Little locomotive's fate to be decided next month

Sault Ste. Marie City Council will be asked next month to keep Porter, the controversial little train engine, in his current place in Bellevue Park.

Asked 18 months ago to come up with recommendations on what should happen to the little engine, the City's Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee is now suggesting that there's no way Porter can be reintroduced as a piece of playground equipment, because of liability issues.

Instead, the committee wants the much-loved locomotive repainted in historically accurate hues and surrounded with permanent decorative fencing and landscaping.

Subject to approval by City Council's agenda-setting committee, the issue is expected to come before councillors on February 9.

The City's Municipal Heritage Committee has recommended that the locomotive be designated as a historical artifact due to its cultural significance as play apparatus from 1967 to 2006.

It says Porter should remain at Bellevue Park because artifacts cannot be designated unless they are associated with a defined piece of property.

City Council will be asked to retain a landscape architect to design appropriate permanent decorative fencing and landscaping around the locomotive.

Councillors will also be asked to approve signage describing the locomotive’s history at Algoma Steel.

The locomotive would be repainted to its original working colour of 1943, or to whatever colour it was painted when Porter was relocated to Bellevue Park in 1967.

The fencing be designed with a mind to add a shelter over the little train engine when funding for it becomes available.

The committee will also recommend that the costs for these recommendations be researched by staff and submitted for the next municipal budget.

Porter made headlines in 2007 when more than 5,000 members of the popular social-networking website Facebook.com mobilized a massive grassroots effort to block any attempt to move him from Bellevue Park.

To join Porter's Facebook group, please click here

************************* Tell 'em what you think

To e-mail your feelings on this issue to Mayor Rowswell and every member of City Council except Ward 6 Councillor Frank Manzo, please click here.

Councillor Manzo cannot be reached by e-mail, but you can phone or fax him at 945-9971.

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