Former fire hall emergency services facility advisory committee member Arthur Richards was looking for two apologies from City of Powell River councillors, and received one.
At the May 4 committee of the whole meeting, councillors reviewed correspondence from Richards dated April 13. He stated that based on published statements regarding previous correspondence he sent councillors pertaining to the new fire hall, reviewed by council at the March 30 committee of the whole meeting, he requested a public apology from councillors Maggie Hathaway and Cindy Elliott.
The matter pertained to the question of whether Richards had stated he thought the Courtenay Street fire hall could be refurbished. He stated in his April 13 correspondence that when a motion came up regarding the Courtenay Street firehall not being upgradeable, he supported the motion.
“I feel this is another attempt to discredit me in my attempt to bring this subject into public scrutiny,” stated Richards in his correspondence.
Hathaway said Richards misunderstood the conversation at the March 30 meeting. Hathaway said she hadn’t read the published report, but Richards, in his April 13 correspondence, was talking about moving forward with a new fire hall and that’s exactly what she meant. She said she has not made any statements at the committee level about refurbishing the existing fire hall.
Hathaway said another letter Elliott thought was from him was from another resident and she tried to make that clear at the March 30 meeting.
“He has completely misunderstood the conversation and I will not be coming forward with an apology of any kind,” said Hathaway.
Elliott said she responded to Richards via email, explaining that when she had confused the March 30 agenda item with a letter she had read earlier, she did not mention at any time that the letter was from a completely different person.
“I have no problem with apologizing to Mr. Richards for his believing I had been misrepresenting him because I did speak out of turn and I was speaking about a different letter when it was the agenda item for his letter,” said Elliott. “I do feel badly about that. It was not intentional at all.”
In his April 13 correspondence, Richards also stated he believes Hathaway should step down from the fire hall committee.
Richards, in the letter, stated that while on the committee, he tried to remove five of six offices, two of six showers, a huge training room with storage, a ham radio room, a bicycle storage room and a kitchenette, which he stated, would total $1.1 million if the building cost was $400 per square foot.
“I still believe this fire hall is too extravagant for a city with such a small population,” stated Richards.
The committee voted to receive the letter from Richards.
