“Perceptions,” by Gerry Warner

Op-Ed Commentary

I would like to commend the City of Cranbrook for finally stating its intentions regarding the former Mount Baker RV Campground, which sat closed and neglected for almost three years. However, I have some questions about the city’s intentions to convert the popular and much-loved camping site into a so called “no-service campground” as stated in a city press release last week.

How would a no-service campground meet the camping needs of tourists that pour through Cranbrook by the thousands every summer?  It won’t and the city knows it.

Who would want to camp at a downtown campground without services? Would tourists camp at all in such a space? It doesn’t make sense. So why is the city going ahead with a project doomed to fail?

Could it be that the city wants the no-service campground to fail? Why would they want such a thing? I can only speculate and I hope I’m wrong. But I can’t help but wonder if the city has another agenda for that strip of green along 14^th Avenue leading to the downtown a few short blocks away?

And this is where a common but sometimes ugly word enters the discussion – politics.

Yes, politics, which is not necessarily a bad thing because politics is the way things get done. And every politician loves to get things done especially if it involves building something, naming something or being praised for strong leadership. And how does all this tie in with the machinations of Cranbrook City Hall approving a “no-service campground” in the middle of the city’s oldest and most popular heritage park next door to the Seniors Centre, the high school and the stores and services downtown? You’d think this would be the perfect place for a showcase campground and not one which City Hall proudly describes as having “no services.”

So, what’s really going on here?

I don’t know because most of the discussions leading to this strange decision took place in-camera behind closed doors. This leads me to speculate that what we’re seeing here is a badly split council. Why else would a routine decision take three years to make? Then again this was a big decision involving a campground that was the pride of Cranbrook since the early 1930s and the era of the famous Gyro swimming pool enjoyed by tourists and Cranbrookians alike for over a half century.

Why did they do most of their discussions behind closed doors to make a disappointing decision like that?

But when it comes to parks and developing raw land, decisions can get a little strange in Cranbrook. Almost 50 years ago, former Cranbrook CPR agent and sportsman George T. Moir retired and donated his property overlooking the city for use as a park. And what did the council of the day do with the land? Why they converted it into a gravel pit and didn’t get around to building the current Moir Centennial Athletic Park until decades later where it sits in splendid isolation on the edge of town, the most under-used park in the city.

Will this be the fate of our new “no-service campground?” Perish the thought!

Surely this questionable decision should be revisited. Why not hold a public meeting or use a referendum to discuss alternatives to such an unimaginative approach to developing our fine city? If developers want to build condos or high-rises on the site let them justify this to the people of Cranbrook.

Maybe that would be the best option, but we’ll never know if council continues to be so secretive and the public so apathetic about what’s happening in the supposed “Key City” of the Kootenays.

Lead image: Graffiti on a Baker Park bench, located beside Mount Baker RV Campground. Image was captured about 10 years ago. e-KNOW file photo

Gerry Warner is a retired journalist, who enjoys having a few services when he camps.

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