Welcome to Lake Country, sort of. The future of visitor information services in the municipality north of Kelowna is in limbo. Lake Country's chamber of commerce has decided to quit the contract for running the Main Street tourist centre, saying the town isn't offering enough money to run the service. "It boils down to the fact that the chamber would be putting itself at too much financial risk if we continued on with the contract as it is," chamber president Marvin Farkas said Saturday. "It's pretty much an amicable parting of the ways, and we do want to work with the District of Lake Country in the future on other matters, including tourism promotion," Farkas said. For many years, town council has provided the chamber with a grant of $45,000 to run the year-round visitor and information centre. That helps to cover wages, rent, and the cost of producing promotional materials.
The chamber has been putting $2,200 of its own money into the operation, and has also received an annual federal employment grant of $5,600. But Farkas said indications are the federal grant may be wound down. So the chamber asked council to boost the municipal contribution by $5,000, which councillors have declined to do. "We understand the district is trying to be very prudent in all their operations," Farkas said. "But the chamber is under economic constraints as well, and we run a tight budget as well." The chamber, which has about 220 members, held two meetings to decide whether to continue with the contract to operate the visitor centre. Last Thursday, chamber directors informed municipal officials they would not seek to renew the management contract when it expires at year-end. The centre is visited by about 6,000 people a year, and serves many others on the phone and over the Internet. "It was a difficult decision to withdraw from this contract," Farkas said. "Tourism is obviously very important to many Lake Country businesses, and I hope the district can come up with some way to keep providing information services to visitors." Lake Country Mayor James Baker could not be reached for comment Saturday. Last year in West Kelowna, the chamber of commerce also withdrew from an agreement it had with the municipality to operate the visitor information centre. Council then struck a new deal with the museum society to run the centre, an agreement that has carried on into this season with a contract value of $35,000.
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Annual Contracts Vernon:
| ADM-11-06 | Visitor Centres operation Manager | Feb-16-2011- | Apr-30-2013 | (2) 1 Yr | Durning Directions & Services | $367,661.02 |
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