One heck of a piece of wood

Yes, folks, the City of Westmount plans to pay more than $70,000 to replace the rear door at City Hall. When the Examiner broke the story last week, you can be sure a few alarmed property owners were tempted to leave long, nasty messages for their local city councillors, railing against grossly excessive expenditures of their hard-earned municipal tax dollars.

But maybe they shouldn't be so quick to complain.

As City Councillor John de Castell rightly pointed out at the last meeting, $70,000 is a lot of money — considerably more than one would normally pay for a single door, even if it is made of heavy oak to match the larger ones on the other side of the building.

Just think of how many parking tickets our Public Security officers will have to write in order to bring in that much revenue. Or think of how many peanuts one would need to feed local squirrels to generate that amount in fines!

Mayor Marks has since clarified the expenditure, releasing a statement that the oak door itself will only cost $16,000 — less than one quarter of the overall price, but still one heck of a piece of wood by anyone's standards — and the rest will be taken up by several important features. "The majority of the additional costs are the special arm necessary to render it handicapped accessible, due to the fact that the walls are so deep and the door heavy," Marks stated last week. "Also, electrical connections for this arm and the external controls had to go under the floor and through the vault which added significantly to the cost. Since this door is used by the majority of our residents, it was essential that it be properly designed not only to enhance the building but to provide for easy access for all."

Westmount City Hall is a formidable building, and to equip it with anything less than a formidable door would be a disservice to the community. Many other cities would immediately dismiss such an expense, but here it is worth the money.