The Sugar Shack concession stand on Gyro Beach was destroyed by a fire on the night of April 4 that police say was suspicious in nature. The current owner of the business said the stand has been in operation on the beach for roughly 35 years. Photo by Laurena Weninger - Click on picture for larger image
OSOYOOS TIMES-April 7, 2010
By Laurena Weninger – Osoyoos Times
On April 5, there was just a charred pile of rubble on Gyro Beach where the Sugar Shack concession building used to stand.
Osoyoos RCMP spokesman Cpl. Jason Bayda said an RCMP member happened upon the fire on April 4 at about 10:40 p.m. and at the time the building was fully engulfed in flames.
The Osoyoos Volunteer Fire Department was called to put out the blaze, but the building was levelled, Bayda said.
Osoyoos’s Larry Trombley has owned the Shack for eight years and was in Vernon for the weekend when he got the call from RCMP that there had been a fire.
Trombley was in the process of dismantling the building, he said.
“They (the Town) are making me move,” Trombley explained.
For the last three years, Trombley’s lease with the Town of Osoyoos has been only for one year at a time.
He said he received assurances from the developer of Watermark Beach Resort that he would be allowed to stay – but that seems to have changed.
Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells said council decided not to renew the lease this year because the concession isn’t in line with the Waterfront Master Plan.
The Town has considered renovating the existing washrooms and change rooms at Gyro Beach and may eventually put a concession stand there, he said.
But Wells didn’t give a solid reason for the refusal to renew the lease at this time.
“Because we’re really looking at getting something better there,” he said. “It wasn’t part of the plan.”
Trombley said the building was insured and he had been planning to salvage parts of it and resurrect it elsewhere.
But he doesn’t yet know how his insurance will cover the fire, since the building was being dismantled.
Police said there are no suspects in the fire and though a nearby security guard had heard youths nearby earlier in the evening, police patrols turned up no one.
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