Vernon city council has approved an advance on this year's funding for the historic O'Keefe Ranch. But at a special budget meeting Friday, ranch officials were given a warning from councillor Bob Spiers that they should not ``assume'' they'll get the full budget request of 214-thousand dollars. Ranch Society president Rod Drennan says visitor numbers plummeted last year which he blames on tough economic times and the Terrace Mountain forest fire.
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Peter McIntyre Friday, 15 January 2010 15:39107.5 KISSFM City Comes To Ranch's Rescue
The president of the Historic O'Keefe Ranch says city funding will be a life-line for their operation. Rod Drennan was reacting to Vernon council's committee of the whole approving $107,000 to help cover the ranch's early year costs. The decision came Friday after ranch officials gave council an overview of their operation. Drennan tells KISS FM, the heritage attraction is coming off a difficult year for attendance. "Our historic (high attendance) number is 26,000 to 30,000 paid visitors a year, and we dropped to 17,000 (in 2009).Now that's in keeping with other (tourist) attractions (that had problems). It was because of the economy." Drennan says the ranch is doing what they can to cut costs. "We don't have huge reserves plus we did layoff our staff and the manager (Catherine Lord) laid off herself last year. That left work undone and there's a lot of work to in the January to March period to get ready for open season at the end of April."
Drennan says they also secured about $160,000 last year from sources other than the city. The city of Venron owns the ranch which is located in Spallumcheen.
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