Norway Bay pier committee formed, swim lessons to go ahead with new docks

Norway Bay pier committee formed, swim lessons to go ahead with new docks

With the future of the Norway Bay pier under discussion following an engineer’s report that condemned it as unsafe, a new committee has been formed to analyze the options going forward and pursue various funding avenues. The pier is a focal point of the cottaging community and was well used in the summer months. The announcement of its closure was made officially at the March 4 Bristol council meeting.

Councillor Val Twolan-Graham explained that the first meeting of the pier committee will take place on Saturday April 13, and their mandate will be to analyze the engineer’s report and its recommendations to find the best solutions to reconstruct the structure. Once a solution has been approved by council, they will also be the ones to seek out funding for the project, which she anticipates will be quite costly.

At the most recent meeting of council on April 2, Bristol approved the purchase of modular standing docks as a temporary replacement for the ones that are typically anchored to the pier, at a cost of roughly $25,000.

Pat Byrne, the President of the Norway Bay Municipal Association, explained that the docks would allow them to go ahead with their deep water swimming lessons this summer. He anticipated that they would be situated perpendicular to the pier and would be aluminum framed with wooden decks. He said that they would likely have volunteers build the wooden sections as a cost-saving measure.

He added that while there had been some uncertainty with this year’s hiring process for swimming instructors, he was pleased that they were able to confirm the deep water swimming program would go ahead. He explained what they have planned for the new dock configuration.

The pier committee will be made up of residents Byrne, Nancy Crain, Jim Dent, Jean-Pierre Dubois, Kevin Keohane, Bruce Mason, Fred Speer, Connie Twolan and Grant Woolsey. Bristol councillors Twloan-Graham and Archie Greer will serve as liaisons with council and Terry Kiefl will chair the group.

More information on the NBMA’s activities can be found here.