THUNDER BAY – Last night at city council I voted against spending $78,000 for netting for this facility. I heard administration say that when we get a major snowfall we just ” crank up the heat ” and that melts the snow on the roof. Those two issues alone tell me that this facility isn’t efficient. I voted against a bandaid approach to giving that facility life when indeed it is at the end of it’s shelf life. Last year I went on record publicly that perhaps it is time to build a new conservatory/aquarium/observatory.
The Chronicle Journal wrote an editorial similar to my position. I stated last night that administration needs to find out what the public wants. If it is the will of Thunder Bay to have a Conservatory then lets have one. We were told last night that on average, 5000 people visit the Conservatory a year.
Pretty pathetic numbers if you ask me when you consider we had approximately 30,000 people attend three events at the Waterfront this summer and that is not including Ribfest.
So I do not support keeping a deteriorating building alive. I do support keeping the idea of a Conservatory alive. Any service like this we provide to the public has to be maintained properly and should be viable. We should be collecting revenues to help offset operating costs to some degree. We should not be subsidizing this facility to the tune of $700,000 a year. this doesnt make sense to me when so few people visit every year.
On another note I would like to thank the flower gang for the nice floral arrangement in Boston Bruin colors. It was a classy and humorous gesture and brightened up my day! I did get the message!
Keith Hobbs
Mayor