Loud crash in Margaretsville

By Heather Killen

Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

Residents worry a loud crash will cause the final crunch for the Margaretsville Wharf.

Around midmorning on August 26 a section of the Margaretsville wharf collapsed, causing longtime residents to worry its end is near.

David Uhlman said that on that Tuesday morning he heard what sounded like a tree falling and walked around the corner to see what happened.

“At 10:15 a.m., I heard a crash,” he said. “I couldn’t understand where it came from until I walked around to the other side and saw the wharf.”

More than 15 feet of the wharf’s outer wall had collapsed. While the top is still intact, the heavy rock that formed the ballast has spilled out over the collapsed pilings.

Uhlman said this latest damage will be costly to repair, and he fears it’s an ominous sign of things to come.

“People here are wondering if this is the beginning of the end,” he added. This isn’t the first time the community has wondered this, as several severe gales have relentlessly pounded the wharf over the years, most recently in the winter of 2001.

Margaretsville operates one of seven wharves remaining in the county. While the other six are still used in the commercial fishery, this wharf is home to a few pleasure crafts.

It also serves as a point of interest to thousands of visitors each year, all wanting a closer look at the Bay of Fundy, one of Canada’s natural wonders.

Little by little though, it seems the community is shrinking, he said. This summer has been particularly hard, with the local restaurant closing down and tourism at an all-time low.

Uhlman said that as few as 2000 visitors have made the trip over the mountain and down to the sea this season, down from an average 4,000 to 5,000 of other years.

While community volunteers work hard to bring in resources, Margaretsville’s fortune, like that of many coastal communities, has mostly ebbed in recent years.

Still the wharf remains in the community as a solid structure, standing against the changing tides. It’s remnant of a time when the community was a booming point of trade between the Valley and the eastern seaboard.

At its height, Margaretsville boasted two wharves - one 800 feet long - to accommodate boats docking on the north side, allowing them to move freely during low tide.

Local farmers banded together to form the Margaretville Pier Company and financed the first wharf. It was constructed the hard way by teams of men, horses, and oxen. The second larger wharf followed in the later part of the 19th Century.

According to accounts in “Over the Mountain and Down to The Bay,” severe storms in 1931, 1966, and 1974 combined with old age gradually beat away the larger wharf and now turns the onslaught to what remains of the first wharf.

The community has known for some time that the wharf’s outer wall is weak and not economically feasible to repair.

John Freeman, a former member of the wharf society, said that when the community took over ownership of the wharf from the federal government, it was told the wharf was pretty much beyond repair and that while it was solid enough to support pedestrians, it was closed to other traffic and unlikely to last more than 20 years.

At the time, estimates put the repair bill at approximately $100,000. Freeman said the community was given a one-time grant to make some repairs, but was told that it was no longer eligible for future funding under the federal government’s divestiture program.

“We knew this little community would never be able to support it, so we tried to make it last as long as we could,” he said. “We’ve put a lot of time and money into it to make it solid and I’d like to see it last forever - but it’s continuing to rot away.”

Earlier this summer the County of Annapolis began working with its community wharf societies in hopes of helping them to form a regional group to better access funding from other sources.

Dawn Campbell said that while the county only offers small amounts of funding to assist with routine maintenance of local wharves, it is looking at hiring an engineer to undertake a formal evaluation of all seven county wharves.

She said that the county plans to work with the groups in hopes of developing plans that will give them better leverage in accessing the funding needed to repair and maintain the wharves.

This fall, the county is also reviewing and updating its wharf policy, she said.