As Jim Morrison once muttered into a microphone, "This is the end."
After five consecutive days of exploring the issues, the people and the potential revival of downtown Okanagan Falls, we had to draw the line somewhere. But if our findings are any indication, the end of this series corresponds with the rumblings of a new start in this town of contradictions.
In the end, we chatted extensively with at least a couple dozen people. Several gave us their thoughts off the record. More handed us rumours we couldn’t verify -- but wish we could.
Yet many more participated fully. Some lived in OK Falls, others worked there, but the majority did both.
And there were so many topics we didn’t even broach. Like housing. Simply, there isn't enough of it. Or stop lights. More stop lights, goes the argument, means more folks would take a moment to look around.
But like we said, the sounds of change are evident to those who look hard enough. And it manifests itself in new businesses like Lorna Harlow's Sparkle Interiors.
Situated in the OK Corral strip mall, just a 30-second walk from the cavernous structure that once housed the town's only grocery store, Sparkle Interiors is a sophisticated kitchen and bath business with an owner who proves yet again that there's hope on the much-maligned commercial strip.
Like several of our interviewees, Harlow is a recent, and happy, Okanagan Falls transplant. That she brought a business along with her is a substantial bonus.
"I love the size of OK Falls," she said, standing amidst a wide assortment of stylish new cabinets and countertops. "It's like a diamond. It’s like a little gem. I love the beach. I'd never go back to Penticton."
In a familiar refrain, Harlow was most impressed by local residents.
"I've been shocked at how great and supportive the people are. I've never had such a sense of community as I have being here."
About the downtown right outside her front door though, Harlow was frank.
"Main Street is run down. We have people who own property and don’t take care of it. Like our property owner here, it's like pulling teeth to get anything done.
"If we could just get people to agree to take care of their properties. Let's make people want to be here."
A block down the street is another newbie enterprise, Green Light Cannabis, which bravely opened in the early days of the pandemic on May 15th. And co-owner Esha Randhawa is upbeat about her experience thus far.
"It's been really wonderful and the community has been super supportive," she said. "Everyone wants to see each other succeed here."
But it's not all rainbows and unicorns. Green Light is in the same set of attached structures that in the past saw fires of questionable origination, and sits immediately adjacent to a vacated restaurant.
It's a typical look for the downtown strip.
Regardless, Esha and sister (and store co-owner) Zirana are great believers in the area. A lot of that comes back to the old Weyerhaeuser operation that for so long was the region's lifeblood.
"My grandfather worked at the mill in 1971 and stayed there 25 years before he retired," she said. "Okanagan Falls was so great to our grandfather when he came to this country with nothing, and that set the foundation for his five kids, one of which is our mom."
That same stretch of 9th Avenue may have another new shop this spring when Penticton's Chantal Moreau hopes to open her "Farmhouse Deli."
A certified dental assistant for 19 years, Moreau was a resident of Hedley when she started baking and selling her goods at the Penticton Farmer's Market. She did well.
Building her business, she then "got into canning (preserves) by accident because there was a demand for it. The seniors aren't doing it much anymore and there was nobody out there selling it."
And when that took off, Moreau figured a storefront would be the next logical step. So she enrolled in the Community Futures British Columbia program and started searching for likely locations. Ultimately, all signs pointed to Okanagan Falls.
"I'm most comfortable working in small towns like Hedley and Keremeos," she said, "and I know there's demand for it there through my research.
"But I couldn't open a store with only preserves. So through some brainstorming and research, and interviews and surveys in OK Falls, I came up with the concept of a deli."
Moreau's Farmhouse Deli storefront would feature an array of product, including meats, cheeses, salads, in-house made soups, made-to-order sandwiches, fresh produce if there's room, and of course preserves and baked goods. She'd like an eating area too.
Will it come to fruition? Moreau's left her dental assistant job behind and seems to have done all her homework. So there's certainly no shortage of effort.
You can reach her at [email protected].
Our final stop isn't in the downtown area at all. Instead, we wanted to see how things were going at the area's biggest employer -- Structurlam.
A North American leader in "mass timber products," an innovative building system used in multi-family residential and commercial building typologies, Structurlam is a key, forward-thinking cog in the Okanagan Falls economic scene.
And thankfully, all goes well. According to Structurlam CEO Hardy Wentzel, who says 220 people are currently employed between the Okanagan Falls facility and another plant and office in Penticton, it'll remain a regional leader for a long time to come.
"We've been here since 1962, and we're definitely not pulling out," Wentzel laughed, responding to our probing questions.
"OK Falls and the South Okanagan is a fantastic location for us. It serves western Canada and the western United States very well and it provides a stable and loyal workforce. We'll continue to invest in modernizing our plants in the Okanagan and they'll be a key part to the expansion we're doing in Arkansas."
Speaking of expansion, Structurlam did just that locally in 2018 when it opened a 40,000 sq ft second facility just 800 meters from the original. And OK Falls benefitted again.
In final analysis, one word and one concept kept cropping up throughout our week-long journey: Incorporation. And in our conversations, we found no dissenting opinions.
In fact, again and again it was viewed as a potential saviour of a derelict downtown -- the one way Okanagan Falls could control its governance going forward and potentially score government grant money along the way.
One of its foremost proponents is the current RDOS Area D director, Ron Obirek. He spoke of it in Part II, but he's also aware of the big argument against it -- probable increased property taxes.
"However," he said, "the benefits of incorporation outweigh the property tax cost. Locally elected council and mayor will make better decisions because they understand their community, and the resulting higher quality of decisions will give the community more value for their money.
"Of more consideration is the significant amount of grant money Okanagan Falls would qualify to receive. Clearwater (BC) incorporated in 2007 and has since received $17.4 million in government grants. So when all the pros and cons are weighed, we simply cannot afford to not incorporate."
We'll leave the last word to the fellow who started us off way back in Part I, Matt Taylor of the Okanagan Falls Community Association. Full of optimism and spearheading a concerted effort to a better future, Taylor nevertheless is aware of the pitfalls of inaction.
"So now we have to ask ourselves how long we want to wait before we do something," he said, standing in front of the eerily empty ex-IGA.
"If we wait too long, there won't be enough of the community to regenerate."
