Hands to Stations for Leaving Harbour!

Important announcement below.  Please see the attached Press release

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The Elgin Military Museum, 30 Talbot Street, St. Thomas, Ontario CANADA N5P 1A3
A Registered Charity    Telephone: 519-633-7641 Email: curator@elginmilitarymuseum.ca Website: www.projectojibwa.ca


Immediate Release
December 1, 2011

Project Ojibwa Achieves Milestone Objective

The Elgin Military Museum is pleased to announce that it has received a letter signed by the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, that the Museum has now received “approval in principle of the donation of Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Ojibwa to the Elgin Military Museum”.

Ojibwa was the first of Canada’s Oberon Class submarines to arrive, and today she remains in Halifax, the last of her type, awaiting her final trip to her new home on Lake Erie at Port Burwell, Ontario, as the centrepiece of a new, regional naval museum. Onondaga was the first to go, to become a museum piece in Rimouski, Quebec, and her other sister boats, Okanagan and Olympus travelled this summer to Lake Erie as well, however, their journey ended in a marine salvage yard to be broken up.

“We are all tremendously pleased” said Deborah Jarvis, President of the Museum, “our team of volunteers, staff, consultants and engineers have worked for close to two years to reach this point. This is a major milestone. Project Ojibwa is now a reality rather than an idea.”

The Museum has been working through a two phase approval process. The first phase, now completed, involved the many detailed technical and engineering studies and reports necessary to prove that the Museum could make the project a reality. This included selection of a host community, detailed business plans, environmental studies and detailed engineering work for the move and mounting of the vessel.

“Throughout the first phase, the Museum was very fortunate to be able to get the services of some of the leading names in this industry” said Museum Executive Director Ian Raven, “we started knowing nothing, but thanks to firms like BMT Fleet Technology, Mammoet, and Heddle Marine Service, we were able to assemble a top notch team, with top notch plans, that have convinced the Minister that this project can and will be accomplished.”

“Local support has also been key – everyone seems to be on our side”, he continued, “from the Municipality of Bayham, the host community, to dozens and dozens of local individuals and firms that are all contributing to make this project a success.”

That support has also spread across the region, province and the country – the Museum is continually receiving messages and encouragement from new sources, more than one describing the project as being “of national importance”. As an example, the Museum was contacted by members of the Canadian Naval Divers Association, and received a donation of diver’s equipment for the new site in Port Burwell. It will form the basis of an exhibit on the very important role of naval divers.

The Museum is now moving on to Phase Two, which involves demonstrating to the Minister that the Museum has the necessary financing for the Project.

“With this approval in principle, we now have the ability to raise the funding we require, as we have the assurance from the Minister that when we show the funding, we will receive the vessel. This approval has been the final piece of the puzzle we required to show the donors and funders.”

While it seems to have been a very long process, Raven says he fully understands why the process is so involved. “Most people, including ourselves in the beginning, had no real idea of what was involved. The staff at National Defence have, through careful review and questioning of our proposal, assisted the Museum in ensuring that nothing has been missed, and that we have the greatest possible chance of success.”
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Contact Person: Ian Raven, Executive Director (519) 633-7641
curator@elginmilitarymuseum.ca

Bayham Won't Dredge But..

The Elgin Military Museum will!  Some Blogsters and other scribblers have called the project dead, but far from it, the municipality has agreed to sell the 4 acre parcel of harbourfront land  to the Museum for a nominal $2. In exchange, the museum will take on the dredging costs.  Probably a better long term deal for the museum than the alternative..

Details here "The Municipality of Bayham has confirmed  that an Agreement of Purchase and Sale for the property designated as the HMCS Ojibwa Submarine Museum site in Port Burwell has been completed. The sale is expected to close Aug 12, 2011, paving the way for the release of the vessel by the Dept of National Defense"

The Project is shovel ready and the transfer is the next step forward for, and the most crucial, allowing construction to begin. 

We still await the final release of OJIBWA, but we believe that will be forthcoming very soon.  DND is clearing the waterfront of all retired "O" boats, with the former HMS Olympus arriving at the scrapyard in Port Maitland as you read this.  Next to go will be Okanagan , early in August and Ojibwa will be brought to Hamilton at the end of the season to have cradles fitted in Hamilton Ontario.

Will post more information as it becomes available.

Project Engineering Team inspects Site

Yesterday the entire team including BMT, Heddle Marine, Mammoet, Rylett Engineering, Elgin Military Museum and reps from Bayham council met to review progress, iron out issues and inspect the site. Those who hadn't seen the layout were very impressed with the physical site and all agreed we had a chosen an outstanding  location for this project.

Close inspection by Mammoet and Rylett resulted in a consensus that  there are no major obstacles to overcome in the barge to shore transfer, other than the lack of apparent progress on dredging the harbour.

Bayham council may be having some hope that another landing alternative might be less expensive.  No such luck there, as a study of the concept pointed out the alternative suggested would be at least as costly and infinitely more risky.

So over to you Bayham Council.  We await your speedy decision

Dredging still Uncertain

It seems a poorly worded newspaper article let us to believe the dredging decision had been made.  Maybe not so! Council merely OK's the dredging study.  So we need to apologize for getting hopes up too high.  We'll keep you posted as things progress.  The drop-dead date for a decision is fast approaching

Let the party begin!!

We're feeling so good we're having a party at Port Burwell Saturday May 14th  Join us!
For complete information visit us at:
http://projectojibwa.ca/you-can-help/navy-bluesfest.aspx

Bayham Moves Ahead on Dredging Harbour

Just announced.   Bayham will acquire their own dredging equipment and make the depth we need to get Ojibwa alongside the harbour in Port Burwell and re-open the harbour to pleasure boats.  Not only that, by owning the equipment they will keep the harbour open and help other communities on the South Coast do the same!  

This is a great step forward in moving our project and a tremendous day for Port Burwell.It's also the beginning of the renaissance of Port Burwell as a recreational/boating centre.    It seems Bayham residents have the good fortune to have elected a council that knows how to do the right thing!! 

A Big Week Ahead

On the agenda: conferences with DND to work out final terms for the release of Ojibwa and CAF to discuss finalization of the contribution agreement.  Look for major news to begin flowing after these events .  Corporate fundraising campaign is now rolling out and plans for a full day "Blues Fest"  in Port Burwell May 14th are in the works.  Stay tuned to this station for more details!!

Update

Click here for The latest news!

HAVE YOU JOINED THE SHIPS COMPANY YET?

I've convinced the executive that qualified submariners and members of SAOC  who want to support the project deserve special consideration, so I'm happy to announce that membership fees will be held to $ 50 for those who qualify.  We now have an upgraded website with a working registration form at
New Ship's Company Registration Form

Simply type "DOLPHIN DISCOUNT" into the message box.  Membership is now approaching 100,  help us get to our goal of 500 members by "Landing Day".  We estimate that Ojibwa will be arriving in Port Burwell by Oct 31 if not sooner!

Release of the Submarine on the Horizon!

Word is that the project executive could be sitting down with the Navy very soon to begin working out final details for a formal release of the vessel to the Elgin Military Museum.  Taking into account the advanced state of preparations and the attention to detail regarding the technical aspects of the planning, I can't see many issues standing in the way of a formal announcement in the coming weeks

Another One Bites the Dust!

Feb 9,2011  A decision has been rendered on the Environmental Assessment for the Ojibwa Museum project...I quote

"after taking into consideration the screening report and taking into account the implementation of appropriate mitigation measures, the authority is of the opinion that the project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental affects" and "A follow-up program is not considered appropriate."

We've cleared another important hurdle!!!

Breakthrough Day?

January was a quiet month as far as the blog goes......Waiting for something to report I guess.  It's been quite a while since the CAF Funding was announced in June and we eventually erected the CAF sign in Port Burwell,.    We optimistically believed that we would have Ojibwa here by spring,  but reality eventually overtakes optimism and we discovered how complicated the funding process actually is....

 Pictured here are Ron Bradfield of Bayham Township and Al Montgomery, Project Co-ordinator Mounting signage announcing CAF Funding at the Port Burwell site Dec 4/10


 .....While we waited for action, we stayed busy here at Project HQ.  We have been hard at work on marketing plans and working out the details for site preparation at Port Burwell.   We sweated out a series of seemingly endless delays and continuous requests for more info from CAF,   trying to figure out how much we could get accomplished before the spending deadline of March 31.  "Use it or Lose IT"  was the mantra and since we couldn't possibly move Ojibwa before the deadline it seemed as if the entire budget might get consumed in a winter construction project, where costs are forced up by a number of factors.

Well today a breakthrough!   CAF has informed us that they are moving the paperwork forward as we speak.

Looks like this project may finally have wheels!!!