Fort McMurray Forum

Mayor Melissa Blake wading into the Snye debate for the first time.

Although she admits she has not yet seen the Municipality's final plan for redevelopment of the historic waterfront, Blake says in order to conserve and enhance it, the city must restrict the use of watercraft and float planes.

"The unfortunate thing is, I guess a bit ironic, people looking to save the Snye, I think as it's being called, would be running counter purpose to what we've been advised of by it sounds like engineering firms have looked at it. If we continue to have motorized access on that, it will continue to exacerbate the viability of the Snye is what I'm told," Blake said Thursday.

Dozens of concerned citizens met this week to express their opposition to the city's plans for the Snye, which have yet to fully be made public.

As part of its downtown redevelopment vision, the RMWB will shutdown Morimoto Drive, ending vehicle access to the Snye, while restricting all access of motorized vehicles, including boats jet skis and float planes.

But Blake says that doesn't mean the end of water recreation.

"We're not eliminating the activities but we are relocating them for the purpose of maintaining that historical access and opportunity, just simply at the same time as trying to preserve the water body itself at the Snye," said Blake.

"It's tough to satisfy everybody in every circumstance and I'm first to acknowledge that but I think in this case Council will be looking at all of the opportunity."

The municipality has told Fort McMurray News it plans to construct a marina and breakwater on another section of the Clearwater River, adjacent the marine park.

The Snye would then be enhanced with parks, walking trails and potentially a walking bridge connecting to the MacDonald Island Expansion.

Mayor should really wade right into the Snye, seriously if it is to be protected and remediated the flow of water from the Athabasca needs to reintroduced. That will require boring under the the causeway/Dyke structure that is the source of the problem in the first place. It should never have been built the way it was in the first place, so perhaps it's time to fix the problem. If you think just letting the Snye sit there will help it become something we can be proud of in this community you are sadly mistaken. So what is with the plan to locate a new City Hall by the Snye or Mac Island about anyway? That has no bearing on the historical significance of that area and it should be located downtown, like right on Franklin Ave. As for the pedestrian bridge across the Snye? What is that about? Waste of time and money, spend it on the Dyke fix and just use that to access the Island. Maybe some type of structure and Bridge could be part of the fix and built along with the trail system at the Snye/Clearwater confluence? A lot more thought needs to go into this, I urge all citizens with thoughts and concerns with this plan to make themselves heard, sign the petition, attend the next council meeting. Petition available at City Center car wash and Formula sports, next council meeting is on the 12th or 13th. The petition needs to be completed by the 11th I believe. So there wasn't a lot of time allowed to think about this hmmm.