Town of Osoyoos council voted on Monday to not include provisions for boat moorage when the proposed new Gyro Park Pier is constructed. Coun. C. J. Rhodes said he has safety concerns relating to boats coming and leaving the pier at the same time that pedestrian traffic will be heavy. He also believes removing boat moorage could reduce the overall costs of the pier project from between $100,000 to $150,000. (Town of Osoyoos)
Citing high costs and safety concerns, Town of Osoyoos council have opted to not include boat moorage when the new Gyro Park Pier is built in the coming months.
At its regular meeting on Monday, town council voted to approve the Gyro Park Advancement Plan so that final design work can be completed relating to construction of a new pier on Osoyoos Lake adjacent to Gyro Park downtown.
However, following objections from Coun. C. J. Rhodes about including boat moorage as part of the new pier, council eventually voted against a recommendation by CTQ Consultants to include this feature as part of the pier.
The final report by CTQ Consultants would have included four boat slips on the outside of the pier and would allow people on boats to park their boats for a few hours and go shopping downtown or visit other spots away from the lake.
Rhodes said he didn’t believe including boat moorage was a good idea because of the expense involved and safety concerns where boating and pedestrian traffic would be so close together on the pier.
“I’m against the boat moorage part of this proposal,” said Rhodes. “I have safety concerns.”
Rhodes estimated adding boat moorage would cost significant dollars he couldn’t justify spending at this time.
“I’m going to stick my neck out and guess it would cost between $100,000 to $150,000 of additional costs of the pier” if four boat moorage slips were included in the final design, said Rhodes. “We need to be very, very careful with how we design this.
“If we take out the moorage, it saves us a lot of money … and I think it’s a good time to move forward with this pier without this component.”
Coun. Mike Campol agreed saying the costs involved and concerns over who would manage the boat slips made him agree with Rhodes about removing moorage as part of the final pier design.
Mayor Sue McKortoff said she personally favoured including boat moorage slips as part of the final design, however, not approving the construction of the four slips when the pier is constructed in the coming months.
“I don’t want it thrown out of the design because maybe this could be used in the future,” she said.
Coun. Carol Youngberg said she was worried that the idea of including boat moorage were recommended by community members during a public consultation process about waterfront development a couple of years ago.
Youngberg said eliminating the boat moorage component would go against the wishes of many people involved in the community input process.
Youngberg was the only member of council to vote against the motion to eliminate boat moorage as part of the final construction design for the new pier.
Council did vote unanimously in favour of including six components of the new pier project that included:
- A 60-metre long steel pipe supported pier.
- On-shore walkway from the Gyro Park Plaza to the pier.
- Construction of a gazebo at the south end of the pier.
- On-shore connecting nodes and pathways leading to the pier.
- Inclusion of a wheelchair ramp into the water.
- Construction of a jumping tower and water play area.
Council will determine the scope of the project for financing once the detailed design is completed.
A contract to proceed with the detailed design will soon be tendered by the town.
The contract will include working drawings, Class B cost estimates for each component and acquisition of environmental permits, said Alain Cunningham, the town’s director of planning and development.
Building a new pier for the town was one of the top priorities that were strongly suggested following the 2012 Waterfront Gyro Park Plan.
Once the consultants report is finalized, construction on a new pier is expected to begin as early as the spring of 2017, said Cunningham.
Original cost estimates for a new pier are more than $500,000 for the actual pier and another $150,000 to $200,000 for additional components.
The majority of funding for the project will come from the town’s Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) funding.
Over the past several years, the Town of Osoyoos has received over $400,000 annually in RMI funding, which is then directed to community infrastructure projects designed to attract more visitors to our community.
The pier, which would tentatively be 63 metres in length and five metres wide, could be one of the most unique and “iconic” in the country as it would be visible from almost the entire length of Main Street, which is packed with tourists during the busy tourist season in Osoyoos, said project manager Ray Grifone during an earlier presentation to council.
Grifone said there has been overwhelmingly positive response from town council and local residents to the proposed pier. CTQ will now complete detailed design drawings and receive approval from the province in relation to environmental assessment that would allow the pier to be built.
The cost for this phase is roughly $84,000.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
