Regional board approves water service to pickers campground near Oliver

PENTICTON – The regional district has taken another step towards securing a permanent supply of water to the Loose Bay seasonal pickers camp north of Oliver.

Directors agreed to a motion yesterday, Aug. 18, to provide water service to the camp and obtain elector approval through the alternate approval process.

A former water connection that once ran over a neighbouring property can no longer be used as the property owner, citing insurance and liability issues, recently disallowed the line.

The regional district now intends to fund the whole cost of construction a water service line, along with the installation of a booster pump to the campsite, which is run by a society and held by the regional district under a license of occupancy on Crown land.

Cost of construction will be funded through a grant, fundraising and funding from the Area C community works reserve.

The service bylaw is needed to fund operation of the water system.

“I’m so glad that we’ve finally come around to having the whole area as the service area, because it would have been impossible to find enough people to pay for it without going to the whole area,” Oliver rural director Terry Schafer says.

Using the alternate approval process, more than 10 per cent of eligible voters need to respond to the regional district in order to trigger a referendum on the issue.

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