The horses on the big carousel accepting riders again

The big carousel at the waterfront is back in business.

The Heritage Railway and Carousel company says the ride passed its Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) inspection and is now operating.

It’s been nearly a year since the ride has been open.

Don Coutts, treasurer, says at issue was the emergency stop button to have it stop in a faster time, and required electrical work.

“We were able to operate the big carousel till we ran into another glitch in September,” he says. “We decided to shut it down because there was only a couple weeks left in the season. This year we decided to tackle the problem.”

Coutts says once the TSSA inspector gave the go ahead he called the shift captain to open the doors.

“Ten minutes later I was talking with Dan Laird who is our volunteer that looks after the carousel and he said there’s already people on the horses,” says Coutts. “My story is you put the doors up on the big carousel and it’s like ants at a picnic, people show up.”

Coutts says once the needed work was done, they reached out to see if they could get an inspector here in time to be open for the city’s centennial celebration, and is thankful to the authority for helping make it happen.

Richard Coffin has been a reporter and news anchor on the radio in North Bay for over 25 years.  From premiers to people in the neighbourhood, he enjoys connecting with newsmakers and writing stories that matter to area listeners on a variety of topics including healthcare, education, politics, sports and more.