City of Saint John officials faced an irate crowd at an open house meeting on the water problems that have been plaguing the west side since the switchover to the South Bay Wellfield.
“Why are my concerns being put into a private room?” one woman yelled from the audience. “When everybody in this room has a problem with what’s going on.”
Many were less than pleased with the format of the meeting, which included a one hour presentation then had the crowd break off into different rooms to talk to water experts.
West side resident Owen Boyle spoke to CHSJ News and called the meeting ‘a farce.’
“All those people here that left tonight, they refused to go into that side rooms tonight. They left, and they’re not going to come back until the questions that are asked by the floor are going to be answered to the floor,” Boyle says.
“This was all wrong.”
Blaine Harris is the executive director of the Lancaster Business Association and he too took issue with the format.
“I think it’s just a smoke and mirror game the city is playing with the citizens of Saint John,” says Harris.
“A town hall session people are going to ask question and you bring up the subject matter experts, let them answer the question in front of everybody. Then everybody’s got the answer at once.”
Two open houses on the water issues were held yesterday on the west side at St. Mark’s United Church, they follow a town hall held earlier this month.
City council has voted to install a temporary orthophosphate treatment system at the South Bay water treatment facility to help prevent more leaks. Over 180 reports of leaking pipes have come into the city since the switchover in September.
