It might be old and it might be in a shabby state of disrepair, but Shanty Bay residents love their village wharf.
Dozens of them turned out Thursday night to share their feelings with Oro-Medonte Township officials, who hosted a community meeting to get resident input on what to do with the deteriorating structure.
“We’ve got a wonderful discussion here tonight,” Ward 3 Coun. David Clark said at the onset of the meeting, held at the St. Thomas Anglican Church Parish Hall. “The purpose is to get valued feedback from our community as to what the direction will be for Shanty Bay’s wharf, which I know from personal experience is a cornerstone of the community.”
The wharf, which township officials and residents think has been in place for about a century, needs some serious repairs, as do the stairs leading to it and the open drainage channel beside it.
Shawn Binns, the township’s chief administrative officer, told the audience that while the repairs are needed, they’re not urgent.
“We know the wharf is in poor condition,” he said. “We’re not concerned that there’s going to be a catastrophic failure, that we’re going to need to close the wharf anytime soon."
Binns also touched on a possible timeline.
“We’re probably in a five-year time frame of having to have a plan of what we’re going to do and being able to action that plan. So really, our strategy at this point is to continue to monitor," he said.
“There isn’t a sense of urgency, but then again five years comes pretty quick when you look at the approvals that are required for something like this,” Binns added.
The township presented four options for residents to consider: repair, replace, decommission or divest.
Repairing the wharf and reworking the stairs and the open channel would cost about $600,000. Township officials said this would extend the life of the wharf between 50 and 70 years.
Replacing the wharf and doing the work to the stairs and open channel would cost about $920,000 and would include removal/disposal ($200,000), stairs and drainage ($120,000), and reconstruction ($600,000).
This option would also have a lifespan of about 50 to 70 years.
Decommissioning the structure would cost about $360,000 — removal and disposal of the existing structure ($200,000), replacing the stairs and drainage ($120,000) and re-purposing the waterfront ($40,000).
The last option is to consider selling the property and reinvesting the proceeds into further development of community spaces in Shanty Bay, such as the advancement of the development of Shanty Bay Park.
Township officials estimated the property could sell for upward of $800,000 and there would be no repair or renewal costs.
As soon as township officials were done presenting options, one member of the audience cut to the chase.
“Could we just briefly, make a broad-based vote, right here, right now, with hands up on how we feel about divesting, repairing or rebuilding?” he shouted from the back of the hall. “Could we just do a straw poll real quickly of the four options?”
One township official wasn’t sure the poll would truly reflect the feelings of the entire township, since the entire municipality wasn’t represented in the meeting.
The vast majority of those in attendance — well over 95 per cent, according to township officials — were from the village.
“I’m kind of interested in seeing the result of this,” Binns said. “Can we gauge the level of interest in keeping the wharf with a raise of hands?”
Every hand shot up.
“If that’s the feedback we get from the entire community, our next step, our recommended step that we would have, would be to get back with the community and lay out how we will work out a solution,” Binns said.
Oro-Medonte residents who did not attend the community meeting last night can still make their voices heard by emailing their thoughts to [email protected].
