Sechelt's Trail Bay may gain its long-anticipated day float as early as mid-August, according to District of Sechelt planning director Ray Parfitt.
Parfitt said Delta's International Marine Floatation Systems Inc. is currently finalizing the 21 by nine by two-metre float as well as the 18 by 1.5-metre gangway, which will attach the day float to the Trail Bay pier. Once finished, the company will use a tugboat to haul the float up to Sechelt, with the gangway resting on top of the barge. Once installed, the day float will have two swimming ladders as well as a rail for tying up boats.
When Parfitt presented a report on the project's progress at committee of the whole July 28, councillors expressed delight that the long-planned project - which is seen as a way to attract leisure boats and thus tourist dollars to Sechelt - was just weeks away from completion.
"I've been building this in my mind for four years, and I'm just ecstatic to hear that it's coming this summer," Coun. Keith Thirkell said.
A federal grant from the West Coast Community Adjustment Program, that the District recently received, will cover $211,000 of the day float's $223,000 price tag.
"We put the application together with Community Futures, and they deserve a hell of a lot of credit for pulling this thing together," Parfitt said in a later phone interview.
At committee, councillors and Mayor Darren Inkster said they were happy that the project - which Sechelt had decided to cover with municipal funds upon learning, earlier this year, that a previous grant application had been denied - would, at the end of the day, cost Sechelt taxpayers virtually nothing.
"We're going to put in a piece of infrastructure that's really important for our business community, and there was virtually no taxpayers' money spent," Inkster said. "I really think that's commendable."
