Columbus' only Downtown floating attraction will be plucked from the Scioto River for the first time in 23 years. Columbus City Council members unanimously approved $500,000 yesterday to remove the Santa Maria, a replica of Christopher Columbus' flagship, so the city can continue renovations on the waterway.

Columbus� only Downtown floating attraction will be plucked from the Scioto River for the first time in 23 years.

?Columbus City Council members unanimously approved $500,000 yesterday to remove the Santa Maria, a replica of Christopher Columbus� flagship, so the city can continue renovations on the waterway.

The ship, moored at Battelle Riverfront Park, is getting in the way of the ongoing $35.5 million Scioto Greenways project.

The plan is to make the area around the park a more usable public attraction through the removal of the Main Street dam and narrowing of the river.

�It�s a challenge to move (the boat) around, and some areas of the river are being deepened (and dredged) to improve the quality of the river,� said Alan McKnight, director of the city�s Department of Recreation and Parks.

�During this time, we thought it would be good to get it out of the water and do some renovations on the ship.�

When the ship first came to the location in 1991, it was funded through donations and private dollars and was not intended to be publicly owned. Over time, however, it was gifted to the city, which is using non-tax dollars to pay for the ship�s removal, McKnight said.

The bottom of the ship is made of fiberglass and does not need to be repaired. But the wooden deck and other parts have decayed over the years, McKnight said.

The Santa Maria will be moved in the next several weeks. The original builder of the ship, based in Albany, N.Y., will be hired to help with the renovations.

The ship, which is run by the nonprofit Santa Maria Inc., likely will return to the river in late 2016, although it might go back into the water at a different site. McKnight said officials are considering putting it closer to COSI, or maybe farther south. But he said there is no consensus at the moment where it will go.

He said there are no plans to remove the ship permanently. About 17,000 visitors board the ship annually, according to Linda Ketcham, the nonprofit group�s executive director.

Costs for the renovations are not yet known.

Ketcham said this year that the city is going �to build us a new dock with a dry-docking facility, and (we) will possibly have a new visitors� center.�

Bill DeMora, with the Columbus Italian Club, said that organization will help raise funds for the ship�s restoration.

Also last night, the City Council approved a $4 million capital project to redo sidewalks along Nationwide Boulevard between N. 4th Street and Front Street. About 300 feet of sidewalks also will be refurbished along High Street north of Nationwide Boulevard.

New medians with flower beds and trees will be added along Nationwide.

About $2 million of the project will come from a 10-year special tax assessment of adjacent property owners.

lsullivan@dispatch.com

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