By Tom Mark

Former School Pitched For Search & Rescue

Jun 6, 2018 | 2:19 PM

Lumby Council isn’t ready to approve an alternative approval process to help fund a new building for Vernon Search and Rescue.

Mayor Kevin Acton says council feels the organization and regional district need to be more flexible.

“I think going from a 20 thousand, or 24 thousand dollar service at the regional district to a three and a half million dollar building and property with the responsibility of doing all the maintenance with heat and lights and everything else, is a big leap.”

Acton says council wants to see more detail in the proposal before asking its electorate whether they want to participate.

He says the plan has to be fair to all communities involved.

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“If we agree to go along with this process, a hundred per cent of our community could go out and say no and we’d still end up being part of it because it depends on the entire area. When it’s set up as an area-wide AAP, all you’re looking for is ten per cent of the people to show up to say no.”

Acton says the proposal may be too rich, and he wonders if there are other, less expensive options to look at.

He gives the vacant Whitevale School in Lumby as an example.

“It’s there, it’s ready. If you were to go over Trinity Valley you can get to the north side of the lake quick or the east side of the lake quick. You can go out to Cherryville way quick. It really is, Lumby’s quite a bit of a central location.”

He says it’s just an idea, but when you think about it, it has a lot of what Vernon SAR is looking for.

There are offices, classrooms which could be used for training, a gymnasium, which could be used for storage, and about eight acres of property suitable for practicing or buildings for storing vehicles.

Acton admits he doesn’t know what the school board would want for the building, but says it’s an example of looking further abroad.

Coldstream is also hesitant to approve an AAP, suggesting a referendum as a possibility.

by Tom Mark