To the editor:
Whether or not you support the cause to keep our Centennial Botanical Conservatory open, an issue has come to light with regards to how our city administartion conducts itself that all citizens of Thunder Bay should be concerned about.
On Valentine's Day the manager in charge of Fleet and Facility, Michael Smith, made a decision to close the conservatory due to an increase in the number of panes of glass falling inside the building; A claim he made in his initial press release as well as in a phone conversation with myself. As a result of this glass falling they are temporarily closing the site and having an inspection done on the facility the results of which will be given to city council.
Now, employees responsible for maintaining and working within the facility have said this is not true. I have made a request to the city clerk asking that any incident reports involving falling glass at the conservatory be released as well as the results of an inspection that was done by a local firm around six months ago.
As I am told there are no incident reports and the results of that inspection found the Conservatory to be in good shape. I will say that I do not have the reports in my hand, though, so confirmation is pending on that.
Given that the Mr. Smith has already contradicted his claim of numerous panes of glass , however, I would suggest that the basis of the closure as well as the added expense of another inspection done less than a year later on the same facility is both a waste of time and our money.
Added to my angst regarding this issue is the fact that at the meeting held last night for public input on the city budget Tim Comisso, the city manager, was asked about this need for an additional inspection and he stood by the decision to close the facility and went on to suggest that the inspection be done by an out of town firm that specializes in greenhouses.
Mr. Comisso your loyalty to our local businesses and their ability to do their job is astounding (sarcasm). In the end, what I am hearing is this: "We lied to you about why we closed the facility. We lied to you about why we need another inspection done. We want this new inspection that we do not need to cost as much as possible!" For shame.
Jamie Varga,
Thunder Bay
