From: Jennifer Hanson, thenorthbaybay.ca staff
NORTH BAY — A nearly $15 million City Council road maintenance order has come under scrutiny.
The work order, which would see a portion of Lakeshore Drive refinished, seems “a bit pricey” says citizen and self-declared watchdog Stanley Bernard.
“Let me start by saying that I’m all for road work,” starts Bernard. “There’s so many sections of the city that could use some help, so I’m always happy when more street maintenance is done.”
“However, this recent request to spend $14.8 million on repairing Lakeshore Drive is a bit strange because the section of road is only 12 feet long.”
“Also, it looks like the city is spending only $20 000 on actual road work, and then $14.78 million on the construction of a maintenance building.”
“So that’s a little weird.”
Blueprints Revealed
Bernard was able to retrieve the “blueprints” for the proposed work, which he says appeared to be drawn on a Halloween-themed napkin.
“I’m no expert, but to me the maintenance building looks an awful lot like an arena.”
“It’s also literally labelled ‘ARENA’ on the blueprint/napkin.”
Council Responds
But Councillor Vic Tikus says the city will have nothing to do with arenas.
“It’s just straight up road work,” declared Tikus. “Yes, the maintenance building is a little expensive, but a lot of the work will be done over the winter and we want to make sure the workers stay warm.”
“After the debacle of Memorial Gardens, the last thing North Bay needs is to get mixed up in another arena,” says Tikus. “But if that maintenance building just so happens to be 140 000 square feet in size and have a 6000 person seating capacity, then…”
Tikus shrugs.
“Yay hockey?”