Westport Wharf in a Fix

Kerr: Irishtown wharf fix suddenly cancelled by feds

By BRIAN MEDEL Yarmouth Bureau
Sat. Apr 3 - 4:53 AM


A sign on the Irishtown wharf on Brier Island warns that no one may use the structure because it is unsafe. (Brian Medel / Yarmouth Bureau)





WESTPORT — If passengers boarding Brier Island whale watching boats have a spring in their step this season, it may be due to their excitement. Then again, they may be bouncing along on some rotting planks on the Irishtown wharf.

A prominent red and white sign warns pedestrians to stay clear of the wharf because it’s dangerous.

But the Irishtown wharf is where a couple of busy whale watching tour companies greet their passengers.

"They typically start right after Mother’s Day," said Dan Norwood, Westport’s harbour master.

Westport is the only town on Brier Island, which is reached by ferry from Long Island, which can only be reached by ferry from Digby Neck.

West Nova MP Greg Kerr announced a repair job for the Irishtown wharf late last year. But the job was suddenly cancelled by the federal government.

"They weren’t going to tell us," Norwood said this week.

The Brier Islanders learned the job had been shelved from a contractor who bid on the project, he said.

Although the Irishtown wharf is no longer considered safe, tourists must still board whale watching boats there, said Norwood.

If it was fixed, five lobster boats could tie up there during fishing season, alleviating overcrowding at the island’s only other wharf, he said.

There are about 15 fishing vessels on Brier Island and three whale watching boats, said Norwood.

A portion of the Irishtown wharf where a floating dock is attached is falling apart, Norwood said. That’s how passengers board the tour boats.

A supportive structure is also crumbling, and islanders want a new concrete deck placed on top of those springy planks.

The Irishtown wharf is about 120 metres long. It was built in the 1930s and fixed a bit in the 1960s and 1970s.

Brier Island resident Penny Graham said in a recent letter to Kerr that the sign warning people of the dangerous wharf has been up for three years.

She said an assessment done in 1995 concluded the deck on the wharf was unsafe.

"Unfortunately, we have been studied to death down here with no results," she wrote last week.

On Thursday, Kerr said the Irishtown wharf tender proposal was the only one that did not proceed from several announced late last year.

The low tender came back at about twice what the budget had been for the work, which is extremely unusual, he said.

The wharf repair was to be worth about $550,000, he said, so the Public Works Department did not pursue it.

Kerr said a Fisheries and Oceans Canada official told him someone will visit the wharf in a couple of weeks to see what can be done to make it safe for this season.

"We want to get the project done but I can’t tell them how long it’s going to take to get the next tender out," Kerr said.

( bmedel@herald.ca)