Norgoma to make move to old haunts

A new home in the Bruce Peninsula beckons for the museum ship Norgoma.

Tobermory Real Estate Investors Inc., will pay City of Sault Ste. Marie $2,500 for the vessel that called the Sault Ste. Marie waterfront home for more than 40 years.

Mayor Christian Provenzano called the sale “the right thing” for the former 188-foot Great Lakes passenger ship. During a city council meeting on Monday, Provenzano said the Norgoma now has “a better chance” to become a significant tourism asset.

“It will actually have a life there,” he said.

Operated by the Owen Sound Transportation Company, the Norgoma made its last trip between Owen Sound and the Sault in September 1963. The city paid a dollar to the Ontario government for the vessel in 1975.

Tobermory Real Estate Investors plans to use the Norgoma as a venture that will be “above water” and not a dive site, said Sault Ste. Marie deputy chief administrative officer, community development and enterprise services Tom Vair.

With Sault Ste. Marie council approving the ship’s sale, Tobermory Real Estate Investors will now seek a berth from Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula.

The Norgoma will be relocated “as soon as possible,” Vair said in a report to council. Tobermory Real Estate Investors will pay for the vessel to be moved.

Vair calls the ship’s move “a positive outcome” for the city.

“It delivers on council’s direction to find a new home for the vessel and also avoids the potential expense of decommissioning the vessel,” he said. “Further, it provides an opportunity for the vessel to remain in one of the communities it previously served.”

The city will seek other interested parties if Tobermory Real Estate Investors can’t complete the sale agreement.

The municipality is paying a docking fee of $40 per day at Purvis Marine near Algoma Steel. If the Norgoma remains in the city until 2021, the daily cost would be split between the city and Tobermory Real Estate Investors.

The Norgoma was moved from its previous home near Roberta Bondar Pavilion last June.

btkelly@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @Saultreporter

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