Dear Editor:
This letter is written in response to the Letter to the Editor that appeared in the Aug. 26 edition of the Osoyoos Times by previous Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells, who called for a referendum about the future of the Osoyoos Airport.
Former Mayor Jack Shaw and a group of former town councillors believe this call for a referendum is too soon and not necessary.
We, the taxpayers, do not have the information to make a decision of this magnitude for the future of our community.
We urge the current town council to pass a resolution to agree to partner with the Osoyoos Airport Development Society and contribute the $15,000 toward the proposed professional development plan which they have requested from their presentation at the last town council meeting on Aug. 10.
We also believe council should present a letter of support to the society as was requested in January and again in August, which would give the society the authority to apply for grants.
The airport development society was formed by a volunteer group of local business leaders who invested their own money to study the possibility of completing an airport development plan that was originally created by Destination Osoyoos back in 2003.
The airport development plan was divided into four phases and Destination Osoyoos completed the first three phases by using government grants.
The airport society has taken on the task of completing Phase 4, which would be split into four parts that would include security fencing, building a new terminal and improving the runway and parking at a cost of between $300,000 to $400,000.
Completing Phase 4 would make Osoyoos Airport a fully functioning regional airport.
This money could be raised through grants, donations, bequests and fundraisers and not on the back of local taxpayers.
The rest of the development would proceed in later years.
The provincial government announced last year the B.C. On the Move program, which would provide $24 million over three years to invest in improvements for regional and small community airports.
We have already missed out in the first year based on the lack of a letter of support from town council.
Let’s not miss the next two years of available funding.
What we need to be concerned with is the vandalism that has taken place at Osoyoos Airport. The original 11 tiedowns installed in 2006, provide required safety for airplanes to stay, have been torn up with cable lying on the ground. This should be investigated and reinstalled.
As Wells said in his letter, “The long term approach is much superior to the wishes of a one-term elected council.”
He should have followed that advice himself. Instead, he decided the airport could be used as an industrial park and as the new home for the Home Building Centre, as well as another manufacturer that was strongly considering establishing in Osoyoos.
In November of 2014, it was announced by the newly-elected council that they were looking into possibly repurposing the property and passed a resolution in January to officially look at this option.
If this were to happen, the town’s airport designation would be lost forever.
This came as a total shock to the airport development society and many supporters as there are other industrial lots available in the current industrial park, near the airport runway.
It was shortly after this event that Home Building Centre management refused to relocate to the five industrial lots they have purchased adjacent to the airport and the manufacturer in talks with the town disappeared into the void.
The town then extended the lease for the Home Building Centre for five more years, putting the proposed new home for the Osoyoos Museum in limbo.
It’s time for Osoyoos to put an “open for business” sign on the town’s front door.
Thankfully, later in the spring, town council voted to cancel its plans to repurpose airport lands for industrial use.
That was a good first move.
We have knowledge that several businesses and individuals have approached the town office to relocate or start up their own aviation-related business.
These inquiries were not acted upon or the business owners were told the town didn’t want hangars at the airport.
Why do you want to develop more industrial land that will cost taxpayers money, while turning away business the airport property was designed for?
That’s dumb.
The Osoyoos Airport provides an amenity to this community that checks all the boxes.
It provides the ability to assist in healthcare (medical evacuation services), safety (aircraft fueling as seen during our recent wildfire crisis), tourism (charter and private planes), education (bringing awareness of the aviation industry to the young people in our community with fly ins) and economics (job creation with new hangar business or charters that transport workers to other areas).
No other amenity in our community can provide all of this for us.
What we really should do is go back to past growth. In the 1960s, when the town wanted a golf course, donations from businesses and private residents were solicited and paid whether contributors knew anything about golf or not.
The planning committee then started building the clubhouse, fairways and greens were built and helped create the huge asset we have today.
All of this was managed by the Osoyoos Golf Club Society with no cost to local taxpayers.
We have aviation people in this town. Can this upgrade work for them? We believe so.
It’s up to the town to help the development society by helping them obtain funding grants, be involved in lane usage and to work with knowledgeable, financially-capable people in the airport industries who want to invest and move here.
This can be a win-win situation. We have done it before.
We urge our mayor and councillors to remember decisions they make now affect the future of this community and all of its citizens and we urge them to get involved in the professional, independent business plan to intelligently guide their future decisions over our airport.
Negativity has never built a thing.
Thank you.
Jack Shaw, former mayor
Stan Stodola, former councillor
Dave Porteous, former councillor
Virginia Cook, former councillor
Walter Cook, longtime Osoyoos realtor
Barbara Porteous, longtime Osoyoos resident
