The city is going hold off on funding for a study looking at the condition and feasibility of restoring the bandshell in Windsors Jackson Park to see if they can get a better price for the job
The city is going hold off on funding for a study looking at the condition and feasibility of restoring the bandshell in Windsor's Jackson Park to see if they can get a better price for the job.
Council voted Monday to have administration launch a formal tendering process to find out the actual cost of the study, setting an upward spending limit of $120,000.
This past November, council voted to hire a consultant to conduct a feasibility study at a cost of $100,00, but the sole-sourced response indicated the study would cost upwards of $300,000.
As a result of the bandshell structure being listed on the Heritage Registry, administration learned that additional information will be required by the consultant that was not fully anticipated during the original report to council.
Ward 9 councillor Kieran McKenzie took issue with the original estimate being sole-sourced and made the push to have the study put to market to see what the cost could be for the city before any funding was committed to the effort.
McKenzie says he just wants to make sure they're getting the best potential value for any investment council is going to make to see if we can restore this space for public use.
"What they've given us so far in terms of the information is the response they got from one consultant," he says. "I'm sure the consultant they spoke to is very knowledgeable in this space, I'm just asking that they go to the full market and a formal procurement."
In the 1940s and 1950s, the bandshell hosted Emancipation Day celebrations that drew crowds for speeches from civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Another issue surrounding the future of the bandshell involves access to the land directly adjacent to the site, the Windsor Stadium property that is owned by the Greater Essex County District School Board.
The feasibility study will also explore a land use agreement for the land use agreement to allow for the use of the Windsor Stadium lands adjacent to the bandshell property.