Fund the fire hall?

by Roy Wood CASTANET - Oct 5, 2014 / 12:31 pm

Artist rendition of the proposed fire hall.

Faced with a rebuff from citizens, Osoyoos town council must decide Monday whether to hold a referendum to approve funding for its controversial new fire hall or scrap the project and go back to the drawing board. Earlier this year, council decided to employ the so-called Alternate Approval Process rather than hold a referendum to approve the bylaw to borrow the approximately $6 million to build the new fire hall. Under the AAP, the only way for residents to stop the process was to sign a petition in sufficient numbers. The petition required 474 signatures to stop the town from proceeding. The deadline was Friday, Oct. 3 at 4:30. Jean Clarke, one of the organizers of the petition, said in an interview Saturday that her group gathered 1,037 signatures and presented it to the town at 4 p.m. Friday. The AAP tops the business section of Monday’s council meeting agenda. According to a report from staff, council has three choices:

Hold a referendum on the same day as the council elections, Nov. 15;
Hold a referendum after that time, but before Dec. 20; or
Let the bylaw fail and bring it back in the spring with sufficient changes to convince the provincial Inspector of Municipalities that it is a new project.
Senior staff has recommended that council either hold a referendum on Nov. 15 or scrap the project and bring it back later with changes.