Quints Museum saga stalled

After what looked to be a promising plan to move the Dionne Quints Museum home was revoked earlier this week, the city is back to square one with the historic site. 

In September of last year, the current owners of the former Dionne Farmstead property in Corbeil, Roch Legros and Russell Robinson of North Bay, offered to accommodate the relocation of the homestead from the current Seymour Street at Highway 11/17 location to its original site at no cost. 

In their original letter to the community, the pair also offered to put forward $10,000 to help fund the move while proposing that a non-profit charitable organization be formed to raise the remaining funds to help move, situate, and maintain the operation in the future. 

But on Monday, the potential proprietors issued a public letter announcing the revocation of their proposal, stating that they felt that their detailed conceptual plan was met with dismissal and pessimism. 

“It’s highly unfortunate,” community services chairman Mark King said after Monday night's City Council meeting. “We’ve been working with that group for a fair length of time now and, in my mind, they were very committed.

“There’s a piece of property that was their own personal property that they were prepared to actually have that building on,” he added. “A $10,000 investment in the process was really quite something. I know they also had some other donations, from who I don’t know.”

In their revocation letter earlier this week, Legros and Robinson said the political nature of their proposition took them by surprise. 

“[I]t is evident and very disheartening, that the proposal was the centre of a political crossfire that was most uncomfortable and completely unexpected for us,” Legros and Robinson wrote. “Most perplexing is that this turmoil is in stark contrast to the outpouring of community support since publicly sharing our plan.”

King echoed that disappointed after witnessing the way a wide range of community partners stepped up to the plate as well. 

“I had calls myself from people that owned construction companies that were actually prepared to help them in that process and passed on their names so they could connect,” he explained. “I thought we were going somewhere with it.

“I think one of the important things is to recognize these are private people - they didn’t want to get involved in any political discussion, so to speak,” he continued. 

With that offer off the table, King says the situation has hit a wall, with very few prospects moving forward.

“It doesn’t leave it anywhere, to be honest,” said King. “We really don’t have any real options at this point. 

“We have one proposal, through word-of-mouth, that would actually see the building be torn down in pieces and then rebuilt on a piece of private property and used as a cottage, so that’s one option,” he added.  

The city originally purchased the Dionne Farm House back in 1985 and moved the structure and its artifacts to the Seymour location, where the Chamber of Commerce was contracted to oversee its operation.

But after 29 years of operating and managing the Tourist Information Centre and museum, the Chamber were granted permission from council to terminate their lease at the Seymour property at the end of August due to a steady decline in the number of visitors. 

Meanwhile, City Council sent the city’s recommendation to the rezone the property at 1375 Seymour Street to an industrial commercial zone from a light industrial zone to the committee level for a public meeting this past Monday. 

Back in October, the politicians designated the portion of property that the North Bay and District Chamber of Commerce used to call home as “surplus land”, setting the stage for the future sale. 

At the time, Mayor Al McDonald said the prominent city-owned site was appraised at $975,000

“It actually increases the value of the property because the rezoning is already at the top end of what it could be used for,” King explained. “I fully expect that somewhere, maybe in June or July, we need to have a plan in place because I know there are interested parties in the property, so we’ll just have to see how it unfolds." 

King said if anyone feels they have a proposal or plan that makes sense for the historic site to contact him or the city’s managing director of community services, John Severino.