To the editor:
This is an open letter to the businesses that would be affected by the Show & Shine and to the 100 Mile mayor and council.
As a resident of 100 Mile House, I would like to contribute to the discussion as to the merits of Birch Avenue versus Centennial Park as the ideal location for the great Show & Shine vintage car show.
To my understanding, the root of the current debate is the fact that organizers of the popular event met with resistance to holding their event on Birch Avenue, so they opted instead to hold it in Centennial Park. Consequently, there is disagreement among the business owners as to the merit of holding the event on Birch Avenue on a part of a Saturday business day.
This debate making its way in some volume into the Free Press shows this is still very much up in the air in the minds of the community and the business owners.
Since Birch Avenue was the originally intended location for the event, I assume the Show & Shine organizers would still prefer to hold their event there. From that perspective, some suggestions:
Assumption: Essentially there are two groups in play here - the affected business owners and the community (as represented by the elected council and the District staff).
In organizational science, when a junior gets into difficulty, the senior's first action to stem the emergency is to bypass the junior and then put in order on an immediate basis. The senior then announces the potentially dangerous situation to all concerned, and, possibly with input from the junior, outlines how it plans to deal with it.
The senior then moves forward with a full handling of the situation. When this is done the senior takes steps to reorganize the activity and to formulate policy that will keep the situation from continuing to occur.
The pattern might be applied here like this: council (as the senior) approaches the organizers of Show & Shine to see if they would be open to a "best case scenario" location for their event. If they are still flexible, then the District could conduct a rapid poll of the affected businesses to see how many actually would be for or against holding it on Birch Avenue.
If a suitable majority wish it to be held on Birch Avenue, then discussions could be entered into with the management of Show & Shine based on the expressed desires of the business owners, with a proper outcome being arranged.
Essentially, council takes over the reins and then finishes by handing the reins back, but with new procedures and policies in place for the future.
This procedure, or something similar to it, could move this matter forward with speed, and to an ideal result. And it could be done with each member of our business community being shown the respect they are all due for the important role they play in providing our community with needed goods and services.
Dave Hickey
Resident and businessman
100 Mile House
