Water board bails on NORD

By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: November 28, 2008

The loss of a major tenant will create challenges and opportunities for the North Okanagan Regional District. The Okanagan Basin Water Board has moved to Kelowna, vacating space it leased at the NORD administration office on Aberdeen Road in Coldstream. “There are pluses and minuses from it,” said Brian Reardon, regional district administrator. The negative aspect to OBWB’s relocation is that it will no longer pay NORD for administrative services or office space. In 2008, that amounted to $36,326 for the regional district. But OBWB’s departure means there is more room for regional district employees. “We’ve got four or five offices opened up and we could move some of our employees from our downtown office out here,” said Reardon. Currently, NORD has 10 water utility staff at a downtown Vernon office as well as five parks and recreation workers. A decision on relocating some staff to the Aberdeen Road site has not been made, but a board priority in 2006 was to have all employees centralized. “We want to maximize the synergies by having everyone under one roof,” said Reardon, adding that NORD also could avoid lease payments on the downtown building. It’s most likely that the parks and recreation department would take over the offices once used by the OBWB.

Reardon says an expansion of the Aberdeen Road building would be required to accommodate the rest of the staff downtown. OBWB has moved into part of the Central Okanagan Regional District building in Kelowna. Space became available there after CORD went through some restructuring. OBWB is responsible for aquatic weed management, wastewater infrastructure funding and water management projects from Spallumcheen to Osoyoos. “We are very excited about the opportunities that come from being more centrally located,” said Anna Warwick Sears, OBWB’s executive director, in a press release.“As a local government organization that represents water priorities in the entire Okanagan basin, being housed at the Central Okanagan Regional District will help connect us better with our partners throughout the watershed.”