Saugeen Shores council is on board with a plan to build a splash pad at the Port Elgin waterfront.
Council voted 7-2 to endorse the splash pad project in principle, which proposes to build the $360,000 facility at Northshore Park, immediately north of the Port Elgin harbour.
Amy Shute represents the committee of residents who have spent nearly two years raising funds for the project. "The entire group is extremely pleased, after two years of a lot of work on everybody's behalf, I think we're extremely happy and we can go home and relax a little bit," says Shute.
She says they have raised about $200,000 so far and will now be reaching out for corporate donations and grants as they work towards raising the remaining funds. The group is requesting a $75,000 municipal contribution from council, which has been referred to 2017 budget deliberations this fall.
Not all councillors are in support of the project, with Vice Deputy Mayor Diane Huber and Councillor Don Matheson voting in opposition. Huber says she does not understand why a splash pad needs to be built next to Lake Huron.
"The beach in Port Elgin just a little bit to the south of [Northshore Park] is fairly shallow and it attracts a lot of families and it's quite the splash area right up there against the shore," says Huber.
Shute says they are planning to begin construction on the splash pad early next spring, with a targeted opening date of July 1, 2017.
