Jason Bell is one of a growing number of Kelowna business owners fed up with vandalism, loitering and violence impacting his business.
“Someone is going to get hurt,” Bell said
Bell owns a fast food restaurant on Highway 97 and Leathead Road in Kelowna.
He told Global News a recent incident highlights his safety concerns.
Bell said a transient person was tampering with the restaurant’s electrical box.
An employee went outside to confront him and according to Bell, was threatened.
“Our employee came out to ask him to stop and that was when he stood up and threatened our employee and said I’m going to stab you,” Bell said.
Bell said despite a scuffle ensuing between the two, no one was hurt.
Prior to that incident, Bell said there was another terrifying situation as staff were closing the restaurant for the night a few months back.
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“They were exiting the restaurant and there was a group of people out there, one with a knife waiting for them to leave,” he said.
Bell said the list of concerns is long and includes break-ins, thefts, fires being started next to the building and other public mischief.
“We had someone standing up on the table, throwing food at people. We’ve had a guy just peeing on chairs,” Bell said.
Bell said the situation is so bad he has had to hire a security guard at different times of day to give staff and his customers a sense of safety.
“We’re spending thousands on new alarm systems, security companies,” Bell said.
The acting CEO of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce said she’s not surprised businesses are dealing with these types of struggles.
Colleen Clark told Global News that property crime and public safety were the two main concerns expressed at a recent roundtable the chamber hosted involving dozens of local businesses.
“We’re not just an organization that stands back and says, ‘Oh, this is the problem.’ We like to say, ‘This is the problem, and here’s a couple of ideas we have for solutions,’ because that puts our best bet forward and it helps our members have that opportunity to say, ‘This is what I want, fixed,’” Clark said.
Those concerns will help shape the organization’s policy and advocacy action plan when the chamber holds its policy development forum next month.
“We take all the different things that people have talked to us about in the year, or things that have cropped up in the media or come through a round table conversations we’ve had … so we kind of take all of that and we kind of plan our next year’s policy and advocacy plan, our plan of attack for the year,” Clark said.
The City of Kelowna said Mayor Tom Dyas, councillors and city staff pressed provincial leaders for more action on a number of local priorities, including public safety at the recent Union of B.C. Municipalities conference.
“Chief among the issues discussed with Deputy Premier, Solicitor General and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth was Kelowna’s desire for a stronger focus on repeat property offenders, which also aligns with the Mayor’s Task Force on Crime Reduction recommendations,” spokesperson Tom Wilson said in an email.
But many business owners, including Bell, say they are at the breaking point and desperate for action now.
“Some people are getting to that point where they’re going to take things into their hands and then that’s the problem,” Bell said.
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