Jason Jennings and Coreena Fletcher enjoy a paddleboard outing with their rescue dog, Molson. The couple has invested more than $100,000 in their stand-up paddle business, but they are questioning whether they want to remain in Osoyoos if harassment continues next year. (Photo supplied)
A dispute between two Osoyoos paddleboard companies has escalated to the point that RCMP are involved and the owner of one of the businesses – Bodhi’s Beach Hut – is now banned from Gyro and Cottonwood beaches until the end of September.
The owners of 3 Phase Adventures, which purchased concessions from the town for $5,600 to offer board rentals at both beaches, claim to have experienced extreme and repeated harassment by Chelsey Ogilvy, the owner of Bodhi’s Beach Hut.
Last month Osoyoos RCMP served Ogilvy with an expulsion letter warning she could face serious charges if she steps onto either beach. The town and police normally use expulsion letters to deal with transients who cause problems.
Coreena Fletcher, who owns 3 Phase Adventures with her husband Jason Jennings, claims that she and her young staff have been repeatedly spat at, sworn at, followed and intimidated.
Once Ogilvy followed her to her East Bench home in the evening leading her to phone 9-1-1 for RCMP assistance, said Fletcher.
Town staff is being tight-lipped about the dispute despite receiving numerous emails from Fletcher and Jennings complaining about Ogilvy’s actions.
When the Osoyoos Times requested copies of the correspondence, the town took the unusual step of requiring the newspaper to file a formal freedom of information request. The town had 30 days to respond to the request, but last week they sent a letter denying the request for the correspondence and citing privacy reasons.
The Osoyoos Times tried to speak to both companies, but only 3 Phase Adventures agreed to be interviewed.
Their story has been corroborated in interviews with other witnesses including staff, customers and bystanders.
Ogilvy was twice offered a chance to give her side of the story, but declined.
Her husband, Blake Ogilvy, once called The Osoyoos Times on his wife’s behalf.
“So in other words what you’re saying is I’d better go talk to my lawyer and see how that’s going to work out with you guys printing a story with us not wanting to get involved in it,” he said when told the paper considered the story newsworthy.
Asked about the dispute and Osoyoos RCMP involvement, Cpl. Jason Bayda would not discuss specifics but gave a general reply.
“I can confirm we are aware of a dispute between two businesses, however, at this time I cannot confirm the names of the businesses or those involved,” Bayda said in an emailed reply in late August. “No charges have been laid. As in many events when police are called to a disturbance, we do what we can to mitigate the situation as well as educate those involved of the possible criminal charges should things escalate. The situation we have been dealing with is being monitored by our detachment.”
Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells confirmed that Osoyoos RCMP were involved in this dispute, which he said stretched back to last year.
This year the town more clearly spelled out the geographic areas on the beaches where 3 Phase Adventures can operate its concessions, but that hasn’t resolved the problems, he said.
“It is the classic case of ‘he said, she said,’ and lots of times there hasn’t been witnesses,” said Wells, suggesting it’s a personal dispute.
Barry Romanko, the Town of Osoyoos chief administrative officer, was reluctant to discuss the town’s actions in the dispute.
“We have done what we can with the tools we have,” he said.
While the town can establish conditions prior to issuing a business license, he said, it couldn’t revoke the license afterwards due to a business’s practices.
Bodhi’s Beach Hut does not have a concession to operate stands at either beach, but it can deliver to the beach any paddleboards previously ordered by its customers.
During Ogilvy’s expulsion from the beaches, other staff must complete board deliveries.
Jennings said his company originally delivered boards last year, but as a goodwill gesture to Ogilvy, they decided last year only to rent from their stand and not to do deliveries.
“We stopped delivering boards because it was kind of her thing, so to help support her, we stopped doing that part of the business so her business could flourish a little bit,” he said. “We weren’t trying to compete with her.”
Jennings and Fletcher insist all the harassment has been directed at them, even though Ogilvy has also complained of harassment and has called police when Jennings and Fletcher drove past her shop on Hwy. 3 on the town’s east side.
“We have to emphasize that nothing has ever happened from us or our staff to ever justify this action,” said Jennings. “We’ve never threatened her, we didn’t even speak to her, we completely ignore her. We’ve given our staff detailed instructions not to get involved, not to acknowledge her or say anything. We have no idea where this unbelievable aggression comes from. We have been nothing but professional, ethical, respectful and polite.”
Jennings and Fletcher said Ogilvy has told them Osoyoos is ‘her town,’ suggesting they shouldn’t do business here as they’re not originally from this community.
Fletcher said Ogilvy has repeatedly come by 3 Phase’s stand at Cottonwood beach and has intimidated her and the young staff.
She and staff have been sworn at repeatedly and called profanities and have been spat at, they said.
She said Ogilvy has brought her dog to their concession and they felt intimidated. The couple showed the Osoyoos Times photographs of several incidents. Dogs are not permitted on Cottonwood Beach.
“I called bylaw on the dog,” said Fletcher. “She walked through our tent and let the dog sniff us.”
As a result, the couple had to hire a young man for security at additional expense and shut down their concession at Gyro Beach, even though they had paid to operate there.
Confrontations this summer escalated through July and reached a peak in August.
They are documented in correspondence that the town has refused to release, but which the Osoyoos Times obtained from Jennings and Fletcher.
Fletcher complained to the town that on July 19, Ogilvy came down to Cottonwood “blaring her death metal music.”
“We’re all a little scared for our own lives,” Fletcher wrote in a July 21 email to Janette Van Vianen, the town’s director of corporate services. “It’s that bad!”
Less than a week later, Fletcher wrote to Van Vianen that Ogilvy spat at her again. At that point, Fletcher decided to close the Gyro concession because staff was stretched too thin due to the need to double up in case Ogilvy came by.
On Aug. 5, Fletcher again wrote to Van Vienen, copying Romanko and Wells, and attaching photos showing Ogilvy leading her dog by 3 Phase’s concession.
“As she walked away, she spat at (a 16-year-old staff member) and me,” Fletcher wrote. “Luckily this time it only hit our life jackets, not us. Enough is enough. I’ve now been spat at three times in 10 days by Chelsey.”
Two days later, on Aug. 7, Fletcher wrote to Van Vianen that she lost a staff member after an incident of spitting and harassment.
“It was just awful,” Fletcher wrote. “I can’t even write some of the words she used.”
That evening, Ogilvy followed Fletcher to her home at a vineyard on the Osoyoos East Bench.
“She pulled into my driveway,” Fletcher wrote. “I called 911 immediately.”
Police advised Fletcher and Jennings that they should seek a restraining order, however, they have so far resisted because they said it would have pulled them away from work during their busy season.
“We invested over $100,000,” said Jennings. “We want to be in Osoyoos and we want to be here for years. We honestly are contemplating what we’re going to do because we can’t go through this again another year.”
Despite the problems, Jennings said 3 Phase has had 2,000 customers in each of the last two years and has been rated highly on the travel website TripAdvisor.
“We’re the perfect thing for Osoyoos,” he said. “We really are and it would just sadden me that we can’t come back and do that.”
When Jennings and Fletcher came into the Osoyoos Times office to do an interview, they pointed to a red pickup truck that was pulling into a parking space nearby.
“There she is,” said Jennings. “She followed us here.”
Seconds later, Ogilvy walked into the office to buy a paper and left.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
