She was completely naked from the waist down.
My husband called 911,the Sheriff was in the area at the time therefore he was here in a few minutes. He pulled her over on 168th Street in front of our home, spoke to her for approximately 2 minutes and then they both drove away. When I approached her after she had gotten back to her Van I could barely understand her response to me. She was high on something and could not sit still and did alot of mumbling & slurring of her words. We were a little surprised that Law enforcement simply just let her drive away. We felt that she was definitely a danger and should not have been able to Simply drive away.
The squatters dogs would come onto our property during events we had here and at all times of the day. One of the vagrants named Steve who has been squatting on our neighbor's property for a good 8 years had a Pitbull named "Rebellious " who almost attacked me 3 years ago. The dog had me trapped up against our business advertising sign. I was changing tge letters for an event that we had coming up. "Rebellious" acted like he was going to attack me. The louder I screamed for Steve to come get his dog the closer the dog would inch towards me. Steve was yelling for his dog to come, but the dog was not responding to his commands. I was terrified to say the least. Animal control came out and took the dog but he had an another one in a few days.
My husband and I would call law enforcement every other day, sometimes a few times a day. We were always told by the Snohomish County Sheriff Department that their "hands were tied". Their hands were tied because we do not have laws In-Place to arrest obvious drug dealing that is going on right in front of your eyes. And the major, biggest problem that they told us was that when they contacted our neighbor who owns the property, he refused to do anything about it, he told the sheriff to leave the vagrants alone and that he was NOT concerned with them.
My husband and I live right next door to this hell hole. This video shows only one of several areas on our neighbor's property that the squatters were living on. Sergeant Ian Huri from the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department tried for a couple of weeks to get the property owner to sign a No Trespass order. But Law enforcement told us that they couldn't get him to answer the door. The owners live Approximately .07 miles south from here on Highway 203. He and his wife drive by here (our home) 3 to 4 times a day to lock their Gates.
In the 3rd week of November 2016
I notified the Washington State Department of Ecology & filed a report online sending photo's and a video that we had seen first hand to Yvonne Kicken (her contact information is here on our page) from the Department of Ecology, she responded quickly to my complaint & notified the Snohomish County Health Department, Jeff Ketcham and Kevin Plumel, Don Hallwich & Jon Greninger
and the Snohomish County Code enforcement officer assigned to this case, Stephanie Lyon via Email and cc'd me. NEITHER department has yet to come out here to walk the riverfront to see the devastation. I was told that they don't physically need to come out here and look at it.
Not getting anywhere with the Snohomish County Health Department or Code Enforcement I then called and emailed our State Senator Kirk Pearson's office. I have been working with Kirk Pearson's Legislative Assistant Cameron Bailey.
THEY ANSWER THEIR PHONE AND CALL YOU BACK WHEN THEY SAY THEY WILL!
When the river Rises (which it does every year) all of the things that you see in the video will end up in the river. Since we live Approximately 20' from this hell hole there's a good chance that it will also end up on our property if it's not professionally cleaned up by a HazMat team before the river rises.
There are drug needles, drug paraphernalia, used condoms, adult diapers "Depends" full of human feces that are thrown on the ground and in the trees and shrubs, Oil drums, so many small propane tanks that I can't count, big half gallon glass & plastic liquor bottles, cans of food from our local Community Food Bank, numerous tents, sleeping bags, mattresses, blanklets, pillows, tarps, clothing etc. I lost count of all the tents and sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, coats, but the clothing, clothing clothing! Wow! There are stolen bicycle parts, Signs and Banners that were stolen from local businesses here in town, a lot of plastic tarps and plastic garbage bags...... I could go on and on.
I was told by two squatters that we ran into on Monday that both sides south of the Lewis Street Bridge were full of heroin addicts.
He told me that the southwest side at the bridge (which is on private property as well) was use more for shooting up heroin and drug use and that the Eastside of the bridge had more dangerous chemicals all over. I asked him what kind of chemicals? He told me, well, spray cans of paint, all sizes and types of propane tanks, different kind of oils and gasoline. I knew that he was telling me the truth because we knew it. We saw it with our own eyes.
When you stop and talk to some of the squatters they will talk your ear off. They will tell you who was doing what and when and will give you names of who was squatting there and causing problems. I would assume that they are also telling Law Enforcement the same things that they were telling me.
We heard a man screaming obscenities as we were walking from one Camp to another following the trails. He told us that his name was Mark Wright. He also said, can I help you? I told him that we were just walking through and I kindly asked him if he was okay? He told us that he was really mad because he was looking for his thing and he thought someone stole his things. He was very mad and very upset. He went on to tell me a few other things before I wished him well and said goodbye. He was fully aware of the No Tresspass order but didn't care, he wanted to get his things. The owner of the property finally Signed the no Trespass order but under certain conditions......
The condition was that no one would be evicted unless they have a place to go. Law enforcement accompanied by a social worker gave the squatters 30 days to get out.
This social worker handed out paperwork to everyone giving them a place to go and a number to call to get into treatment.
The original deadline to vacate the property and take their belongings with them was December 15th 2016. They were given another 30 days so that took it to January 15th 2017. Sargent Ian HURI from the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department arrived with three other officers to visit the site to see if everyone was out. I have not talked to the sergeant since then so I don't know what came of it. But I do know when we were there 2 days ago on Jan. 24th two squatters were there, one was looking for his things and the other told me he was still living there and pointed to a pile of furniture were he was sleeping.
These squatters and drug addicts are very familiar with all of these laws that a government has. There are four piles of furniture directly underneath the Lewis Street Bridge that squatters are living in. I think they're fully aware that they are squatting on DOT property. Therefore DOT would have to legally evict them with a No Trespass order to get them off the property. I will make the phone call to DOT"
