Thursday, September 06, 2007

District launches ranch divorce

By natalie bank Thursday, September 6, 2007 Vernon Courier

The O‘Keefe Ranch could be looking for bucks in high and low places next year. At their regular meeting on Wednesday, North Okanagan Regional District directors approved the first reading of a motion to end the bylaw which holds NORD responsible for servicing the ranch. In 2005 the district took over funding of the ranch‘s facilities and programs, which offer tourists a chance to experience ranch and rural life in the past. In the last two years all but four of the 11 NORD communities have withdrawn their support to service the ranch. Rod Drennan, president of the not-for-profit society that operates the ranch, said they weren‘t confident about future funding anymore and wanted to revert back to previous procedures. “We‘re just better off dealing with Vernon as the owner, Coldstream, who always supported the ranch, and apply to other jurisdictions individually.”

On Aug. 23 Drennan met with NORD chair Jerry Oglow, Vernon Mayor Wayne Lippert and NORD administrator Brian Reardon. Oglow said it was clear from the meeting the ranch needed a more reliable source of funding “The request from the ranch was quite simple. They could see the writing on the wall from support disappearing.” If the motion to repeal the bylaw passes through another two readings and is approved by the inspector of municipalities, NORD would no longer be responsible for servicing the ranch as of Dec. 31. After that Drennan said there‘s already a plan in place to secure necessary funding. “We would then make an annual request based on our five-year financial plan to the City of Vernon as the owner, combined with gate revenue, plus grant opportunities that we‘re actively pursuing.”

Vernon would become the primary funding partner and local government agencies would be approached for tourism grants as well. Drennan said this year Vernon made its annual contribution of $60,000 and contributed an extra $114,000 to pay off a line of credit and for upgrades. “We were very pleased with that and we feel that they‘re looking after their ownership responsibilities,” he said. Oglow said by not servicing the ranch anymore, the board can get back to the responsibilities it does better with, but hopes communities will keep helping the ranch in other ways. “I hope as a region we continue to support the ranch in any way we can,” he said.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hope Drennan does a better job of getting Westbank up and running.