The HMS Flamborough Head stern has been thrown a life ring - albeit a small one.
City of North Vancouver council made the rare move of revisiting a previous decision and is holding off on dismantling the Second World War relic pending a report from city staff that lays out the costs of keeping it around.
Council voted behind closed doors last September to spend up to $250,000 for decontaminating and scrapping the stern, which has been shuffled around the North Vancouver waterfront since 2001. When the information was revealed publicly and work began in December, history buffs and advocates for government transparency lashed back against council, prompting later protests.
"The public had no way of knowing council was contemplating such a decision," said Coun. Pam Bookham after introducing the motion to reconsider. "To be honest, it was not our finest hour. We've been taken to task, and rightly so, for both the decision and, more importantly, for the lack of transparency in the way we made it. Many people have urged us to reconsider our decision in a public forum."
Hearing the outcry from the public persuaded Bookham to change her mind and instead support council's spending the money "within reason - to ensure that the Flamborough Head remains on our waterfront as an active feature that is complementary to the kinds of uses we have been discussing."
Coun. Don Bell seconded the motion, noting that council made the decision quickly because council members were advised the stern presented a risk to the public.
"We were acting on advice when we came back from our summer holiday that there were safety issues associated with the Flamborough Head from a community point of view and stability issues. ... That's part of the reason the decision was made quickly and made the way that it was."
The only reason the demolition isn't already done, Bell said, is that the province and WorkSafeBC have raised issues with its dismantling.
Coun. Rod Clark threw his support behind getting some "hard numbers" from staff and stressed that cost would be an important factor in his decision - something echoed by other members of council.
"The only reason we're here debating this is that the community, bless their soul, stood up as one and said 'We don't want to lose this as a piece of our heritage,'" Clark said. "However, there's another side to the argument and that's how much it's going to cost.. .. I cannot commit to saving the Flamborough Head until I know what it's going to cost. It will be significant dollars from this moment in time. It will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to save the boat."
Clark then challenged the Flamborough Head's proponents to get active and commit to helping raise funds to finance the stern's future.
Coun. Guy Heywood apologized for the hasty nature of the decision, especially when it was such a treasured city object but, he said, there are still plans to relocate the North Vancouver Museum and Archives to the waterfront, which will do just as good a job honouring the shipbuilding industry's place in time in the city.
"I don't think our original decision, although badly managed, was necessarily the wrong one. We have other buildings down there that represent that era," he said.
Mayor Darrell Mussatto agreed with reconsidering the decision and asked that the consultant hired to help the city design a new waterfront be informed of the decision and see if there is way to integrate the stern into future plans. The public presentation set for Feb. 3 has been postponed. But, Mussatto defended holding the discussion in camera due to the council's legal responsibilities and liabilities.
The city acquired the Flamborough Head from Artificial Reef Society and had hoped to make it a centrepiece in the National Maritime Centre, a museum projected abandoned in 2008 after the province would not commit to funding its portion of the cost.
Monday's vote followed a stream of heritage advocates urging council members to maintain the ship as a monument to and consider some other ideas. Among those presented: converting it to a viewing platform with a museum dedicated to the shipyards or a public art piece.
