The Historic O’Keefe Ranch will still have to pay its outstanding debt to the City of Vernon, council decided Monday, March 27.
The O’Keefe Ranch and Interior Historical Society had sought to have its $70,000 loan and $112,000 in insurance costs written off. After a lengthy conversation, council decided not to write off the debt.
The total of just over $182,000 in debt was to be paid by March 31, but council has given the ranch more time to pay it off. A timeline for debt repayment has yet to be decided.
The ranch had requested debt relief as well as $100,000 in additional funding (on top of the $50,000 that was already in the City of Vernon budget and paid this year).
The ranch had said many of its buildings are in “urgent need of repairs” and the ranch does not have the money to have them fixed.
The city owns a large portion of the ranch.
Several councillors commented that the ranch’s financial struggles are a yearly issue, and sought to have a solution to the problem achieved this year.
“Every year this has been going on, and there seems to be no end in sight except for more money to O’Keefe without any assurances on how the funding is going to actually improve the running of the ranch,” said Coun. Akbal Mund.
“Taxpayers are paying for this.”
Mund added the ranch needs a solid business plan going forward.
Coun. Brian Guy said council needs to know the condition of the buildings in disrepair before deciding how to fix them, or rather, how much money it will take to fix them.
He suggested council keep O’Keefe Ranch’s debts on the books, to which council agreed.
Coun. Kari Gares said council needs to decide how much value O’Keefe Ranch holds as a heritage site before moving forward, although Coun. Kelly Fehr pointed out the ranch is not an official heritage site.
“I believe history and culture that is all derived out of the O’Keefe Ranch does need to be preserved, but I also know that we have to be very mindful and very conscientious as to the cost,” Gares said.
“Which is why we need to figure out what is the true cost because we don’t know it at this point in time, but we know it’s probably going to be very significant.”
Council requested staff to create a building condition assessment and an asset management plan.
Coun. Teresa Durning, council’s liaison for the ranch, took a moment to congratulate staff at the ranch on their “hard work” this past year.
“They’ve done a tremendous job and I just don’t want that to be lost on any of us,” she said.
Council agreed to provide an additional $100,000 to the ranch for 2023 operations, as the ranch had requested, bringing the total amount of funding from the city this year up to $150,000, to be funded from the city’s 2022 surplus.
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