Bear-ing funds to Beaver Lodge

Oliver’s polar bears and the Rotary Club have kept another promise. With the recent passing of a $10,619.75 cheque to the Southern Okanagan Association for Integrated Community Living (SOAICL), both parties have fulfilled their pledge to assist the association in its construction of the new Beaver Lodge Place Apartments. The money was raised prior to the Rotary Club’s annual polar bear dip in Tuc-el-Nuit Lake, January 1, and will be put toward the mortgage.

Each year the club chooses a charity or group to support financially through the annual New Year’s Day event. Last year the money raised went toward a transit van for Sunnybank Centre.

"We are very pleased that they [Rotary] chose our organization this year," said Richard Little, SOAICL’s executive director. "With the rising cost of construction in our area, the donation comes at a good time for us."

Currently being built at the corner of 350^th Avenue and 101^st Street, the first phase of the complex will house eight people in six apartments when completed.

"Everything is on schedule and we are slated for a move-in date of April 1. We expect the landscaping will start the middle of March or thereabouts."

Little went on to say that all told, his association has raised about half of the $1.2 million required for the building project and is trying to line up some more events for later in February or March, something along the line of hamburger/hot dog sales.

Polar Bear chair, Dan Friesen, said his club is planning to take their financial contribution beyond the recently presented cheque. Their annual Dinner and Silent Auction is slated for March 4, and some of the proceeds have been earmarked for Beaver Lodge.

"This is such a good cause and we did really well with the dip," said Friesen. "The community rallied behind us for this and it is just super. You get a good cause and good community support and it’s amazing what happens—bingo, bango, bongo we’ve got nearly $11,000. We’re really pleased."

For next year’s fundraiser, Rotary is going to try something different. Friesen said he would like groups or charities in Oliver that have local projects going and might be worthy of Rotary’s help, to prepare a five-minute presentation on who they are and what they are doing as soon as possible, and arrange to give it at an upcoming Rotary meeting.

"They can contact me and I will arrange a time for the presentation," stated Friesen, adding that when they get a few presentations they will choose one to support next year.

In the meantime, the club sends out its appreciation to everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s fundraising project.

Building permit confusion stalls variance approval

If one thing is for certain, newly elected Area ‘C’ director, Allan Patton is a man of his word. At the Regional District of the Okanagan Similkameen (RDOS) land use matters meeting held in Oliver on Thursday, February 9, the request for a variance on the streamside setback was held back when RDOS administration alleged that the pump house for which the variance was requested had not been issued a building permit prior to construction.

Central to Patton’s dilemma was that if he gave the variance his approval, and forgave the building permit issue after the fact, he would be going back on a promise he made during the all-candidates forum held prior to the municipal election in November. "I was firm on the fact that I would come down hard on situations where you do the work first then ask for forgiveness later," he told the board.

But whether or not this was an intentional "hoodwinking" by the owners, a possibility that concerned director Bill Schwarz, was another matter – and the fact that the proponents were not at the meeting didn’t help clarify the situation.

Mould engineering staff, Rod McLean and Jordan Gody, who designed the new pump house, were there on the owners’ behalf, but they were limited to designing not building the structure, and although they had applied for the building permit in early April, 2005, technically they were not the ones who required the piece of paper before construction began.

The property in question is a 200-acre parcel of land on the east of Road 18 with vineyards worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Known as Marc Anthony Cellars, the property is owned by Vincor, Mission Hill and Harry McWatters.

The variance requested arose from replacing the old pump house which was inadequate for irrigating the grapes. A new, larger pump house (two metres wider) was built in its place, literally. It was erected over the old site. However the larger square footage required setback reductions that allowed it to be closer to the river dyke, hence the variance request.

McLean told the board that they had consulted with Ray Jubb who works for the provincial environment ministry, and is responsible for the river dyke. They also did due diligence with the federal Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans and Ducks Unlimited Canada who steward a large portion of the river channel. They were given the green light by these agencies.

As the meeting progressed it became clear that while there was hesitancy on the part of some board members about the setback variance, the issue of the missing building permit would take precedence.

"My concern is that you went ahead with the building without a permit," Patton told McLean. "I know that the vines were at risk because of lack of water – but you did know that you had to build a new pump house. It could have been done ahead of time."

Patton also felt the variances requested were "pretty massive and I find this bothersome."

To avoid acquiring the variance, the pump house would have to be moved and McLean told Patton that the cost to do that would be well over $500,000. Patton replied, "That is pretty major. I hate to see them spend another $500,000 but I don’t like [where it is located], it is too close to the dyke. I don’t like the liabilities that could be put on the RDOS regarding the lack of space."

And again there was the issue of the building permit. This time director Schwarz wanted to know whether or not the RDOS staff had gone through all the necessary procedures to get the permit issued. "Where was the correspondence from the RDOS to the applicant?" he asked.

Suzanne Theurer replied, "When we receive a permit request the zoning check is done within 10 days of the application. Then we contact the applicant then the applicant is advised if there is a problem. I am assuming that this happened."

A motion was put forward to deny the variance but CAO Jason Johnson advised the board that if the variance was turned down it "would shut the door on the variance as it stands now. The applicant would have to wait six months before he could come before the board again – and could not come forward with that same variance request. This could be very harmful to the crops."

The board ultimately decided to postpone their decision for a month and chair Dan Ashton encouraged McLean to ensure his clients were in attendance at that board meeting to answer questions and clarify the problem with the building permit. Directors Hanson, Logan and Patton were opposed to the postponement.

After the meeting McLean said that they had received no correspondence back from the RDOS until the July long weekend, "They said they were sorry they were getting back to us so late on this," he remarked.

Gody felt that there was no need to have a road run behind the pump house – an issue brought forward by Patton during the discussion over the variance request. "This is not an attempt to railroad the RDOS," he added.

In a later interview Patton discussed his rationale behind voting against the month-long postponement, "I didn’t approve the wait because of the time Mould would need to rebuild the pump house. I am still looking into this – there was a three month time lag and I don’t understand that," he said referring to the RDOS.

He said he also noticed the use of the word ‘assume’ used by RDOS staff in regard to their explanation of the permitting process, "I am going to look into this – we have to make sure everything was done properly regarding the timeliness issue.

"We have to be clear about this but I need to say that I have the greatest respect for the RDOS staff – they have a huge amount of work – non compliances, variances and other items to deal with."

But the important thing for Patton is the idea that people go ahead without permits and that the RDOS does not have a system in place for penalizing the perpetrators. "I am not interested in letting people off who didn’t get a permit," he stated. "But there is no mechanism in place to fine these people – no penalty – which means the only other option, in this case, is to move the pump house.

"If they were negligent somehow they have to be penalized."

Patton says he wants to see penalties and enforcement of those penalties, "If we can’t do this then there is no point in issuing permits," he said, "and without permits the RDOS would lose a lot of money."

Public invited to a homelessness workshop

Homelessness is alive and well and living in Oliver. It exists in town, found in the faces of men, women and children surviving a stone’s throw from the fabled vineyards and orchards that swell the slopes and benches of the South Okanagan.

To combat its cause and effects, a homelessness workshop is being planned for Wednesday, March 1 at the Oliver Council Chambers at 7 p.m.

Said town councillor Pat Hampson, "I want to put together a sub-committee of the Oliver area that will deal with the issue in Oliver and Okanagan Falls, and work under the main committee which would work out of Osoyoos. I’m hoping to get members of the local service clubs, ministers, all the stakeholders who have an interest in the homeless to come to the meeting, sit down and talk about it."

The session is being held in response to an area-wide—Oliver, Osoyoos and Okanagan Falls—review on homelessness in the region being conducted by Desert Sun Counselling and Resource Centre. In 2004 Desert Sun received $36,000 for the project whose goals were to confirm the extent of the problem in the region; determine its causes; educate the public accordingly; develop an ongoing strategy and plan to prevent homelessness; support homeless individuals and families; obtain funding from local, provincial and/or federal agencies for ongoing support; and build community capacity for examining other social problems in the community.

The initiative targets not only those who are currently homelessness, but individuals, couples and families who are at risk of becoming homeless in the future—those who are one past-due bill, illness or calamity away from losing the little they have.

And it has chosen to use the United Nations definition of Absolute and Relative Homelessness (no housing at all or where housing does not meet basic needs such as running water) as its guide.

A survey was conducted earlier last year and a workshop was held in Osoyoos last September, attended by a contingent of members from the various service clubs and other stakeholders. Unfortunately, due to an oversight on the part of organizers, Oliver was not notified in time to send a committee of its own representatives to the event.

That is now being rectified with our own workshop, said Hampson. "We want people who would be willing to sit on committees, identify what the issues are in Oliver and come up with some ideas on what can be done."

He is quick to point out that seasonal workers are not the focus of this workshop; the group is looking to assist those who have decided to make Oliver their home but who are falling through existing cracks in the social safety net.

In fact, the results of the survey undertaken by Desert Sun indicate that the majority of the 44 respondents were single males between the ages of 20 and 40. Most had high school education with 40 per cent of those surveyed living in a situation of absolute homelessness while the remaining 60 per cent were considered at risk of becoming homeless.

The primary reasons given for their present situation were: no or low income, a lack of knowledge of places to stay, a lack of supports and assistance, a lack of affordable housing and smoking. The majority had some form of income although they lived on less than $1000 a month with approximately half of it going for shelter. Less than 30 per cent were receiving some form of government benefits. And the most common needs identified were affordable housing and jobs or job training.

Asking forgiveness

Newly elected regional district director Allan Patton is getting to confront a continuing problem in our area. The tradition of building first and asking permission later is well established. In the words of former Oliver mayor Hart Buckendahl, ‘It is easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.’

And it will continue to be easier so long as there are no serious consequences to build first, ask permission later. The difficulty is crafting a reasonable set of consequences. Simply refusing the subsequent variance would be too harsh for all cases. People do make honest mistakes or engage in wishful thinking about their obligations. A reasonable response by a municipality should have enough of a sting to give pause to any developer who might be contemplating the creation of ‘facts on the ground.’ It should also be flexible enough that disproportionate damage is done to the offending owner.

We wish Director Patton well in finding such a solution and ask that he pass his solution on the Town who have had more than their share of re-zonings followed shortly after by a request for variances.