Amherstburg town council will receive a report Monday night on the proposed Walter Ranta Memorial Park boat ramp.
In March 2023, council instructed administration to look at the feasibility of a boat ramp at Walter Ranta Memorial Park and two options were presented to council.
Option one being a boat ramp at the far west end of the park along the river with an approximate cost of $1.6 million.
Option two was a boat ramp located closer to the road using the existing canal with an approximate cost of $5.1 million.
Heidi Baillargeon, Director of Parks, Facilities, Recreation & Culture, Town of Amherstburg says both options did not take into consideration other factors.
"Those options did not include any costs associated for staffing and they also didn't include any site servicing costs. Electrical, security, water, hydro, gas. None of those were included in the cost."
In 2023, Jones Realty Inc., the current owner of the Ranta Marina, installed new infrastructure that allows the public to use the boat launch for $20 a day flat rate.
Baillargeon says the town is not looking to compete.
"At the time that boaters and residents were looking to seek more options for launching within Amherstburg, there was only one opportunity, besides the private seasonal passes, and now that there is a public launch directly abutting the town property, we would be in direct competition with the private sector and that's not something that we want to do."
She says administration is recommending the town not move forward in part due to operational costs.
"Administration at this point, we have so many projects on our capital roster over the next five years that this would be a huge undertaking. We would have to cut and eliminate a lot of our capital projects in order to bring this to fruition, so administration would not recommend this at this time."
Amherstburg council meets Monday evening at 6 p.m.