Kelowna Legion forced to close its doors due to lack of parking

Photo: Rob Gibson

The Kelowna Legion has closed its doors until at least Saturday.

Like many Okanagan businesses, the Legion has been struggling to stay open and serve the community since the COVID-19 pandemic started, but this time, the virus is not the problem.

"We're losing business, totally. We don't know how bad it will be for the rest of this week," says Legion vice president, Linda Mitchell.

The Legion typically opens from Tuesday to Saturday. They serve food and have a meat draw every Wednesday and Saturday.

The problem is the Legion is surrounded by construction at the moment. A development on the north side of the building has the back alley cut off and parts of the alley are also undergoing some work. The City of Kelowna is also doing sidewalk work along Doyle Ave.

"Parking is a big issue," says Mitchell.

Mitchell says it's been a struggle to find places for patrons to park as many of the members and people who use the Legion are elderly and not as capable of walking long distances.

"We're talking about 80 per cent of the people in there are seniors, so they're not like party-goers don't mind walking half a mile for a couple of beers, seniors just can't do that."

"It's a sad situation," Mitchell says. "It's a hard enough time we don't have handicap parking or for buses to come and park for lunch."

Mitchell is still hopeful the Legion will be able to hold their meat draw this Saturday if construction work is completed and access to the back alley parking is available.

Photo: Rob Gibson