The future of the M.S. Norgoma will be discussed at city council’s meeting tonight as city staff is recommending that the city pursue the option of having a Chicago man acquire the Norgoma.
Peter Gregos-Nicols is looking to acquire the vessel and relocate it to Chicago with the hope of restoring the vessel and using it to tour cities around the Great Lakes as a maritime museum.
The cost of restoring the vessel would be up to 500-thousand dollars.
Under this option there would be a cost to the city for the removal of the docks and disconnecting the services to the docks estimated at 35-thousand dollars.
It is further recommended that if a satisfactory agreement can’t be reached with Gregos-Nicols and no other option comes forward for restoration, then staff return with costs and a proposed timeline to proceed with decommissioning and removing the Norgoma from Bondar Marina.
That could cost as much as 500-thousand dollars.

City staff is recommending city council not adopt a recount policy for this fall’s municipal election.
A report for tonight’s council meeting explains that it is the view of staff that requests for recounts are best left to council’s consideration based on the merits of a particular request.
The recommendation is based on the infrequent use of recount policies in Ontario and the rarity of local requests in the past 20-years.
There have only been 4 recounts in the past 20-years—all for the office of councillor.
Under the Municipal Elections Act, the only time a recount automatically occurs is in the event of a tie vote.

City council will be asked at tonight’s meeting to approve the awarding of a contract to a single sourced company for the replacement of refrigeration system compressors at the John Rhodes Community Centre.
A report from city staff indicates that the nature of the replacements is such that a competitive pricing process cannot be undertaken.
The report adds that Toronto based CIMCO Refrigeration is the only authorized company in Ontario to work on our make of compressors.
During the 2017 capital budget process, 112-thousand dollars was approved for this project—-the total estimated cost of the work is over 90-thousand dollars.