Wayne Moore - Castanet Feb 16, 2011
With a community divided, one resident of the Lumby area wants people to know where she, and many in the community stand on a proposed jail. The woman, who asked not to be identified, erected two signs on her property on Mable Lake Road recently. 'Prison Town Formally Known As Lumby. Population 720 Inmates Or More,' reads one. 'Take Your Prison & Shove It,' reads the other. It isn't hard to know just where she stands. "We feel it's wrong for our community. It's tearing our community apart," says the woman we'll call Wendy. "Businessmen are fighting against businessmen, friends are fighting against friends and families are fighting within their own families about it. It's not something that we need, we need to look at other options." Wendy says she agrees the area needs something to breath new life into it but believes a jail is not it. She says Mayor Kevin Acton and the rest of council are focused only on the jail and nothing else. "With the prison comes other problems. We're going to have visitors in town visiting prisoners, what kind of people are they? Are they going to be bringing drugs? Do I have to stand in the corner grocery store and hold onto my purse because it may be another gang member?" "Where is their garbage going to go. What about the water, are farmers going to have to give up some of their crops for the prisoners?" Wendy says it's infrastructure and not the potential for prisoners escaping that concerns her. She also worried about the reputation of the community. "Vernon and Lumby have always had a rivalry, the kids have. They call it Scumby Lumby, now it's going to be Scumby Lumby with a prison."
Lumby residents will vote in a referendum to decide whether to pursue the jail. Council was expected to come up with a date, likely April 30, at a special meeting held Tuesday night. Wendy says she fears Lumby could become a ghost town if the jail comes to town. "People think Lumby is going to be a ghost town if we don't get the prison. Well, I tell you, I know lots of people who will move if it does come." Huguette Allen a member of 'Concerned Citizens Of Lumby And Area,' says the issue has divided the community so much some people are afraid to speak their mind. "It is getting to be uncomfortable for a lot of people. The more uncomfortable it gets the more people are afraid to say how they feel," says Allen. "Those of us who are really concerned about this really feel that the very opposite should be happening. That's going to be a very important decision and if we're afraid to speak out, afraid to say how we feel, afraid to say why we don't want it then we won't get the right answers." Allen says she believes things are destructive and not constructive. "We had one rally outside and subsequent to that rally people went to public places, pubs and whatever and were told by small groups of people that are pro-prison that they were a bunch of crazies and things like that." She says people are being verbally abused while they are shopping, sworn at. Allen says it's not healthy for the community.
Mayor Acton, who proposed the jail when Solicitor General Rich Coleman announced the province would build a facility somewhere in the Okanagan by 2015, says he's hearing from people on both sides of the issue. While he defends councils desire to move ahead with the jail, Acton also acknowledges the community is split, just how split he isn't sure. As for people berating friends and neighbours, Acton has a simple message. "Hopefully people will grow up. We're all adults and we should be able to have adult conversations and freely express our opinions," says Acton. "I certainly don't fear going anywhere in the community or going to any meetings. If people are picking on their neighbours and giving them dirty looks I really hope we see a little more maturity on what's going on, collect information and wait for the vote. Don't judge people one way or another."
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