With a May 28 grand opening quickly approaching, it's crunch time for the Northern Water Sports Centre (NWSC), a year-round, fully accessible facility with shared infrastructure, increased boat storage, improved water access and training facilities.
It's taken at least 10 years, but the committee behind the NWSC are finally able to call their new location near Science North, between the Sudbury Yacht Club and municipal boat launch, home. NWSC is an umbrella organization overseeing the Sudbury Canoe Club, the Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival and the the Sudbury Rowing Club.
“It has been a lot of hard work by a lot of people,” said Ron Mulholland, the board's new volunteer chair, on Friday as new docks were loaded into the water at the NWSC.
“It's the beginning of May, and the dash is on to our grand opening. We are having a soft opening over the next few weeks, with high school rowing beginning next week. We're bringing boats and other items over from the other facility at the north end of the Lake, and everything is a bit of a scramble right now.”
The yard and landscaping aren't quite finished yet, he said, and there's still some interior finishings and furnishing that need to be put in.
“During our grand opening, we'll be announcing our Phase 2 fundraising campaign, and we'll be turning our boat house into a home to vegetate the grounds,” Mulholland said. “We have some interior finishings and furnishings we need to raise funds for and purchase, and generally clean up the parking lot and the grounds.”
The entire project has a price tag of $4.6 million. Funds have come from multiple sources including FedNor, NOHFC, Glencore, the City of Greater Sudbury and other major donors who will be named and “thanked profusely” on May 28, Mulholland said.
A facility of this scale been needed for decades, Mulholland said.
The original Sudbury Rowing Club was housed in the “blue-roof building below the old hospital that has sent people to the Olympics, but outlived its usefulness about 20 years ago,” he said.
The rowing club moved over the where it is now, on the north end of the lake, but it was immediately clear that with both the rowing club and the canoe club, and now the Dragon Boat festival in there, space was really tight.
“Ten to 15 years ago, the search started for a new location,” he said. “It couldn't be decided whether it should be in Bell Park, but they finally came up with this lot. It's excellent. There's water on three sides of the centre, and each of the three clubs has much more space than they had before.”
