The present detachment, on Jubilee Road East, was constructed in 1969 and has been used as a police detachment since 1975. Today, it is much too small to meet the needs of the police detachment and the cells in the building have been condemned and closed off for several years. Perrino said there are several options open to council for the RCMP. The proposed facility could go to a referendum process. This option would cost $25,000 and would require the support of a majority of voters in order for the plan to proceed. Suggestions to contract Summerland’s policing to Penticton or West Kelowna have been raised, but Perrino said there are some drawbacks. The most important, she said, would be the loss of a steady police presence in the community. “I worry that we won’t be as safe as we are today,” she said.
Another possibility is to have an outside contractor build a facility, which the municipality would then rent. Perrino said a municipally-owned building would be preferable. “At least if we build on our own, it becomes our own. It’s there for the long term and it’s good equity in the future.” The proposed building was to be around 835 square metres. The estimated cost was $5 million. The municipality would need to borrow $3.125 million, to be repaid over 20 years. Sgt. Mona Kauffeld of the Summerland RCMP detachment said the dimensions and design of the building are specified by the RCMP. “We need to be in something that is up to the RCMP standards,” she said, adding that the existing facility no longer meets police standards.
Reinhold Prochnau, who spent the past six weeks getting signatures for the petition, is pleased the plan has been defeated. He said the proposed building would be much too large for Summerland’s needs, even if future growth is considered. “They could house all of the Penticton officers here and ours, and it could last 30 years,” he said. He added that at least nine out of 10 people he approached about the proposed facility wanted to sign the petition opposing it. Prochnau said one factor is that the public wanted to have a vote instead of going through the alternate approval process. “The alternate process is not democratic,” he said. “It’s sleazy and underhanded and bullying.” He added that the cost of borrowing the money would result in an increase in taxes, something that would hurt those on fixed incomes. Perrino believes the cost of the facility may have been a reason the approval process was defeated. “I think the extra taxes was why it failed,” she said. This is the second time a decision on building a new RCMP detachment has been defeated. In 2002, a referendum on a facility to house police, fire and ambulance services failed in a referendum. This is also the second time in less than five years that the alternate approval process has failed on a significant community project. Several years ago, borrowing for upgrades to Rosedale Avenue and a portion of Prairie Valley Road failed during the alternate approval process. Later, the proposal came back and passed, this time with lower borrowing costs since grant funding was available. The work on this project has begun and is to be completed by the end of next winter.
2 comments:
The issue no doubt was the alternate approval process.Nord and Vernon should have learned this by now. The public is sick and tired of ignorant politicians and overpaid beaurocraps (who often leave us in debt and receive golden handshakes) telling us how they are going to putus into debt without seeking our permission.
Yeah, forget about the public need for such facilities. We the people now have the most effective tool ever handed to us to voice our displeasure with all things coming out of the bureaucrats and the politicians. Now if we could only make them understand that the term "civil servant" has some obscure meaning, lost to their limited understanding.
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