A picket line of sorts was up at historic O'Keefe Ranch Monday, June 23.
A group of volunteers from Desert Cove Estates 鈥� including Douglas Macgregor, founder of the Save the O'Keefe Ranch Committee 鈥� began pressure washing the old paint off the picket fence surrounding the cemetery behind St. Anne's Church. This is in preparation for repairing and repainting the white picket fence, the first of what is hoped to be many projects the committee will undertake to help beautify the ranch.
"New billboard highway signs, equipment repairs, as well as grass mowing, weed removal, and donations for animal feed are some of the things this committee and the Desert Cove community has undertaken to help the ranch survive for the summer," said Macgregor, who earlier in June wrote a letter to The Morning Star, concerned about ranch and the "dire financial straits" the facility is facing.
"Volunteers have been buying gas and were also buying feed for the animals out of their own pocket," he wrote.
The City of Vernon has owned the property since 1977, when an official lease agreement was signed between the two parties where the ranch was to be operated "in perpetuity" as a historic public park.
The current agreement expires in 2027.
In April, the ranch won $50,000 from the , which is to be used for restoring the O'Keefe mansion. But it has still struggled to stay afloat financially.
Macgregor has set up a committee of dedicated North Okanagan community members with ties to businesses, foundations and community groups, to "whom we could partner to raise the kind of money needed to fix up the building and get the ranch back on its feet."
"At this time there is no administrator at the ranch, no one to greet the visitors and collect entrance fees, or help sell the souvenirs in the gift store except for volunteers on weekends," he said. "All the work now at the ranch is done by volunteers who are quickly playing out and frustrated by the state of affairs."
For more information on the new committee, email Macgregor at .
