Elks Lodge #45 (photo/Goggle Street View)

By Kevin Rothwell

The city wants the lodge

Elks Lodge #45 being forced out by city hall?

Mar 9, 2021 | 3:33 PM

An urgent plea for financial support by the local Elks service club so it can apply for a Heritage Canada grant, has some members of Vernon council concerned about how the city has been treating the organization.

“The City of Vernon has received repeated requests from the Elks for financial support on a number of grant applications. It has been council’s historic position, that it is council’s desire to consolidate that block for future development. Past councils have been consistent in not providing funding, that would lengthen the life of that particular building,” Vernon chief administrative officer Will Pearce said.

The Elks are applying for a grant, but need some form of meaningful financial, or in-kind, donation from the city to satisfy the grant criteria.

Plans include creating a historical display on the second floor, putting in an elevator, upgrading flooring, painting, new washrooms and replacing two 30-year-old furnaces.

Previous city funding to the organization has been for items that could be moved to a new location.

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“I thought that’s what was happening, so we should say that. I don’t feel good about it,” Coun. Brian Quiring said. “It looks a little like we are forcing them out. They need us to get this grant, we aren’t going to give them what they need, because we want their property. That doesn’t necessarily sit very well with me.”

A motion to provide the Elks with $500 toward an elevator, morphed into a request for further information on the scope of the project and how much of an investment from the city it required.

It is believed the grant application deadline is the end of March. The next Vernon Council meeting is March 22.

“My concern is there is some time sensitivity to this, we might make it but barely. I am concerned, as Brian is, about the optics of this, and frankly the philosophy of what appears to be strong-arming a citizen, because we want their property. I am not on board with that at all,” Coun. Scott Anderson said.