The future of a popular jumping and diving spot off the KVR Bridge in Okanagan Falls was the subject of heated debate at Thursday’s Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen meeting, resulting in the board going against staff wishes to close off the spot, and instead allowing jumping to continue at citizens’ own risk.
The trestle bridge jumping platform was originally installed by members of the community and has been in operation for decades. Public outcry was swift when it was suddenly closed off by the RDOS in recent weeks.
Okanagan Falls/Area D regional director Ron Obirek stood up with an impassioned speech against an RDOS staff recommendation that the platform be permanently sealed off for liability and safety reasons.
“People were jumping in a very safe place for 50 or more years. It’s a long standing habit, with no incidents of harm,” Obirek said. “There was no community consultation, no respect or value given to the community input, knowledge, experience, expertise. Instead we have reports from a lawyer in Vancouver.”
Obirek argued that in the days since the closure, conditions have actually gotten less safe. He passed out large printed photos to his fellow directors of people climbing over the guard railings to jump and lining up blocking accessible pathways elsewhere on the KVR to find a spot to leap into Skaha Lake.
“[People] are not happy, and I get to hear it,” he said, brandishing a thick pile of printed-off emails from his constituents, adding that a lot of the messages “are not polite.”
The bottom line, he said, is that blocking off the jumping point won’t stop the popular behaviour.
“The suggestion that we should make it less safe when we know people are going to jump, and that this somehow will make us less liable, is ridiculous,” Obirek said. “I’m a lawyer, I will tell you, if somebody goes over that railing and gets injured, I would argue this board is more liable for their mismanagement of this risk, not less.”
He indicated re-opening the trestle for recreation with upgraded ladders and a self-closing gate would be his preferred path, and found support from some members of the board, but pushback from others. Penticton director Jake Kimberly said he had “concerns” of people getting injured or drowning.
“These risks really scare me, when you’re looking at it, and with all due respect to the emails that have been received, those people are not aware of those risks, as such,” Kimberly said. “As much as they want to say ‘We love the recreation aspect of it,’ yeah, great, but are you aware of the risks that the Regional District’s going through?”
Board chair Karla Kozakevich confirmed that any potential penalties from injury lawsuits would be shared by the entire Regional District, not just Area D, which gave director Sue McKortoff of Osoyoos pause.
“If we are all going to be liable if something happens, then I can’t support allowing that to happen,” she said.
Obirek let his own concerns with the proceedings be known.
“My frustration is I may be the only person here who’s been there and looked at it,” he said.
Director Julius Bloomfield of Penticton sided with Obirek, saying “some people want to have fun.”
“Where does this stop? If somebody’s walking along the KVR Trail and trips over and breaks an arm, are we going to close down the KVR Trail?” he asked rhetorically. “Accidents do happen and that’s why we have insurance.”
After over an hour of debate, the group decided to ignore staff’s recommendation to remove the gate, jumping platform and ladder. They instead crafted a motion to “re-open the trestle for public recreation,” and put in a proper gate and upgrade the ladder from the water as well as adding signage indicating use is “at your own risk.”
“We’re not advertising it for jumping, we’re going to warn people about the risk, we’re just opening it back up,” Kozakevich said.
The motion passed with only directors Spencer Coyne and Bob Coyne of Princeton and McKortoff opposing.
City staff said the trestle would be re-opened “as soon as possible” following the passing of the motion, but they need to converse with the provincial government first as the trestle bridge is owned by the province and used by the RDOS under specific conditions of it being a fully rail-lined trail.
