Stop the Track!

[Drinkmoremilk]

Hi Folks,
we need to stop this track! Do you want to spend $7.5 million so that you can drive across town, with no parking, to run beside a highway? What happened to the Official Community Plan - the track is not in there! What happened to proper 'long-term planning'...the track certainly doesn't fit that. Will you ever drive up there? Pay $50 or so a year to keep it? Vernon does not put on enough 'event's so I'm pretty sure the track won't be used as the proponents seem to claim. The track will be used by the college students...why should I pay for them to run on it? The college can pay for that themselves. What happened to fighting for the Kin Race Track area to be developed into a proper sports area? If we need a running track so badly right now, why wouldn't it be built on VSS property where there is a high concentration of people and students!!!! How can we as citizens of Vernon stop this ridiculous $7.5 million pet project!!!! (The other thing that urks me is the twisted advertising of it....calling it a 'facility', without providing information about the Kin Race Track, long term range plans or any other facts...).

[Dizzy1]

3917 people tried to stop it with their votes - wasn't enough.

[Hassel99]

You are too late, the people have spoken. You obviously did not go to any info sessions about the track or you would have learned why Kin track was not an option.

[Drinkmoremilk]

I did go to the session....but that doesn't mean that Kin won't be an option in a few years....it is the best option for the community...not a band-aid solution on the outskirts of town, that's part of nothing else....

As far as voting goes....there was a referendum for the library. The referendum was a "NO"...but guess what happened, the library was built anyways....It goes to show that even with a referundum, the community can still do what is best for the majority...

[danmartin]

Something to think about is that only 18% of eligible voters bothered to vote? I have spoken to many people in Vernon and to be honest it seemed to me that most people when asked were against the facility especially in this location! I wonder why so few people voted? There appears to be a lot of anger which is too bad. Those that wanted a sport facility seem to have been more motivated, better organized and perhaps looking after their own interests in that at least it will be done while they or their children are interested in track and field. Thinking ahead and trying to find a better location or solution would take time. I hope that this growing anger doesn't grow into opposition to more well thought out and needed recreational proposals such as swimming pools, bike routes etc.

[bob vernon]

There's no "growing anger". What anger there was is subsiding. This track will be a non-issue in a few weeks, if it isn't already, and will be built. There was an opportunity to vote and only 18 percent took the time to vote on this issue. If there really was anger against the track it would have manifested itself at the polls.

[danmartin]

There's no "growing anger". What anger there was is subsiding. This track will be a non-issue in a few weeks, if it isn't already, and will be built. There was an opportunity to vote and only 18 percent took the time to vote on this issue. If there really was anger against the track it would have manifested itself at the polls.

I hope you're right but that isn't what I heard at the coffee shop just yesterday and why has this topic has been started? I personally think that Vernon needed a good track etc. but not sure if this location at this time was the best thing. It wasn't my idea that future requests for money be rejected but something that that was thrown out by some of these angry tax payers. I still don't understand why so few people voted for or against it? The apathy is startling!!!!?

[gordon_as]

Or they could just upgrade the one at Polson Park ? I can't understand why anyone would want this facility at the college. This is the kind of facility that should be located at , or very near to , a high school.

[Rwede]

I think this commentary dovetails nicely with the adjacent thread, "Vernon economy going from bad to worse." Until Vernonites begin to accept change, they'll stay in the economic dumpsters.

[Dizzy1]

There appears to be a lot of anger which is too bad.

Question is did the people who are "angry" vote? If not, then they have nothing to complain about.

Personally, I don't feel its the right location for such a facitlity ... Kin Race track, in my opinion, would have been a better bet had they put more thought into the Wesbild center when it was built, besides the posibility of having those two together, a new swimming pool facility with maybe a pool for laps/diving competitions and something similar to Kelowna's H20 center all in the same location would have been a much better thought out plan. Would it have been much pricier? Absolutley, but the year round benefits from the entire North Okanagan would have been well worth it. But the people have spoken ... the majority just don't seem to care and those who do care voted "yes".

[bob vernon]

The problem with the race track site is this: the land was donated by a rancher decades ago to be used "as a horse racetrack forever". I know, I know, time marches on and things change. But as long as there is organized support for horse racing it will be taken to the courts and tied up for years. Pretty hard to plan a sports facility at the track.

I think that the city should have, years ago, renovated the track when they made the distance longer. And the track would have succeeded if, BC did as Ontario did and gave the local offtrack betting license to the track instead of handing to an insider. Ontario's horse industry thrives in comparison to BC's. But we don't do things for the public good in BC...... we do them for insiders.

The track at Vernon also could have had a grandstand on wheels that could be moved to the infield a few times a year for special events. And the Okanagan is mid-way between the equestrian centres of western Canada, Calgary and the Fraser Valley. Several equestrian meets a year would have attracted a lot of money from the wealthy horsey people in Calgary and the lower mainland. A day's drive for each. But alas, we think small here. And give the money making machines like offtrack betting to the wrong people.