Vernon‘s Cadet Corps will continue losing members and programs if the organization can‘t set up camp somewhere soon. The North Okanagan Cadet Academy Society is asking city council Monday to grant the corps the Lakers clubhouse and adjoining property for a permanent cadet location. Hugh Rayment, president of the society, said the city‘s cadets needs their own roof, and soon. “We‘ve already been losing cadets because of poor training locations and they‘ve had to drop some of their programs, so it‘s extremely important to keep the organization going and I expect there would be a very sharp increase in enrollment the moment we do get proper accommodation.” He said cadet membership would likely double from 200 to 400 if the group had proper facilities. Right now, the sea, air and army cadets are using space at the army camp site, but it‘s only a temporary, inadequate site, said Rayment. “It‘s not a satisfactory set up and they‘re sort of on call to probably be turfed out of there any time, so it‘s not an option for us. We made attempts to get in there but it just isn‘t going to work.”
The Department of National Defence supplies cadets with uniforms, officers and training equipment, but they‘re not obligated to secure or finance training grounds. In recent years the cadets have had to shuffle around locations and haul training equipment in and out of storage sites constantly. The society is asking the city for the clubhouse property on a 99-year lease at $1 per year and permission to build three steel quonset huts where the arena stood, for a drill hall, storage space and classrooms. The group estimates the cost to construct the buildings will be roughly $500,000, but Rayment said they need a commitment from the city before they can start looking for that money. “We‘re in a situation where we can‘t really fundraise until we‘ve got a location and we can‘t get a location until we have funds.” Rayment said he‘s keeping his fingers crossed that city council will see the need to support the youth-oriented organization. “We‘ve been negotiating with them for a long time and hopefully we‘ll get a solution to our problem.”
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