The Oliver Library offers much more than its Wi-Fi service but it seems like some crowds are just there for the free Internet – especially in the summertime – so the Town teamed up with Parks and Rec to transmit free Wi-Fi from Lion’s Park, which gives web surfers an alternative to the library.

“The goal is to alleviate some of the stress that’s put on the library by tourists and agricultural workers,” said interim recreation manager Natalie Korsovetski, who’s also a member of the Lion’s Park Action Committee.

“We expressed interest in having Wi-Fi after noticing the agriculture workers that spend their time at the park,” she said. “We approached council to see if they’d be interested in sharing the costs because of the large number of tourists that use Lion’s Park.”

Korsovetski said the Town of Summerland took a similar approach of offering free Wi-Fi on one of its highway pulloffs. “And as far as I understand it has been a success.”

To begin the pilot project, the Wi-Fi was installed last week and will be active until the end of September. But because the fruit-picking and tourism season is more than half over, this year’s date won’t be enough to analyze, so the project will go again next summer to compare data year-over-year more accurately.

“The seasonal workers are gone so it’s hard to do a full study this year,” she said.

Once a full comparison can be made, Korsovetski is hoping it will show the Lion’s Park service to be well-used, and the strain on the library to be lesser.

“Then we’ll decide if it was worthwhile to the costs. If we find only a couple people are using it then it’s not really worth it.”

Korsovetski said the Wi-Fi isn’t for any one demographic, but for locals, tourists and seasonal workers, and she suspects tourists will be the most frequent users.

A few days after the installation of Wi-Fi at Lion’s Park, librarian Vicky White said she hasn’t noticed a decrease in Wi-Fi use at the library.

She said the idea of offering Wi-Fi at Lion’s Park to ease library congestion has been discussed for years, as complaints are frequent and the high volumes of traffic put considerable strain on the server.

Beyond the greater amounts of bandwidth consumed, the habits of
Wi-Fi users at the library were also causing some concern. In years past the library’s Wi-Fi was available 24 hours per day, and that seems to have encouraged transient workers to spend their nights camped on the library’s property.

“Last year we made the decision to turn off the Wi-Fi at 10 p.m. until 7 a.m., and that made a huge change as to activity at the library at night,” White said. “The decision of the Town was that Wi-Fi at Lion’s Park was a service they could offer to the transient population coming through.”

White said the months of May and June are the most intense on Wi-Fi usage, but until five or six years ago, Wi-Fi abuse wasn’t a problem because users were required to ask staff for a password, which deterred the service’s popularity.

White said installing Wi-Fi at Lion’s Park is worth a try, but she thinks that library amenities like air conditioning and comfortable chairs will make it tough for some Internet seekers to migrate to the park.

“It’s apples and oranges,” she said. “But good for tourists.”

The Town covered the $300 cost of installing the Wi-Fi, and is splitting the $85 monthly charge with Parks and Rec.

DAN WALTON

Oliver Chronicle