Georgina treading water on what to do with Mossington Wharf
Council votes to replace sign, add emergency equipment and look at dismantling costs
Yorkregion.com
Sept. 6, 2019
Amanda Persico
No one wants to float repair costs for the Mossington Wharf.
Not the federal government, which sold the nautical landing strip last year.
Not the town, which now owns the row of rotting timber that juts out into Lake Simcoe.
And not any marine specialty companies, since the bid to rebuild Mossington Wharf went to tender twice with no bites.
Instead of moving forward with rehabilitating the wharf, council recently voted unanimously to add new safety fencing to deter users from the degrading timber deck; new signage replacing the Department of Fisheries and Oceans sign with a Town of Georgina sign; and emergency and rescue equipment such a lifebuoy, rope and hook.
“I’m disappointed we got this far only to be fixing the fence,” said Ward 4 Councillor Frank Sebo during a recent council meeting referring to the years of fishtailing between the federal government and the town.
In the spring of 2018, the town was awarded a $770,000 grant for taking over the wharf and all its degrading parts.
Grant funds, which are tied to a five-year expiration date, were to be used to rebuild the wharf area. Any funds left over could be used for dredging along the mouth of the river.
Based on a recent report to council, rebuilding the wharf comes with a price tag ranging between $3.17 to $3.65 million, which does not include dredging the river, which could cost between $482,000 and $555,000.
That’s well over the estimate brought forward by town staff in 2017 -- $825,000 for both rebuilding the wharf and dredging the river.
Since there were no takers on the wharf rehabilitation projection, council also opted to package the project into the town’s waterfront parks master plan process, marking the wharf as one of the town’s top priorities.
But many councillors also argued the value in maintaining the wharf, claiming the rotting timber is a sitting lawsuit.
“I worry about considering this thing an asset,” said Ward 1 Councillor Mike Waddington. “The word asset effectively means it has value. I don’t think it does.”
Waddington also pushed for staff to look at costs for removing the decking and leaving only a breakwall.