O'Keefe Ranch (Vernon Matters file photo)

By Liam Verster

$150,000 Grant

O’Keefe could receive more funding in 2023

Sep 26, 2022 | 4:00 PM

The O’Keefe Ranch and Interior Heritage Society could be receiving three times its usual annual operating grant from the City of Vernon.

O’Keefe Ranch requested the city provide a grant of $150,000 for 2023 operations.

The ranch typically receives an annual base grant of $50,000, funded through taxation, but has requested an additional $100,000 to be funded from the casino grant reserve, which is estimated to have a year-end balance of $592,000.

The request for an increase in 2023’s operational funding came as expenses to run the heritage site have been increasing, mainly due to utility costs and inflation.

Vernon council was presented with the request to include the additional funds in the 2023 budget as a service level adjustment at the regular meeting Monday, Sept. 26, where it was approved unanimously. The matter will be discussed further during budget deliberations.

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Speaking with Vernon Matters, Mayor Victor Cumming said supporting the ranch has made some significant changes and is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, but it needs support from the city as it’s “like running a museum” and has “significant operational costs.”

Cumming said that there’s two main reasons why the city continues to support the ranch.

“One, it’s history. It’s like a living museum,” Cumming told Vernon Matters.

“Two, it attracts both visitors and residents to kind of an enjoyable, outdoor setting, and indoor, and it provides some better understanding of our settler history.”.

If approved in the budget deliberations, it will be the second year in a row that O’Keefe Ranch will receive additional funding. In 2022, the city approved a grant of $125,000 to cover operational costs at the heritage site.