Flooding gets priority over Wine Route
The Wine Route in West Kelowna looks a little worse for wear after a summer of neglect by city crews busy tending to other matters.
Dozens of bedraggled hanging baskets and leafless trees line the north part of Boucherie Road, West Kelowna’s busiest municipal street, which is flanked by many attractive and well-maintained vineyards.
The unkempt look of the road, which is being rebuilt and upgraded in stages at a cost of millions of dollars, reflects a shift in priorities for city crews over the past few months.
“I am told that all routine maintenance went on hold for a few months due to all hands on deck for the flood response,” West Kelowna Mayor Doug Findlater wrote Monday in an email.
“Only now are things getting back to normal, but there is a backlog,” Findlater wrote.
The flooding emergency, triggered by record high levels in Okanagan Lake, consumed 27 per cent of West Kelowna staff time in May and June, city council heard last month.
“In the early stages of the flood response, it was literally all hands on deck,” city administrator Jim Zaffino said in a report to council. “We had engineering technicians and administration staff assisting with sandbag building.”
The timeline for completion of dozens of city projects was pushed back, some well into 2018, and routine maintenance of amenities such as the landscaping on the Wine Route fell behind.
“People who don’t live near the waterfront do not understand the intensity of the (flood) response,” Findlater wrote in his email.
The first stage of the Wine Route, from Highway 97 to Stuart Road, was developed in 2012 and includes a median with artificial grass, wider bike lanes, ornamental lighting and decorative banners.
On Monday morning, all 25 of the hanging baskets looked to contain mostly dead flowers. And about half the trees on the median either had no leaves or seemed in considerable distress.
However, the south end of the Wine Route is still looking fine, with colourful hanging baskets and trees in full foliage.
The next phase of the Wine Route’s development, at a cost of $5 million, will be undertaken next year between Stuart Road and Ogden Road.