The wheels are turning on a location for Windsor's historic street car.
An open house was held Wednesday night to gather public input on the project which will see the city spend between $500,000 and $750,000 on the restoration of the of the 100-year-old street car.
Several locations along Windsor's waterfront are being considered as well as potential uses for the car once it's restored.
President of the Ontario Questers Lynn Teahan attended the open house.
She says she loves the project.
"It's a really wonderful idea to remember our past and to make it part of our present. I'm with a group called the Ontario Questers and we're very much interested in the restoration of artifacts and, in fact, we recently helped with the restoration of part of the bar from the old Abars. I think it's interesting that we have places like the Chimczuk Museum that encapsulates our history and we can pass it on to young people because we really don't know who we are in the present until we know where we've come from."
Teahan says she's looking forward to seeing where the project goes.
"It's going to take a lot of effort, but then what doesn't that's meaningful. I think it's really interesting, the places that have been suggested along the riverfront, because visitors to the city do tend to walk that riverfront trail."
Residents talk with city staff at an open house on the street car restoration at the Chimczuk Museum January 31, 2018 (Photo by AM800's Zander Broeckel)
Cathy Masterson is the city's Manager of Cultural Affairs and says feedback has been generally positive.
"There have been a couple of people who said at the start that when they first heard about the project they were like, "Oh, this is a lot of money", but then the more that they heard about and the more that they understood the significance of this street car, now they're hooked in and they think it's important and they want to see an opportunity to share in determining its future."
She says they want to hear people's ideas as nothing is set in stone just yet.
"That's one of the interesting pieces right now is that we are very much interested in people's comments. We do encourage people to take the time and really take a look at it and help us to find the location that this restored street car will go and what kind of things they want to see around it. What are the amenities that they want to see?"
The City of Windsor is gathering input from residents on the location of a restored street car (Photo by AM800's Zander Broeckel)
Masterson says residents have been coming up with some interesting ideas.
"We've heard of everything down there from restaurants to getting ice cream there to having a little amphitheatre there for people to play music and do theatre in the park kind of idea. So really, right now there's all kinds of things flowing through and it is really interesting to see what kind of innovative ideas are coming forward."
The restoration of the car, which is thought to be one of just two in North America, is expected to take two years.
If you couldn't make it to the open house, the city is gathering feedback online as well until the end of February.
A report will come back to council at its May 8 meeting.