Sabre Jet work recommended
Article content
The city has waited long enough to rehabilitate the Sabre Jet war memorial on Blockhouse Island, council’s general committee concluded on Tuesday.
The committee is recommending the full council back a contract with Ottawa-based Bulldog Commercial Restoration and Waterproofing Inc., for $60,040, to complete an in-situ restoration and reinforcement of the plane’s concrete pedestal.
The full council is expected to put the matter to a final vote next week.
The recommendation is a follow-up to a report last November on the long-awaited restoration project.
Mayor Matt Wren said the pedestal work is a necessary precursor to plans for a more elaborate war memorial at the site, which were delayed over the years, first by Blockhouse Island flooding, and then by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Here we are all these years later,” said the mayor. “Sadly, we’ve lost some people who contributed to this project and had hoped to see it through, and before we lose too many more, I would really like to see this work done.”
Wren, whose father Merv flew the actual aircraft now on Blockhouse Island when he served in 422 Squadron in the 1960s during the Cold War, has been a part of the committee raising funds for the Sabre Jet restoration since before he joined city council.
He noted Tuesday that the Royal Canadian Air Force celebrated its 100th anniversary earlier this month.
The Golden Hawks Sabre Jet was donated to the city on June 23, 1968, in memory of Canadian air crews who lost their lives, and has since become a fixture of Brockville’s waterfront.
But in 2017, the council of the day had to contemplate the idea of taking the plane down because of its level of deterioration, prompting community members to band together to keep the monument standing.
Their efforts were successful – council ultimately approved the first phase of the restoration project, which included a fresh coat of paint for the aging aircraft, completed by local artist Dave Sheridan in the summer of 2018.
The second phase, to be funded by community donations, includes a memorial plaque of the 90 local airmen who died during the Second World War, as well as enhanced landscaping around the plane – a surface around the jet, a sidewalk, and several memorial benches to be built out of the stone of the former Trinity Anglican Church, which was demolished in 2018.
The motion heading to council authorizes staff to proceed with planning for that next phase, but before that, workers need to rehabilitate the pedestal.
After last November’s report, city staff contacted Sika Canada Inc., which makes specialty adhesives and epoxy products for structural concrete repair, a staff report notes. Bulldog Commercial is the regional Sika specialist.
If council approves the recommendation, the plan is to fill existing cracks in the pedestal with an epoxy injection; wrap the pedestal with several layers of epoxy-impregnated reinforcing carbon fibre cloth; and apply a high-durability coating to the exterior surfaces for protection.
That would be followed by periodic inspections and touch-ups, if needed.
“The treatment system is expected to extend the life of the existing pedestal by 20-plus
years and comes with a full 10-year warranty on the system including all material and
labour,” notes the staff report.
Once the pedestal is fixed, staff plans to re-engage with the Sabre Jet Committee to help it realize its earlier vision of an enhanced war memorial.
To fund the pedestal work, city officials need to do a bit of shuffling.
In 2021, the report says, council approved spending of $42,000 for the concrete pedestal, to be funded by the federal Canada Community-Building Fund (CCBF). Staff has since found that the Sabre Jet project is ineligible for the CCBF.
The recommendation is thus to use $50,000 from the tax levy, budgeted to cover the M6 soccer/rugby pitch project on Laurier Boulevard, for the Sabre Jet project instead, and to fund the soccer pitch through the CCBF.
The discovery that the CCBF won’t cover the pedestal work has left the city with a $15,104 deficit on its funding portion the Sabre Jet project. As a result, the total amount the city now needs is $75,144.
The motion calls on the city to draw $25,144 from the fiscal policy reserve to make up the difference.
Rzajac@postmedia.ca
(Catch up on what is happening throughout Eastern Ontario with our Midday Roundup. Click here to sign up for the free newsletter, which will be delivered to your inbox every weekday.)
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.