The good folk of BC’s Salmon River Farmer’s Institute are worried about Sturgis North.
Last September, CMG reported on Ray Sasserville, who wants to start the optimistically-labelled motorcycle rally in central BC. CMG also noted that some municipal officials in Salmon Arm were ambivalent towards the idea, to say the least.
Now, after a few months of watching bikesploitation reruns of The Wild One and Easy Rider, the good burghers are raising their voices again. Their concern? Members of the Farmer’s Institute told the Salmon Arm Observer that plans to build a campground for the rally on a farm will worsen a local shortage of agricultural land.
One particularly worried retired farmer warned that a lack of farmland could lead to an agricultural future like Asia, where people have to grow carrots on mountainsides. Chilling thoughts, we know.
Call us cynical, but we figure it’s much more likely that the locals continue to be worried about the impact of a spike in tourist traffic and possibly slightly rowdy motorcyclists on the local peace and quiet.
We also bet a lot of those concerns will vanish if there was also a huge influx of tourism money to the local economy.
[…] Sturgis North rally was plagued by controversy for much of last year, and even organizer Ray Sasseville admits he still owes $400,000 for this […]
Whole lot of feathers but not much meat. The news says the camping area just fell thru, no beer garden arranged yet, bands not paid yet…I’ll pass. To fresh for me. Maybe next year if there is a next year. Good luck.
I support the right of people to be incredibly small! Back in the ’70s, a few told many of us we could never build a better ballpark. The ladies league, the men’s league, the junior boys and girls, wow, what a great way to build a sense of community. Tournaments, of the great caliber, the mosaic of characters, people cheering, letting go, bringing good in so many ways! It was the small people who motivated the good people to move forward, to do instead of talk!
The bikes will be in this area long before and long after Sturgis North
The image of bikers has evolved, your doctor, your nurse, your teacher, hell, even your preacher, do you have some reason to think they morph into monsters on cycles! Any event is and has always been about the greater good, never the narrow egos of those who prostitute decency to Judge and Prosecute ‘n’ pass opinion of as factual!
The fact which I present is that this kind of event is new to Salmon Arm, what, 75 years in other places. This is my town too, I stand proud to support and to welcome each and all to this event, we need it, it needs us, sounds to me like the grounds for a great relationship. Indeed, the few have the right to be little, I feel right about the big
Picture, the one looking forward ! 🙂
Wow, has the world in small towns become so closed minded and self concerning that they miss the fact that an influx of money and will lessin such things like the line-up to your food bank, or the many organizations that show up,that come out to these type of events for donations,this is what these events do they wake up,shake up with money an otherwise sleepy little town. Where the half that are laden with money could not see past there own selfish noses to ever help and the other people suffer all year round and stand in homeless shelter lineup and someone else comes in and wants to help the economy and then all the nay sayers hit the press,but I ask where are you all when the people in your own town are standing in the foodbank line-up starving,your nestled behind your closed doors with seasonal fruit and whatever comes to mind and you never open your mouths or take the time to write or bitch about those things going on in your own hometown, maybe take the time to figure out moving to a small town should not take away the humanity if any you may have had for people other then yourself,So maybe next time you want to come on a forum ask the people why they really don’t want Sturgis North to come in,I believe it will be a embarrassment to you , because they are strangers coming in that will help and maybe lift the carpet to show whats actually been swept under it!!
“Next time you require treatment for cancer think about the motorcyclist who chose to help thru funding to help people and whose produce do you think they will buy.Don’t judge them.Bring your family and enjoy the show.”
So your point is the concerns of the people who live in the area are at best secondary and a group of over lubricated rubes is OK as long as they donate to a cause?
Considering the cost to attend Sturgis North, I don’t think it will get to be big enough to be a concern. Check out how much admission is, lol.
Next time you require treatment for cancer think about the motorcyclist who chose to help thru funding to help people and whose produce do you think they will buy.Don’t judge them.Bring your family and enjoy the show.
At least the farmers won’t have to drive to Kamloops to see strippers.
Being a local from Salmon Arm, one of my beef’s is the Sturgis North organizers are planning to have three separate locations for the event and each will be serving alcohol. The planners, notably Steve Hammer, believes incorrectly that a shuttle service from site to site will solve the problem of bikers drinking and motoring. Fat chance, I know guys who own hogs and they would not leave their bikes unattended. Most bikers can be trusted not to drink and drive, but it’s yahoos who are going to be a concern. If the planners have the event on one site and offered camping near by the event would be safer for the community.
They’re reluctance to have a wave of bikers coming into the Okanagan may also have something to do with the local Kelowna infestation (Hell’s Angels and their puppet clubs, the Kingpin Crew and Independent Soldiers)
I understand that, being I live in a lake town…the “terrorists” as we locals call them, invade our nice quiet town all summer long and act like drunken idiots…I don’t think I have spent a day at our beach in the summer since I moved here 5 yrs ago…I don’t think I will live in another resort town again…live and learn…but if it was for only one week out of the whole summer, I could live with it…
Later.
Oddly enough (if you’re not a small town thinker) it doesn’t work that way in many of these small places. The farmers in particular don’t care about tourism at all. Even folks paying residential taxes up the ying yang would sooner complain about interlopers spoiling their peace and quiet for a few days than see a reduction in their tax increases each year. I’m up against it every month of the year in southern Ontario.
I think the influx of tourist money will be the cure to the concern…take a trip through the area, not really a thriving economy…one week of larger than normal police presence to help keep the “partiers” reasonably controlled can only help the area…unless they are joining in the atmosphere (or benefitting from it), the locals will probably plan vacation time then and just not be there…
Later.