Sides meet to resolve Greater Vernon parks and rec feud

By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: February 24, 2012 1:00 AM
Reignited talks have the goal of ceasing Greater Vernon’s parks and recreation hostilities. For the first time since last summer, Vernon, Coldstream and the electoral areas sat down during a formal session Wednesday to see if there is any middle ground in a dispute that has been waged for years. “There’s a willingness among all of the jurisdictions to have another go at this with the end result of resolving this,” said Mike Macnabb, BX-Silver Star director. “In the end, we want to do what’s best for our residents.” Previous elected officials from the three jurisdictions sparred over a variety of issues, including governance of the parks and recreation function, control over park decisions and maintenance, service contracts and who is responsible for the recreation complex. It was suggested Wednesday that concerns can be addressed by changing the current function structure instead of  creating an entirely new model. “Without throwing the baby out with the bath water, we can do a lot,” said Trafford Hall, Regional District of North Okanagan administrator, who facilitated the session. One focus was the need for those sitting at the negotiations table to communicate openly with their counterparts at Vernon and Coldstream council so there are no misunderstandings and any agreements-in-principle are endorsed “We’ve failed at least once because we weren’t able to convince the gang back at the ranch,” said Hall of the previous Vernon council not supporting changes to governance. Hall believes the key to resolving the conflict is to pursue an improved structure instead of perfection. “Brief your councils that you won’t get everything but you’ll get lots,” he told the politicians of the need for compromise. Vernon officials appear willing to consider all participants having a say in operation of the recreation complex instead of it being just in the hands of the city. “The idea of keeping it in the collective simplifies moving forward because it was a contentious issue before,” said Jim Garlick, Coldstream director. At least two more meetings will be held and it’s possible that an agreement could be reached by summer. Rob Sawatzky, Vernon director, believes Wednesday’s session resulted in progress being made. “We’ve agreed to a process to move forward on,” he said.