By Chad Klassen

Some Westsyde farmers feel heard, more discussions needed after meeting with city

Dec 14, 2018 | 4:42 PM

KAMLOOPS — The farmers in Westsyde who rely on the Noble Creek irrigation system got to to meet face to face with city staff and council, some for the first time since the city sent out a letter to all 36 affected property owners in November, notifying them of a possible shutdown next September. 

“It was nice to be able to respond to the letter that blindsided a bunch of us about a month ago now,” said Westsyde rancher Jon Peachey. “We received this registered letter out of the blue, telling us without any negotiation that the city had a plan to shut down the system.” 

At Thursday night’s meeting, the city outlined its position dealing with aging infrastructure that’s 50 years old and costs $250,000 a year to maintain. In return, the city says it receives about $25,000 to $30,000 for users to use it. 

“Some of the information that we were sharing with residents last night was information about the costs of the system, both from an operations and maintenance perspective, as well as a capital upgrade perspective,” says Director of Civic Operations Jen Fretz. 

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“The system is very old and unfortunately at this point it’s not 100 per cent reliable, so at the City of Kamloops we’re doing everything we to make the system continues to run as best we can. But at the end of the day, it is quite an old system.”

The farmers says it would cost an extraordinary amount of money to buy the system from the city, a system that’s already unreliable, or manage their own irrigation system. Peachey says some of the councillors at the meeting were receptive to the farmers’ concerns. 

“In discussion with the council members after the meeting, I did get the feel that they have listened to us,” notes Peachey. “We’re able to look at it from a point of view other than strictly a budgetary point of view, more of a longer-term food security, having the green, urban agricultural area, and the importance of that to the community.”

Peachey says he brings in $250,000 every year with his cattle-cow operation and estimates the surrounding properties in all contribute millions of dollars to the Kamloops economy. He believes that should be reason enough for the city to keep maintaining the irrigation system. 

“The whole area generates about $1.3 million to $1.4 million in revenue, and that money is all spent in Kamloops,” says Peachey. 

The issue will come in front of city council in January.