Kincardine council has directed municipal staff to move ahead with replacing the boardwalk at the Station Beach.
Council was presented options for either a stamped concrete surface or one made of composite materials, but some members of council were concerned that wood was not presented as an option.
Director of Community Services Jayne Jagelewski presented walking surface options “There’s a lot of things we look at when we start to design boardwalks and more particularly with sand migration, and the environment where we’re putting it, and there’s beaches where wood makes total sense — absolutely total sense to put a wood boardwalk in,” she told council. And not only because of sand migration, but also the capability of shifting it as required for various reasons… We certainly looked at other municipalities and what they put in their boardwalk, and we looked at what specifically would work best in Kincardine.”
Jagelewski explained that whatever the material chosen by council, staff needed a decision made quickly because of the limited time to get construction completed.
“Staff are happy to put at this point any material council desires to push this forward. We are deeply concerned that this will not be done in time for this fall. We have a very small window of opportunity to get this installed without impacting our season, summer more specifically. And we know that our season is far past the Labour Day weekend as well. And if we have a winter like we did this past year, we’re still in it, so we will work with whatever scope council directs us to. Our importance is more getting this project moving forward at this point.”
Municipal staff outlined just the two options for surface material for the boardwalk replacement, either composite or stamped concrete. The choices outlined in the report would consider the impact on environmental sustainability, maintenance costs, and user experience.
Council had initially turned down the option of a new boardwalk made of a composite material in favour of stamped concrete.
Later in Wednesday’s meeting, council then revisited the resolution with a motion from Deputy Mayor Andrea Clarke.
After more discussion, council defeated both composite and stamped concrete options, which allowed a new motion to come forward that proposed wood, which was then approved.
Council had approved $750,000 to fund construction during 2025 budget discussions. Construction and completion of the new Station Beach boardwalk is expected this fall.
