Owen Sound will soon be the owner of a downtown pool hall.
The City has a signed offer to purchase Riverside Billiards next to the 9th Street Bridge in a deal that will close in December.
The city not getting into the pool hall business, but wants to have control of the soon to be vacant building while the replacement of the 9th street bridge is underway.
Director of Operations John Johnston says the bridge replacement will basically isolate the building so it would be impossible for anyone to get into it when the street is ripped up and the bridge gone.
As far as planning for the bridge replacement is concerned, Johnston says it is moving forward with design on the structure and street work underway as is an environmental assessment for the area as well.
He expects there will be another public meeting dealing with the environmental assessment in the near future while the actual construction work on replacing the bridge probably wont get underway until the spring.
Johnston says during the winter months Bell Canada will be working to move its communication lines from under the current bridge, to putting them under the river.
He says the city now is meeting with downtown merchants to talk about a plan to move traffic into and out of the downtown area when the bridge has been removed.
Johnston says the fact the bridge construction will take place in the summer months, with increased traffic is a big challenge for the city.
He says construction will probably get underway around April with the final layer of pavement being put down sometime near the end of August.