From: Philip St. George, thenorthbaybay.ca staff
Yesterday’s announcement of the impending demolition of The Sands Motel had local Mitch Joiner fuming.
“It’s outrageous,” spits an incensed Joiner. “The Sands Motel is a part of this city. It’s a local landmark and it deserves to stay.”
North Bay is now open to bids on the demolition of the motel, which has sat vacant for almost 10 years.
“Nobody asked us, the taxpayers, what we wanted,” grumbles Joiner, “and isn’t that just North Bay typical?”
Monday Protest
Joiner, along with a small group of like-minded individuals, staged a small protest outside the decaying building Monday afternoon.
Lifetime North Bayite Marci Taube believes that not only is The Sands a “monument to the city’s glorious yesteryear,” she also says it now serves a new and better purpose.
“It’s home to so many pigeons,” declares Taube. “Where will they live when The Sands is gone? Has anyone thought about that?”
Animal Sanctuary
Fellow protestor Rosemary Brant echoes Taube’s claims.
“We don’t know what’s in The Sands,” says Brant. “I think the city should commission a study to see before they tear it down.”
“For all we know there could be hundreds of hibernating Blanding’s turtles in there.”
Send the pigeons to Kirkland Lake, it’s a pigeon sanctuary.
PIGEONS..?
TURTLES…?
SERIOUSLY…?
Why not refurbish it and make it a home to homeless that are wandering the streets this winter?
What…tearing down the Sands? The next thing you are going to say is that they are going to tear down the Flamingo…the Dunes…and the Stardust. The strip will never be the same
Its as though they want to COMPLETELY wipe out any memory of such loveable gangsters as Bugsey Siegel…Meyer Lansky …Robert Deniro…Ray Liotta…Joe Pesche. And Marlon Brando. Hey the mob did great things for this country. They got us hooked on gambling alcohol and drugs. AMD at the same time they gave us GREAT entertainment from the Rat Pack… Frank Sinatra…Sammy Davis Junior…Dean Martin..Peter Lawford. All for a few dozen paychecks. But all the Pina coladas you could drink.while playing the slots. I mourne the emd of an era..