Keith Lacey (Richard McGuire file photo)

After nearly six and a half years as editor of the Osoyoos Times, Keith Lacey is leaving to pursue a new career path.

His last day at the Osoyoos Times is Wednesday, Feb. 28.

Lacey is moving to a not-yet-launched online publication covering the Penticton area called Penticton Now. It’s an offshoot of Kelowna Now, which has been publishing since 2012.

For the past five years, Lacey has been living in Penticton and commuting to his job in Osoyoos. He welcomes the chance to work from his home.

He said he loves Penticton and plans to live there the rest of his life.

“My better half Sandy lives there and we obviously have future plans,” he said. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my six and a half years here in Osoyoos, but I was looking at other opportunities.”

Lacey said his new job will allow him to do what he enjoys most – interviewing interesting people and writing articles. As an online publication, layout of pages will no longer be part of his job.

The native of Sudbury, Ontario has been working in journalism since 1984, when he graduated from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University).

His first job was at a newspaper in the small northern Ontario town of New Liskeard where he earned an annual salary of just $9,000.

After a stint in Cornwall, Ontario writing sports, he ended up back in Sudbury, where he worked 20 years at Northern Life – first in sports and later becoming a senior reporter covering city hall and other major stories.

Lacey was publisher of the Bonnyville, Alberta Nouvelle, for 11 months prior to coming to Osoyoos in December 2011.

“I knew after about eight months that I didn’t like being a publisher,” said Lacey. “I missed writing.”

Lacey was hired as editor of the Osoyoos Times by former owner Chris Stodola, allowing him to get back into writing.

“Writing feature stories about people is my favourite thing,” he said. “It always has been. I love writing sports. Sports is a passion of mine.”

Lacey is an avid player of squash and hockey and he also enjoys golf.

He’s enjoyed writing about seniors, who open up and tell their stories. But the job has also entailed writing about “the bad stuff.”

“It’s never been a pleasure to write about car accidents or criminals or people going to jail,” he said. “But it is part of the job. I enjoy writing about people – especially nice people.”

For a town of 5,000 people, Osoyoos always has stuff going on, he said.

“In six and a half years, I’ve never once struggled to fill the paper with content,” he said.

Among his most memorable stories were the threatened closure of Osoyoos Secondary School in 2016 and the wildfires of 2015.

Lacey said he was impressed at the way virtually the entire Osoyoos community pulled together to fight the school closure.

The wildfires in all directions that led to evacuations and highway closures made a strong impression.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Lacey. “It was scary to come into town. You thought people were going to get killed. They didn’t, thank God. I’ll never forget that.”

Lacey said he’s enjoyed working with all his colleagues at the Osoyoos Times.

“We have a great crew,” he said. “We get along well. We put out a good paper and it’s the best crew I’ve ever worked with. It’s been a blast. Six and a half years went by in a blink of an eye. I got to come to the Okanagan and I’m never leaving.”

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times