GORE BAY – Gore Bay town council is upset after being turned down for funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation for repairs to the town boardwalk.
“We have an update on our boardwalk funding application,” said Gore Bay Mayor Dan Osborne, at a meeting this week.
“Trillium denied the funding application,” said town clerk Stasia Carr. “There are other funding opportunities (funding sources) and there is another opportunity to apply for funding through Trillium.”
“How many times now have we been denied on funding applications to Trillium?” asked Mayor Osborne.
It was pointed out the town was most recently turned down for Trillium funding two years ago for another project.
“It seems to be a recurring thing,” stated Mayor Osborne.
Councillor Jack Clark questioned if Manitoulin has a representative on the Trillium board.
“There is a local representative, but I’m not sure who it is currently,” said Mayor Osborne. “Maybe we need to find out who the current rep is and find out what we are doing wrong.”
Ms. Carr pointed out, “the Trillium funding process is really competitive, especially under COVID-19, and they received a lot of applications for funding, from municipalities and First Nations, and it is open to other groups as well.”
“The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” stated Councillor Clark.
As has been reported previously, Trillium Foundation funding was available for between $5,000-$150,000. At a meeting in December, Gore Bay council had approved the submission of an application to the Trillium Fund under the COVID-19 Resilient Communities Fund for the repair of the waterfront boardwalk trail. Further, the helical pile option spanning the entire portion of the boardwalk to be repaired was applied for under this grant.
The entire project would have cost $128,000 and the town had put funding aside in its budget, pending funding for the project, to go forward with the project.
The foundations for the boardwalk were installed in the 1980s. The boardwalk deck was replaced as part of the entire boardwalk refurbishment in 2017. Due to water level changes and the effect of ice pressure on the foundations, specifically in the creek bed areas, the boardwalks in the two spans (splash pad to Smith Park, and Smith Park to Water Street), were compromised during the winters of 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 which necessitated the removal of portions of these sections.
