It may be the end of an era at a popular Powell River park as one of its longstanding tenants considers its next move.
For the past 15 years, Powell River Archery Club has had a presence at Paradise Exhibition Park with its two ranges, one inside the Powell River and District Agricultural Association’s quonset huts and the other next to the Open Air Market’s vendor booths. The 90-meter outside range was built by archery club volunteers a little more than 10 years ago, said Bill Whyard, a longstanding member and executive of the club. Now that stands in jeopardy.
A board made up of the park’s three principal stakeholders oversees subleases to tenants. Paradise Exhibition Park Society (PEPS) board includes representatives from the agricultural association, Powell River Regional District, Powell River Therapeutic Riding Association and Powell River Trailriders.
The archery club’s latest five-year lease renewal comes as the regional district seeks another 15-year lease with the province.
The club’s lease renewal hangs on whether the club updates its insurance and operating policies, but Whyard said that something as simple as fixing problems with the club’s coverage has blown up into a much bigger battle which has left the archery club’s executive exhausted.
“It’s a sad situation,” said Whyard. “It’s become a far more complicated situation than it should have.”
While the regional district has the authority to sublet the park land, the provincial government reported that it has no record of approving any subleases, even the regional district’s original sublease to PEPS, “let alone any other arrangements that have blossomed in recent years such as the miniature train or archery club and the long-standing fire hall and residence,” wrote Al Radke, the regional district’s chief administrative officer in a November committee of the whole report.
Stan Gisborne, Electoral Area B director, said the province requires “a paper trail” and evidence that all tenants have adequate insurance.
PEPS chairperson and agricultural association president Alan Rebane began working with the park’s tenants to meet the province’s requirement. After contacting BC Archery Association (BCAA) without the local club’s knowledge, Rebane, not a member of the club, said he found irregularities with the archery club’s insurance and with some practices that could increase liability, should an incident occur.
“We understood that they had insurance and they claimed they did,” said Gisborne.
Once Rebane looked into the matter, he found that the insurance did not adequately cover or name PEPS or the regional district in the policy.
“The liability was really open,” said Rebane. “I had to put demands on the archery club and agricultural association that you can’t have facilities open until there is proper insurance.”
Whyard said he understands Rebane is trying to improve the situation at the park which he described as having a long history of confusion between the societies operating there. He admits that the club may not have had all its insurance coverage exactly as required, but the club is “a little miffed” because it had been set up through BCAA with its federal insurer.
Rebane said the three principal user groups at the park are already paying over $12,000 for insurance annually, without including what the archery club would have to pay.
Once the problem with the insurance is corrected, Rebane said the agricultural association would sign another lease with the club for the indoor range. It has yet to be decided whether the outdoor range will re-open though, he added.
With higher numbers of the public visiting Paradise Exhibition Park as a result of the Open Air Market’s continued success, safety of having an outdoor range in such close proximity has become more of a concern.
“It’s a public park and you can’t be flinging arrows any old place, especially since there have been a few instances of people walking out of the bush right into a target practice,” Rebane said. “There’s no fence around it or proper barriers.”
Whyard said that range is only used a few times throughout the year and the club does not have the money to construct a fence to contain the range.
Rebane suggested the club move its outdoor range to other regional district land, or share space with Powell River Rod and Gun Club.
Whyard said it would be a shame if the club is not able to continue using the outdoor range because the Powell River club has one of the best facilities in the country with its indoor and outdoor ranges. “We’re pretty proud of that,” he said adding that he’s getting “pretty tired of doing volunteer work and being shut down by insurance companies and bureaucrats.”
In the meantime, Whyard is taking stock of the club and wondering where to go from here. “We are teetering on the end of a really neat saga.”
