The cost of fixing Callander’s Centennial Park shoreline is falling wholly on the municipality’s shoulders as insurance is not offering a cent.
Council estimates the work will cost about $500,000 – the plan is to bring in rock to strengthen the shore – and the clock is ticking, as ideally, work will be completed this fall.
“Council is very disappointed that our insurers will not cover that storm damage from last spring,” Mayor Robb Noon told BayToday. “We’re looking at rebuilding now and how we’re going to do that without affecting the taxes.”
See: Callander ponders steel or rock for shoreline fix
Staff are looking into grants from both the federal and provincial governments that would offset the costs.
This past April waves walloped Centennial Park, damaging the dock and the metal break wall running along the shore. During that storm, the mayor recalled the waves were splashing over the park’s sidewalk, which runs parallel to the shore from the parking lot to the playgrounds.
Protecting this sidewalk is a priority. It was installed just two years ago in September of 2022, and cost the town $160,000, which came from grants from the upper levels of government. It was an expensive project, and Mayor Noon wants to protect it.
Hence the need to repair and protect the shore this fall, as spring and her rising waters will be just around the corner.
See: Strolling Callander’s waterfront is about to get easier
The municipality did consider replacing the metal break wall, but costs were a concern. Creating a new wall with “ballast rock is less expensive than steel sheeting,” Mayor Noon said, “and we have to get some if not all of that in this fall because if spring comes back the same as last year, we’ll lose our new walkway.”
Design plans are underway for the shoreline, but the priority is to get the rock in, and once the spring comes, the municipality can always adjust the overall look of the new break wall.
Also, the mayor explained that staff and council are going to review Callander’s current insurance contract. “You go to the expense of getting insurance and you think things are covered, but they’re not,” Mayor Noon said, “so we’re very disappointed that our insurance provider is not covering this.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
