Don Brogan (right), general manager of Walnut Beach Resort, has agreed to let the Osoyoos Lake Water Quality Society dock its testing boat at the resort starting next summer. There to express appreciation were Brian Faltinson (left) and Birgit Arnstein of the OLWQS. (Richard McGuire photo)
Walnut Beach Resort has come to the rescue of an Osoyoos volunteer group that monitors the water quality of Osoyoos Lake.
The resort announced last week that it will provide a boat slip and storage to the Osoyoos Lake Water Quality Society (OLWQS) that will be losing its summer boat mooring at an Osoyoos residence.
“I’ve been involved in the community for many years,” said Don Brogan, general manager at Walnut Beach. “I think the lake is the major reason that we are here in Osoyoos as far as tourism goes.”
Brogan said he was approached by the Town of Osoyoos and he stepped forward to offer the space because he cares about being a good steward of the environment and because it’s good corporate citizenship.
He acknowledged that most clients of the resort are visitors rather than locals, but he added: “I’m very happy and proud to be in the community and I want to show that we are part of the community and want to give back what we can.”
The OLWQS conducts weekly tests at five locations on Osoyoos Lake during the summer months.
Birgit Arnstein, an OLWQS board member, said the group is grateful to Sharon Janson, owner of the home on Bayview Crescent where the boat has been moored each summer for years, but her property is now for sale.
“It gives us the security that next summer when our boat comes out of the public works yard, we have a place to take it,” she said, expressing gratitude to Walnut Beach. “A huge thing is we have our equipment in one location.”
Arnstein said she was also grateful to local resident Virginia Cook, who stepped forward to offer mooring space after reading about OLWQS’s plight in the Osoyoos Times. Cook, however, would only have been able to store the boat and not the testing equipment.
Brian Faltinson, who has managed the boat, crew and data collection, also welcomed the new partnership with Walnut Beach Resort.
“It’s great for the continuity of where we keep the boat from year-to-year,” he said, adding that a private dock owner could sell their property.
Brogan noted that unlike the other large resorts, Walnut Beach has its own world-class dock at the beach in front of its property. The smaller resorts, he added, don’t have the availability of space.
Arnstein noted that Watermark Beach Resort has also been very supportive of the group in other ways.
The next hurdle, she said, is finding more volunteers with pleasure craft operator cards to operate the boat next summer and also someone to help with data management of test results.
Anyone willing to volunteer can contact Arnstein at 250-495-0728.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
