Town of Osoyoos director of corporate services Janette Van Vianen (left) accepts a stack of petitions from Jean Clarke while Clarke’s partner Ray Vandenberg looks on. The petitioners want a referendum on a proposed new fire hall. (Richard McGuire photo)
The citizens of Osoyoos have sent a very clear message to members of Town of Osoyoos council and senior administration that they’re very upset with the process used to determine whether or not there is support for a proposed new fire hall in town.
Those were the sentiments of Ray Vandenberg, his life partner Jean Clarke and longtime local resident Sy Murseli, who spearheaded the campaign to get more than 1,000 signatures on a petition voicing opposition to the proposed bylaw to borrow almost $6 million to build a new fire hall in Osoyoos.
Separate petitions organized by Vandenberg and Clarke and another by Murseli were handed over to town staff minutes before the official deadline late Friday afternoon.
More than 1,000 Osoyoos residents signed the petition after council announced its intentions to cancel a scheduled referendum and opt for the Alternate Approval Process, where 10 per cent of citizens (474 Osoyoos residents) would have to sign a petition or council would be given the authority to approve the bylaw.
“It should be quite clear to this council that people are upset with the process adopted by council,” said Vandenberg, a former member of Osoyoos town council who will be opposing incumbent Mayor Stu Wells in the upcoming municipal election on November 15. “The people who signed this petition are upset and believe they should have had their say during a referendum and they were not going to sit back and allow council to get away with sneaking this important issue through the back door.”
Vandenberg said he has lived in Osoyoos for 35 years and has never seen an issue that was so divisive as the building of a new fire hall.
Almost every single person he talked to who signed the petition agrees Osoyoos needs a new fire hall, said Vandenberg.
“But most agree we don’t need a new fire hall at the price being considered by council,” he said. “And they don’t agree with the process used by council and staff to try and get approval to borrow the money.
“They wanted names on a petition so we made damn sure we got those names. Having almost 23 per cent of this town’s population sign a petition should send a very clear message to council that people are upset.”
Vandenberg and Clarke believe the entire fire hall proposal “should be scrapped” and dealt with by the new council that will be elected next month.
“The project should start from scratch and be fully re-tendered at a much lower price,” said Vandenberg. “They just built a brand new fire hall in Nanaimo that had almost all the bells and whistles the one being proposed in Osoyoos would have, but it cost only $3.2 million.
“There’s no reason we can’t build a quality new fire hall at a much more reasonable price than the one they’re talking about for Osoyoos.”
Murseli, who has ran to try and win a seat on Osoyoos council on six previous occasions, agreed local residents are upset about the process used to finance the fire hall and final price tag.
“The bottom line is council and administration tried to pull a fast one on the people of this community and the community fought back,” he said. “We all agree we want a new fire hall in Osoyoos, but most people don’t want a mega fire hall at the prices we’ve been talking about. The message sent today with more than 1,000 people signing this petition is very clear.”
When you factor in land purchase costs and long-term financing, Murseli said the final cost of the new fire hall, as proposed, could rise as high as $10 million.
That is unacceptable for a town this size, he said.
Clarke agrees.
“I think for our little town of 4,800 people to stand up and say ‘no’ is quite remarkable,” she said. “When we were trying to get people to sign the petition, the common response was we don’t want to pay that much money and we don’t like the process used to try and get this thing approved.”
Vandenberg said he’s unwilling to support a project that would take 30 years to pay off.
“I don’t want my grandchildren and their children to have to be faced with this burden,” he said.
Vandenberg, Clarke and Murseli believe local residents will speak loud and clear on November 15 and they have little doubt the majority will vote against the borrowing bylaw to finance the proposed fire hall during the referendum.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
Town of Osoyoos director of corporate services Janette Van Vianen (left) accepts a stack of petitions from Sy Murseli. The petitioners want a referendum on a proposed new fire hall. (Richard McGuire photo)
