Woodlands: Editorial by Lynda Orr

When Onni purchased the old Woodlands site, it undertook to preserve certain historic buildings on the site, among them the old asylum buildings. Today the ravaged Centre Block keeps a lonely vigil over the smoky ruins, so clearly the company failed miserably.

Beau Jarvis, the vice president of development, has stated that Onni spent $15,000 on security, however I would be very interested to know how much of that was actually spent on security for its four construction sites at Victoria Hill. I live in a condo directly overlooking the old building and I have not seen anyone conduct a perimeter on the asylum site this year. As others have pointed out ---if four fires were set and the entire building covered in graffiti the "phantom security" was pretty hopeless. Just look at the number of photos on facebook and flickr to see how easy it was to gain access. In fact some days there was a line up to get through the main hole in the fence.

I also dispute the veracity of Mr Jarvis's statement to the press that "We had one guy who comes in every day and his job is to walk around the centre block building and put up new boards, fix any chain-link fence that has been cut" --repairs were only performed on an ad hoc basis --- the hole in the fence opposite my condo has been there all year.

It is a mercy nobody was killed ---and thanks to the heroic efforts of the New Westminster and Burnaby Departments, the fire was contained, and our homes were saved.

Now thanks to years of poor stewardship by all concerned, New Westminster can celebrate its 150-year anniversary minus one of its oldest buildings. I know there are some who believe it is better that Woodlands and its memories are gone, but I personally feel a sense of loss and betrayal at the destruction of this beautiful building. I think we all should be taking a closer look at the agreement whereby Onni gained control of the Woodlands site for development--if they did not live up to their part of the bargain to save the Asylum buildings, why should the City live up to theirs?

Lynda Maeve Orr