With rising concerns over the safety of Vernon's downtown, city council has voted to stay the course.In September, council voted to remove security from the downtown parkade. In its place they have hired five new 
bylaw officers and will be installing $35,000 worth of security cameras into the structure. The changes are part of a six-month trial period to assess how effective the new measures are."These (bylaw) people started downtown today, that's another five people down there 18 hours a day, seven days a week," said Coun. Jack 
Gilroy. "I think we have one of the safest downtowns in the province right now."Other councillors including Juliette Cunningham agreed that council needs to be patient to allow the new measures to have an impact on public safety."I'd hate to see us have a knee-jerk reaction before these other things have a chance to prove themselves," she said.Coun. Pat Cochrane said more needs to be done to look at removing the dumpsters downtown. Cochrane proposed and council unanimously passed a motion to have staff prepare a report on the feasibility of making the downtown a dumpster-free zone.Also up for discussion was finding ways to encourage more public uses for Cenotaph Park. Coun. Juliette Cunningham said she would like to see more picnic benches for office workers to use to eat lunch."We've done everything we can to minimize use of the park and that's part of the problem," she said.Late last week the Downtown Vernon Association announced they had hired two security guards to patrol the downtown amid crime concerns from area businesses.
bylaw officers and will be installing $35,000 worth of security cameras into the structure. The changes are part of a six-month trial period to assess how effective the new measures are."These (bylaw) people started downtown today, that's another five people down there 18 hours a day, seven days a week," said Coun. Jack 
Gilroy. "I think we have one of the safest downtowns in the province right now."Other councillors including Juliette Cunningham agreed that council needs to be patient to allow the new measures to have an impact on public safety."I'd hate to see us have a knee-jerk reaction before these other things have a chance to prove themselves," she said.Coun. Pat Cochrane said more needs to be done to look at removing the dumpsters downtown. Cochrane proposed and council unanimously passed a motion to have staff prepare a report on the feasibility of making the downtown a dumpster-free zone.Also up for discussion was finding ways to encourage more public uses for Cenotaph Park. Coun. Juliette Cunningham said she would like to see more picnic benches for office workers to use to eat lunch."We've done everything we can to minimize use of the park and that's part of the problem," she said.Late last week the Downtown Vernon Association announced they had hired two security guards to patrol the downtown amid crime concerns from area businesses. 
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