Local man starts petition on Jumbo

Dave Lazzarino
The Valley Echo
August 19, 2009

A week after the decision on Jumbo's future was made by the board of directors of the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) in Cranbrook, a petition has begun to try and slow that process down.

Armed with a sandwich board, copies of a petition and a few dedicated friends, Doug Anakin hit the streets of Invermere on the weekend.

The petition he was asking people to sign was asking the RDEK to rescind the motion they passed on August 7.

It also asks that the RDEK reconsider whether Jumbo Pass should be made into a mountain resort municipality.

Included in the petition are a request that no action be taken on Jumbo until the petition is presented to the RDEK and that the RDEK "review, reconsider and rescind the motion regarding the proposed change in zoning decision" when it is presented.

He plans to circulate the petition to as many areas within the district and hopes his response might sway a few of the RDEK directors who voted for the motion.

"We might get a few signatures, we might not get any. But we've got to try," said Anakin, who, by midday on Saturday had already filled a few pages with signatures of folks who were in Invermere for the Farmers' Market.

Anakin also plans to put the petitions in various shops around Invermere and elsewhere throughout the region and hopes people will give their support for what he feels to be a just cause. The RDEK meets next on September 4.