Deadline today, opposition quiet on City’s purchase of Kamloops Daily News property

NEWS/ CITY HALL — With the deadline for a counter petition coming up at 4:30 p.m. today (Friday) little protest has been heard against a proposal that the municipality spend $4.8 million to buy the former Kamloops Daily News building at Fourth Avenue and Seymour Street.

Today is the last day for petitions to be submitted on the purchase as per the provincial alternative approval process — also known as a counter petition. In that process, opponents of the purchase would have to have obtained signatures from 10 per cent of eligible Kamloops voters against the deal.

With 68,410 eligible voters in the City, petition organizers would have to collect 6,841 signatures before the end of the business day. Then, names would be checked to make sure all those who signed the petition were eligible.

The alternative approval process comes into play when the City wants to take out a significant loan for a project.

Unlike a previous effort in 2011, when there was a large movement to halt a parkade proposed for Lorne Street by Riverside Park, the purchase of the Daily News building has been quiet, City corporate clerk Cindy Kennedy said today.

While the deadline for petitions is today, she said she won’t be able to disclose details of any petitions until a report is submitted to council in the agenda for the May 27 meeting.

Kennedy did say that even if the building sale goes ahead, it won’t be finalized until late July because of other aspects of the process that have to be concluded.