Hey, who you calling a prison town, Osoyoos?

Keith Lacey is very, very sorry.

The besieged editor of the Osoyoos (pronounced O-SOO-YUSS, not O-SOY-YOOS, please) Times apologized Monday for the things he said during a breathalyser encounter with an RCMP member week before last, and the things he later wrote about it.

In a post on the paper’s website, Lacey offers “a sincere and heartfelt apology” to Cpl. Ryan McLeod. “Deeply sorry,” Lacy writes. “Truly sorry.” “Deep regret.”

But, in my mind, he doesn’t go far enough. More on that in a moment.

Whilst perusing Lacey’s apology, another item on the website caught my eye. An editorial written last year (before Lacey joined the Times) suggested it was a good thing Osoyoos was out of the running for a new prison.

The jail, announced last week for Oliver, would have “cast a shadow on the sunny, welcoming nature of this resort town…. Regardless of how secure a facility might be, many communities with prisons are often tagged with a stigma.”

Therefore, much better idea to support Oliver as the site. At the official announcement, Osoyoos mayor Stu Wells (a fine fellow and a schoolmate of mine back when Osoyoos kids were bused to school in Oliver) called it “a real shot in the arm” for the area.

And, no doubt, even better since Oliver is 15 or 20 minutes away.

Oliver, by the way, a town of 4,500 people, will benefit by 250 permanent jobs for a facility that amounts to a big-box store with bars, as compared to the 400 jobs Kamloops will get if the gi-mongous mountain-range size Ajax mine goes ahead.

But what really gets me is this idea that a city with a prison isn’t a good place for tourists to visit. Though the South Okanagan city has a wonderful climate and a beautiful lake, Osoyoos will never have as much to offer tourists as Kamloops has.

If visitors mention anything, it’s the pulp mill; they don’t complain about the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre because they don’t even notice it’s there.

Alcatraz aside, I wouldn’t call prisons tourist attractions, but the idea that a prison makes a city a scary place to visit is just dumb.

Now, back to editor Lacey and his apology, which is candid and, I have no doubt, “sincere and heartfelt.” Media have their miscues on occasion and must apologize when they do, but I haven’t seen this much grovelling since Larry decked Mo.

Given the vitriol that dripped from Lacey’s original editorial last week, the apology is appropriate, as far as it goes.

The closest Lacey comes to acknowledging his improper boast to McLeod about his clout as an editor is, “As a veteran journalist, I know the power of words and much of the language and comments I made about Cpl. McLeod in the performance of his duties were uncalled for.”

No mention, however, of having informed McLeod that “I am the editor of the newspaper and you will see the powers that I have,” as captured on video.

Of all that transpired that evening (and, how we’d all love to see that videotape), the implied threat to use his position in the media to respond against the RCMP member is the most seriously intolerable.

Yet, the apology makes no mention of it.