The visitors' information centre in Keremeos, located a stone's throw from the municipal offices, won't be opening up as usual this year.
The Similkameen Country Development Association's (SCDA) lease for the space expired on Dec. 31, 2024, and was not renewed, the Village of Keremeos confirmed in an email.
Beyond the lease, the visitor centre's operations are also being reviewed by the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen.
The contract awarding the operation to the SCDA was amended on March 6, largely to resolve several issues with how it was originally written over 20 years ago.
One of the issues was the terms of the service agreement named the SCDA explicitly, which meant the RDOS couldn't even put the operation of the info centre up to bid for anyone other than the SCDA.
"The bylaw for this service was I'll say the worst I've ever seen," said the RDOS' CAO Jim Zaffino.
The proposals to amend the contract ended up splitting the board, with Director and Keremeos Mayor Jason Wiebe and Okanagan Falls Director on one side and the remaining directors on the other.
"The organization that we're dealing with, we've been happy with them, there's different things that they can or can't do or things that we can provide, but there's now clarity in separating the different things," said rural Keremeos Director Tim Roberts. "We get the balance of just dealing with an info center, but at the same time, we're dealing with an organization that is working throughout the whole valley and supporting all our needs.
The core of the difference seems to be on whether the SCDA's operations as a chamber of commerce-styled organization should be explicitly separated from the visitor centre contract.
"The fact of the matter is that the building that was in question and the contract was made back, in my understanding, when it was called Keremeos and District Chamber of Commerce," said Wiebe. "The organization made it very clear that they're not a chamber; that's fine, but the agreements that we had in place were with what we thought, I mean, even on the sign-out front it says Chamber of Commerce.
"Hence there's been a little bit of frustration, changing community events and doing different things that they may or may not have a right to do, and you can argue that it may or may not be in the contract, but it was definitely not in the spirit that has been going on for decades."
Simply rescinding the bylaw and creating a new one was also off the table, as the original was created with public assent and would need public approval to be rescinded.
Two options were presented to the board with slightly differing sections on how much association between different organizations or functions would be allowed. Both, including the one supported by the rural Keremeos and Cawston directors, included cuts to the amount of funding provided through the contract.
Under the new contract, the annual funding goes from $33,000, with $13,000 from the Village and $10,000 apiece from the two electoral areas, down to $25,000, split between $9,850 for the village and $7,575 for each electoral area.
The new agreement will see the SCDA instead set a space aside for a kiosk inside the Similkameen Recreation Centre to run as an information centre for the remaining year of the contract.
