Back when I was a vastly overworked and even more grossly underpaid newspaper editor, I would get a call from my father.

“Who’s mad at you today,” was his usual greeting. If I didn’t have ready answer or suggest no one was mad at me, he would retort: “Well, you’re not doing your job then.”

The same holds true for city councillors who, in Fernie at least, have really been doing their job. The new firehall issue has angered a lot of Fernieites.

It’s been interesting to watch the debates. The opposition to the new firehall location comes from three different camps … there are those are generally opposed to everything and anything city council does and are happy to clatter on about it on their keyboards; there are those are opposed to the proposed location which eliminates Servello Field; and there are those are concerned about losing greenspace. The last two dovetail nicely together.

Under the leadership of former city councillor Joe Warshawsky, the group has coalesced into a legitimate organization, the Prentice Park Society, and is doing more than screaming derision into the digital world.

They have filed a Supreme Court petition in hopes a judge will halt the hosing down of a decades-old ball field.

In the petition, Warshawsky argues that the city has proceeded with firehall site, even though there is ‘reverter’ status on the title, which means the property could revert back to the original owner, Crow’s Nest Industries (now Shell) if the property is not used for park and recreational purposes, which a firehall is not.

He also argues that it would see the loss of the last centrally-located park and recreational space in the city, citing that Rotary Park is more of a playground area and “offers different recreational opportunities than Prentice Park.”

The city, however, is fighting back. There are some interesting items in its statement to the court that haven’t been a big part of the discussion. The first, at least for me, was that the old North End Grounds, which became Prentice Park, was not donated to the city.

The city purchased the property for $40,500, which, I suspect, even in 1972 was a smokin’ good deal.

Much has been said about the fact Crow’s Nest Industries, at the time, stated the property was to be used for park and recreation use and that it could ‘revert’ back to the previous owner if the conditions aren’t met.

However, Shell isn’t interested in taking it back and, on October 1, the proviso that Shell could take it back, was removed from the title, which leaves the property wholly in the purview of the city.

Another interesting point the city makes is that the land is not designated as parkland, and never was. Therefore, it does not have the protections afforded designated parkland.

The city also points out that land has been portioned off from the original Prentice Park property before — namely the community garden, run by Wildsight, and more appropriately, the sale of a good portion of the ‘park’ to the school district in 1994. That latter, it points out, was done without public consultation.

Warshawsky argues Shell agreed to waive the ‘reverter’ clause back then because it was the school district and wouldn’t have done so for other uses i.e. a firehall.

And then there’s bad faith.

“The Petitioner asserts that the City has acted in bad faith, and points to the fact that if the possibility of reverter (turning the land back to Shell) was discharged the City could use the Lands for other purposes, other than a fire hall. The Petitioner offers nothing more,” reads the city response. “A municipality must act in the public interest and the courts have generally deferred to municipal council’s judgement in exercising its discretion as long as it does so with a bona fide or good faith intention to act in the public interest. Courts should be slow to find bad faith in the conduct of democratically elected representative acting under legislative authority, unless there is no other rational conclusion.

“The Mayor and Council chose the Lands as one of two possible sites for the new fire hall following significant study and public engagement, including seeking requests for proposals or expressions of interest from private landowners. There is no evidence that they did so for any improper purpose.”

Over to you — Supreme Court.

Born and raised in Fernie, Bill Phillips is an award-winning journalist and columnist. He was the winner of the 2009 Best Editorial award at the British Columbia/Yukon Community Newspaper Association’s Ma Murray awards, in 2007 he won the association’s Best Columnist award. In 2004, he placed third in the Canadian Community Newspaper best columnist category and, in 2003, placed second. Read more Writer’s Block here.