THUNDER BAY – The city’s plan to replace a stone wall on High Street is still far from rock-solid.
While administration considers the cost of including the original stones in rebuilding the wall, it’s also considering a paneled storyboard to replace the “rubble” design.
The $2-million proposal to replace the wall with brick-coloured pressed concrete sunk like a stone when administration presented it to Red River Ward residents at an outdoor meeting in June.
A number of ideas are forming, including a cost analysis Red River Coun. Brian McKinnon requested that would see the existing rocks incorporated into a new design.
McKinnon told city council on Monday that administration is also considering concrete figures that would be placed along the wall in panels.
“Those panels, I’d like to see something if possible, what they might look like,” McKinnon said.
“She (engineering director Kayla Dixon) gave me the sense they would be decorative and tell a story and that type of thing. I don’t know if that will satisfy the residents but it might be something to present.”
Although Dixon was absent from the meeting, city engineer Mike Vogrig said Tuesday the wall will be going back out to tender, as the company the city had contracted went out of business. Vogrig said if the idea was to go ahead, a concrete wall could be built and the city's art department would then contract the panels to be designed over top.
The wall’s reconstruction was scheduled to have taken place during the 2016 construction season but McKinnon volunteered to defer it during budget deliberations.
Research is underway to determine whether senior levels of government could support its reconstruction but clerk John Hannam warned council not to be overly optimistic that the wall could be deemed a heritage project.
“While something might be unique in terms of its appearance and t might be historic in terms of its longevity in the community, it doesn’t necessarily make it fit for Ontario Heritage Advisory Act,” Hannam said.
“Just be careful. Just because something is old doesn’t make it necessarily a candidate to be a designated property.”
Coun. Joe Virdiramo suggested where reconstruction costs have proven unfeasible, other communities have erected photos to keep history alive in residents’ memories.
“If this wall is something the residents would consider taking pictures of and displaying them in the park where it’s located, that will keep the memory or whatever of that specific structure forever,” Virdiramo said.
“Not necessarily physically there but pictorially there. More and more advisories are doing that to protect heritage.”
