
SaultOnline.com / ONNtv received the following statement from the Board of Directors of the MS Norgoma.
The Board of Directors of the MS Norgoma is saddened to report to you a number of misguided actions by the Corporation of the City of Sault Ste. Marie.
On Wednesday, 22 May 2019, the Board of Directors approached a local locksmith to replace the deadbolt on the MS Norgoma for security purposes and was made aware that they had just drilled out the lock and replaced it on orders from Rick Borean, Supervisor of Community Services in the Department of Recreation and Culture. Mr. Borean also instructed this locksmith to contact all other locksmiths in the city to inform them they were not to touch the locks on the MS Norgoma. The City unlawfully locked the Board of Directors out of their property (the MS Norgoma) and kept them from accessing the thousands of artifacts that the Board owns. Following this, members of the Board regained their rightful access to the MS Norgoma and replaced the lock placed on it by the City.
On Thursday, 23 May 2019, a volunteer was on board the MS Norgoma aiding in the cataloguing of artifacts when the City contacted the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service claiming a break in, and tried to break the door open. The volunteer was startled but not injured. The City claimed they had reconvened the vessel, without any member of the Board of Directors having received proof. The City then provided a copy of correspondence sent to the St. Mary’s River Marine Heritage Center’s lawyer, who was in court at the time and unable to receive or respond to the correspondence. This letter was also dated 23 May 2019, after they had already broken and entered into the ship and left it in a hazardous state the day prior.
The Sault Ste. Marie Police Services forced the Board to give them access to the ship and then allowed everyone except the Board members entry into the vessel. Sergeant R. Chabot determined it was necessary to sweep the ship to ensure there was no one left inside, taking an artifact key from a Board member, which he provided to an employee of the City, and the City then refused to return, even though the key was an artifact and therefore the property of the Board. The entire debacle was organized and supported by Deputy CAO, Community Development & Enterprise Services Tom Vair, Director, Community Services Brent Lamming, and Manager, Recreation and Culture Virginia McLeod, as well as Mr. Borean. Numerous City workers were also in attendance. The City drilled out the lock the Board of Directors had placed on the ship on 22 May 2019 and informed present members of the Board that they would be halting any access to the ship. The SSMPS made the Board aware that anyone caught on or near the ship would be charged with trespassing.
The Board of Directors of the MS Norgoma condemns the actions of the City of Sault Ste. Marie, and will be pursuing the necessary channels to prove legal ownership of the vessel and regain access to it.
We would like the public to rest assured that we will do everything in our power to continue to preserve the history of the Sault and surrounding area that the MS Norgoma represents, and share it with the community and its visitors. We are very thankful to everyone who has continued to support us during this long and unnecessary battle to protect and preserve our heritage.
The boat probably is sitting on the bottom of the harbour. There is water in the engine room that registers about the same height as the waterline on the outside of the ship. That is probably why it hasn’t been towed away yet.
You have no idea what you are talking about. You are better off to remain silent and be thought stupid than to speak up and remove all doubt.
Good retort John.
An appropriate blast with some truth.
Lawsuit pending
The city should put a restaurant or a coffee shop inside this beautiful ship. Instead they paid $100,000 for logo that we don’t even need.
Council has just proved to me how [email protected]#% up they are. I would love to see legal action taken against them. Obviously they have no regard for historic items or marine history. This makes me sick.
Seems something similar happened in Manitoulin Island last year with the sister ship S S Norisle.
Disgraceful.
Whoever made this decision should have to answer why they are wasting tax payers money on such a ridiculous situation. Sounds like someone has an emotional reason for acting out this way. What a shame 😞
Profit. They took some of my parents property some years ago for Parks and Recreation. My parents asked for the right to buy it back when they sold it, were told no. A year later they sold it as a pit and my parents fought for a year to say they did not want to buy it back Told they had no right to city property.
This pit has changed the water table and has cost many people to get wells. The city is not here for you.
The rust bucket is on its way to the staging area for boats to be cut up for scrape its about time
Not from a family of Mariners are you?
I posted a comment and see no reason why it wasn’t approved.
Was a great boondogle for some.
Red Scare?
Maybe Mayor Christian Provenzano feared an embarrassment as the Prime Minister is visiting. Maybe he thought some Frenchmen would sneak up from Quebec Province wearing yellow vests, and do what the Bolsheviks did aboard the cruiser Aurora in 1917? One can’t be too careful.
Shelby Deubel
…maybe they should waste another 100k and paint the Norgoma.
The Norgoma is like a 3yr not getting their way in a store and throwing a huge fit And the city is the parent who has to carry that 3yr out over their shoulder, while everyone stares at them like the beat their kid but in reality the kid had more than enough warnings.
I also wonder for all those who want it to stay, when the last time you toured the ship? Volunteered for it? Help fundraise for it?
What a ridiculous comment… you sound like another one that doesn’t give a shit about marine history ….
The boat has no local history. Its service was in other towns and cities. It is a pile of pending rust and river pollutant. I thought mariners cared about our waterways? The board is a bunch of whiners and shouldn’t be allowed in the area for insurance reasons. The docking area is city property and they are still liable for any mishaps.
The boat needs to go, you’ve been evicted for almost a year. I can’t understand the cities misguided, and border line illegal handling of the situation. But, either way if the city doesn’t force that boat to move through any means necessary, they’ll just linger. Very obviously everyone who works there is just “lingering”. You’ve known for 9 months almost that you’ve gotta move, and you’re telling me none of the artifacts have been moved off of the ship? This is just irresponsible on both ends, but yeah get that eyesore out of there. This city is dying, there’s nothing a poorly made boat from the 50’s with a sliver of history to it can do to fix that. Write a book on it, and make sure you get your precious artifacts off of that boat for your preservation purposes. And even better if the board owns it, they can foot all of the bills. Your numbers on the boat may have went up some, but that’s because of all the public outrage, many of those 5,000 visitors last year were Sault Natives, I bet.
To play devils advocate here :
Why did the Board knowing that the vessel was to be towed away eventually not remove all mentioned artifacts of historical value and place them in storage or place in the care of the museum ?
Under commercial rental agreements the landlord can put a lock on a property , seize their assets and sell them to recoup costs .
Rob Waddell that’s not devils advocate, that’s common sense.
City does not own the boat museum board does. It’s a legal matter now.
Sylvia Haavisto boat slip is a rental is it not ?
No it is not. The city does not rent the slip to the MS Norgoma.
Mutiny! Piracy! They should all walk the plank! Shiver me timbers!
Arg.. I swear you can’t make this stuff up, we can’t fix this kind’a stupid & there’s no excuse for this level of incompetency. A simple window replacement & City Hall now looks like it got hit by a missile & they have no idea where the money is going to come from to fix it.. & yet some how they found a million dollars for Future SSM and a Hundred thousand dollars for a logo that looks more like a CIA experiment gone wild.
I don’t think we can afford or survive a ‘full-term’ with these nitwits.. unlawful entry is a criminal offense & it’s enough to prevent them from ever running again, good-bye & good riddance to ‘Bad-Actors’.
For good measure some one on the MS Norgoma board of directors should report this to ‘Crime-Stoppers’ & let them join the rank and file of ‘Wanted Wednesday’.. again, just sayin.
.
Sounds to me like City Council just tried to steal a ship.. if the board of directors can prove ownership, then I say charge the Mayor & Council with ‘unlawful entry’.
I can’t think of more befitting or efficient method of getting rid of the entire lot of them, in one quick sweep.. drag them all out of there in hand-cuffs. Move to initiate criminal charges & a new municipal election holding these clowns personlly responsible for the damage they’ve incurred to ‘our’ City Hall.
A call to Action: Rally on the Steps demanding their arrests & immediate removal from the property.!!
Strange daze indeed..
[email protected]
.
Voters have to keep episodes like these in mind come next election. We tend to forget as time moves on.
Tony Cowen, … this is why the city is incorporated. You can’t hold individuals responsible.
Make sure this is clear. The City didn’t approve of this action. A bunch of clowns did.
Well we havent much for tourist to see and with the price of gas they wont be going much along the north shore for a drive and now that the Agawa Indian Craftsis gone … There are no other beautiful gift shops 🙁
Linda Fed …River Rock gift shop has moved north… so worth a drive there.
Marilyn Nirkkola oh where is it situated?
It’s about 35-45 minutes north on the highway……there’s also a restaurant and corner store….sorry the name of the complex escapes me…will post it later.
Marilyn Nirkkola ty
Leave that ####### boat alone
Myles D Long we have no say that was evident with the new logo
I agree Myles.Leave the boa alone
Can we keep it if we plaster the new logo on the hull…
Its similar to the logo on a petoskey business I just passed by
I was never a fan of the ship, but for our city to go this far is ridiculous! Very shameful!
Liz Summers have you seen the logo …
They had plenty of notice the ship was being moved. Why wait until the last minute to “catalogue” items? Why were items not removed a long time ago? I see nothing wrong with this, just as a landlord would do the same with a tenant.
It’s time for this pimple on the waterfront to leave ASAP.
They weren’t wait until the last minute, they have been cataloging all this time, the boat was a mess from years of bad record keeping and information not being passed on, there are literally thousands of artifacts that have gone properly accounted for and recorded in a very specific way. It’s not as simple as writing it down in a notebook. Insurance premiums are significantly higher when valuables are left onboard for a tow, and if items are removed for storage they again have to be inventoried and recorded. One has to remember that all of the board members and people involved are volunteers and have real life full time jobs and families and cannot always be spending time on the boat if they have bills to pay. They were giving what they could as often as they can.
Linda Fed yes, not a fan of that either! A waste of our tax paying dollars! Should have put that $ towards our roads that need fixing
Liz Summers agreed
They knew this was coming, should have had that all cleaned out. On the flip side they should have gotten ahead of the game this week and painted the ridiculous new logo on the side of the ship, it then would have instantly become a shining beacon representing the city and diversity and a myriad of other imaginary things, and council would have outdone each other in their efforts to keep the ship and logo where it is.
Maybe off topic but why should it be of the Locksmiths responsibility to notify other Locksmiths? Or is this how it usually works? Lol. I can now tell my competitors what to do or not to do?
The city of Sault Ste. Marie council are a bunch of babies from the top down, and should be all replaced, if they cannot have there way, the they pull this crap, let them get there artifacts, or if they can find another spot to put this history of the great lakes, Sad thing for a city to do.
Provenzano has been adamant that he wanted the ship removed. I didn’t think he’d resort to these kind of bullying tactics, however.
Unfortunately, we’ve been waiting almost a year for the boat to be removed, and they didn’t remove any artifacts or other important pieces during the off season. Not really council’s fault, when realistically if the people managing the Norgoma weren’t hoping for a miracle. They’ve had 9 months, retrieve these items, and by the sounds of it they only started a little bit ago. This is ridiculous on both sides. On one hand, they’ve had more than enough time to “catalogue” items. On the other, its unethical of council to behave so haphazardly.
Unsurprising still, another day in the Soo.
Oh my gosh, this is so sad 🙁
As usual the city can’t do anything right or by it’s own set of deadlines. This old eyesore should have been removed a month ago and anything like this would have been avoided.
P.S. If anyone from the city is reading this fix the cow trail downtown that you call Queen street it is a total mess and beyond embarrassing for us let alone visitors to come and have to drive over the huge bumps and numerous potholes.
Wow, talk bout abusing ur powers … if a regular citizen did that they be charged 🤬🤬
That’s too bad! I love coming home and seeing the history within our city.
Pirates of bawating.
Very disrespectful behaviour by the City, if not illegal, hopefully they will be held accountable.
Good send that history to Owen sound
Chris Matthews so true! If that boat was called the “SS Owen Sound” or the “Owen Sound Express”, there’s no way that thing would have remained here this long. 4 letters kept it here G, O, M, and A.
I am glad I did not vote for any of these clowns 🤡 on council
Dave Ostrowski-Gallant they got what they wanted. To remove it . But holding the histories items on the ship locking out the board? A lil extreme !!! 😡
Annette Bouchard the board has known the ship had to be removed, why haven’t they removed the items in question?
Chris Matthews yeah ur right I never thought about it that way , sort of same as a closing date.. 🤔
Chris Matthews agreed, why weren’t they catalogued already?
Probably paint it with the new Logo. Center point of inclusivity.
Kevin Wood 🤮
Kevin Wood new logo a step ack wards
Did I miss the skull and crossed bones in the new city logo?
The city of SSM doing what it does best; wasting time and resources, while neglecting real priorities.
Mike Haggith I like taring down old hospital
Why did the city feel they needed to do this?
Dave Ostrowski-Gallant , good question.
Dave I think the council needs to answer this question and provide some much needed transparency on this issue.
The city asked the board to move it and gave them a date to do so. This shouldn’t be a surprise considering renovations on the marina begin soon.
If the board was so worried about the artifacts then why wasnt it cataloged beforehand? Why is such “important” artifact not properly categorized in the first place?
Yes the ship had/has possibilities but unfortunately the time for that has come and gone.
Because the board wouldn’t move their asses like they’ve been warned to 4000 times. Nobodies fault but theirs.
Comments are closed.