– Council still prefers alternate site for seniors development –

(OSOYOOS TIMES — Nov. 22, 2006) –

After an urgent meeting with Interior Health and Baltic Properties in Kelowna last Wednesday and an 11th-hour search for an alternate site in town for the proposed Mariposa seniors care facility, Osoyoos Mayor John Slater says the timeline is just too tight to switch the project to a different site and still meet the provincial government's 2008 deadline for completion of the additional care beds.
Slater spent last Friday afternoon on the phone trying to put together a last-minute deal, but by the end of the day it became clear it wouldn't work.
As a result, the planned public hearing on the Mariposa project at Highways 3 and 97 will go ahead in the Sonora Centre next Monday, Nov. 27 at 7 p.m.
Council, Interior Health and Baltic Properties have looked at six alternative sites, Slater told the Times. He says if Interior Health had communicated more with the Town last spring, there might have been time to shift the seniors care project to a better location.
Slater says both Baltic Properties and Interior Health will have representatives at the Nov. 27th public hearing, to hear the public and to provide information about the project, which includes 108 residential care beds and 32 assisted-living units, as well as an adult daycare facility and a meals program.
The information from the public, Interior Health and Baltic will determine how Council votes on the rezoning, Slater says.
After a Nov. 6 meeting at which it rejected Baltic's application for rezoning to allow it to proceed with the Mariposa Lodge and Mariposa Manor buildings, Osoyoos Council did an about-face and held a special meeting Nov. 10 to pass first reading for the project, sending it to the Nov. 27 public hearing.
But Slater and councillors said at the time they still objected to the proposed location because they feared the highway traffic and nearby orchard operations could pose a danger and discomfort to the elderly residents.
The councillors said they would still push for a change of site, and Slater arranged the Nov. 15 meeting with Interior Health and Baltic.
Slater says the meeting allowed for a good conversation about the need for IH to communicate with communities.
Baltic Properties managing partner Will McKay attended that meeting and said there was just no time to develop another site.
He says he looks forward to the public hearing, and he stresses the safety of our residents is paramount. Very few of the Mariposa residents will ever walk or take scooter trips off the propert without family or attendants.
McKay says Baltic feels good about the social and economic benefits the Mariposa will bring to Osoyoos, and the company hopes to begin construction by next March.
Donna Lommer, Interior Health's Residential Care Director, says last week's meeting was helpful and adds that IH is now anxious to get the process moving forward.
I hope the community can find it in their hearts to embrace the project, she says.