Community Waterfront Friends - North Bay, Ontario

Milestones

Waterfront Friends milestones update January 2007

In 2005 the second carousel was added to the waterfront in a temporary home, and has been well used by the local residents. Once the underpasses have been completed and the site development finished, there will be a permanent building installed and the carousel moved over to the area in front of Marina Point. This carousel is unique in North America, as it contains only Northern animals. A book about it will be completed once it’s in its’ final location in a permanent building. It will tell the story of how all these animals ended up on the carousel, and may tell you what happens to them at night when the humans have all gone home. In July of 2006 the Discovery Centre (formerly the CP station) was opened with about $600,000.00 worth of hands on interactive exhibits. When if you visit, you will find that it takes between an hour and a half to two hours to work your way through. In the process you will learn (or if you are old enough, to remember) how things were done in the railway and communications world years ago. Our1903 station building has been completely restored, and should be around for another 200 years! The price of admission is a modest $6.00 plus tax, or if you have a membership for Discovery North Bay, you can go as often as you wish. In 2004, 2005, and 2006, on the lake side of the Discovery Centre, we have had a natural ice rink installed by volunteers of Heritage North Bay. It has been well used. We are learning all sorts of things so that when it comes time to install the artificial ice for the pond and the skating pathways for the completed vision, we will avoid many pitfalls that we might have otherwise encountered if not for experience we have gained from operating the rink. Due to the environmental clean up and the late start to the winter, we decided not to operate it. Hopefully in 07-08 we will have it up and running again. In the summer of 2006, with the help of $500,000 raised by CWF, $300,000 from the City of North Bay, $1.3 million from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, and $500,000 from Fednor, the site development and environmental clean up of the old CP rail lands was completed on budget. This was a major project supervised by the City’s engineering staff, and is now complete. It was an overwhelming obstacle which has now been overcome! The rail lands have been pronounced clean, and this sets the stage for the development of the Community Waterfront Park (CWP) as we have visualized it. Next, we are applying for funds to complete, over a three year period, the pedestrian and minitrain underpasses. We hope to see the project started in the fall of 2007 (mostly installation of conduits and pipes at that time). Ideally, if everything goes right, the CP tracks will be moved over temporarily, and the underpasses can be installed in the summer of 2008. Grading of the 38 acres, installation of the underpass walkways and the train roadbed will then be completed in the summer of 2009. This core-connection is a major piece of the puzzle and the main link between downtown and the waterfront. During the fall of 2006, and early part of 2007 the new city bus transit terminal and bus loading areas have been under construction, and should be in use sometime in the spring of 2007. This will be another first class facility, and has been talked about for at least 20 years. It will be exciting to see it completed, and used by the residents of North Bay. Once it is in use, the old ATT building on the lake side of Oak and Ferguson streets will be demolished. This will complete the opening up of all of Oak Street, allowing a spectacular view of the North Bay waterfront. This is going to change the face of North Bay, and is an historical turning point for all of us. We expect more dramatic changes to the downtown as the park continues to develop and become a major attraction for North Bay and the downtown area. Already store fronts are being renovated, and previously empty buildings are being restored for office and residential space. They will all be coveted lake view buildings! As they are completed, these buildings are filling up. This is helping to rejuvenate the downtown area, and is also creating a whole new community within the existing lifestyle of “downtown”. The Marina Point assisted living and independent apartment complex should be completed sometime in the spring of 2007 as well. There will be a total of approximately 184 units. People have been on a waiting list for those spots during construction. As they say so often, now: “It’s all good!”

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