A popular White Rock waterfront attraction, the metal pay-operated viewfinder installation at the Memorial Park viewing deck, is due to return.
At its July 27 meeting council approved the purchase of a replacement – a ‘Vistaviewer’ from Pinnacle Scopes Inc. (at a cost of $2,890) – for installation at the viewing deck, located on top of the pier washrooms.
A similar viewfinder was previously installed there, but was removed during the Memorial Park and pier washroom upgrade project two years ago.
City-funded interpretive signage on local birds and wildlife created by the Friends of the Semiahmoo Bay, also formerly a feature of the viewing deck, will now be installed on the pier, since – as engineering and municipal operations manager Jim Gordon explained – the new brushed stainless steel handrails on the deck will not support them and there were concerns they could obscure the view.
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Total cost of purchasing and installing the new rustproof and waterproof binocular viewer – which council confirmed will be coin-operated – and moving the signage is estimated at $10,000, for which funds are available in the current city financial plan.
Coun. Anthony Manning, who made the motion, accepted an amendment from Coun. David Chesney that approval of the viewfinder was contingent on installation on the deck of a map highlighting local topographical features.
“The previous viewfinder allowed you to have a look at a map,” Chesney noted, expressing concern that the map was included in the interpretive signage to be moved. Such a map would not impede anyone’s view, he added.
“The purpose of the viewfinder, all those (previous) years in White Rock, was for you to have a look at the map and go, ‘Oh, that’s Turtle Island, oh wow, and there’s Mayne Island,” he explained.
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