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.
How is the Museum going to pay for dredging? This is not a cheap venture by any stretch. Looking at the numbers it will probably cost around 1.4 million to dredge, then the cost to move the sub which I understand will be greater than the 1.9 million dollar grant. All this money and they still have to refurbish the sub, build the museum and the surrounding site development. How is a Museum that exists on a budget of 15,000-30,000 dollars a year going to finance all of this cost? I know there are fundraising efforts going on, but with the economy in the shape it is in and the number of people out of work in this area, I have a hard time seeing them being able to raise the 4-6 million they are going to need to fund this project. So for the doubters, show us the money! What is your business plan and where is your fundraising at this point? If there were some solid numbers made public then maybe the doubters would become believers.
ReplyDeleteSo, what's the poop lately??
ReplyDelete