After a delay, the redesign of Main Street in downtown North Bay has been approved by city council.
A contract worth $340,607 was approved by council Tuesday for RV Anderson Associates Limited to carry out the redesign of Main Street from Cassells Street to Sherbrooke Street, as well as Ferguson Street from Oak Street to Main Street.
Councillor Dave Mendicino pointed out the downtown redesign has been a priority for this council.
“When council first got together in 2019 and looked at capital projects, after Cassellholme and the Community Recreation centre, the redesign and reconstruction of the downtown was, if not next in line, certainly near the top,” he said.
The report was originally on council’s agenda in February but was sent back to the committee level at the request of councillor Mark King, who wanted to know if the redesign could be done internally rather than being contracted out.
During that committee meeting, staff pointed out that if the redesign were to be undertaken in-house, it would take resources away from other capital projects which would then have to be contracted out.
During the discussion on Tuesday, King referred to the report as a “prickly” subject for himself as he expressed concerns over the project’s impact on downtown business.
“I felt that there was a real value there in speaking with the property owners of the 100 block there on Main Street,” he noted.
King conceded that Ian Kilgour, Director of Community Development and Growth, assured him that businesses were consulted on multiple occasions on the redesign and will continue to be.
“That’s certainly a great prospect as we move forward,” he said. “I respect the council’s decision to move forward with this.”
King was the lone councillor to vote against the contract.
Now that the contract has been approved, the design will be completed by the fall along with a request for tender on the construction costs.
$4 million dollars has already been allocated for the reconstruction of Main Street in 2022 and 2023’s municipal budget.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2022.
