This is a copy of an email I sent to the mayor this morning.

Dear Mr. Mayor,

As a big booster of the City of Greater Sudbury, as well as a patron of the arts, and an advocate for saving the city's few remaining heritage buildings, I am disappointed in your comments on CTV. You said, "Absolutely not," when asked about saving the Pearl St. watertower.

When I moved to this city in 1986, the watertowers (the Ash St. one as well) are something I thought gave the city's landscape character.

As Bruce Mau has said so elegantly, many of us do not want to live in a city that is all parking lots and big box stores....this progress means the city looks like everywhere else.

I am attaching a letter that appeared in Northern Life in the Tuesday, Jan. 12 issue from artist Irvin Marshall, and I hope you will reconsider, and champion this issue:

Mural should be painted on water tower - Irvin Elwood Marshall

It is with great concern and urgency that I write this letter to you. My concern is the state of appearance of the Pine Street Water tower, and my urgency is that I have heard rumours of demolition.

Those water towers have been a part of the Sudbury landscape for many years, and have served the city well. They should indeed be considered a heritage site as much as the Flour Mill silos. The one on Pine Street, which is owned by the city, is a definite eyesore and has been left in the state of disrepair for some years.

I am a long-time resident and artist, and have created many landmark murals within the city. I would like to propose that this sculptural piece of our history be given a new cultural life. I would transform it into a piece of creative genius that could be seen by all as a source of pride instead of the aura it now presents.

Whatever the cost of demolition, I would accept as payment for my creative transformation. Thousands are spent every year in other cities to either preserve or create public pieces of art.

We have been innovators and leaders in the past, and we can be that today. You be the leader and I the innovator, and (together we can) will that diamond in the rough into a sparkling gem that will grace the landscape and give credence to our re-greening transformation.

They have raped the landscape we have worked so hard to restore by flattening our green hills in order to build high end housing. The Mountain Street hill and the Copper Street hill have all but disappeared, and beautiful, young pine trees are being cut down to accommodate bricks.

When we can no longer run free on our hilltops, I no longer want to be here. A view from the Pine Street Water Tower is magnificent, and when that view disappears, a lot of our heritage goes with it. Give me this creative opportunity, and I will give you back a gem of a tourist attraction.

Irvin Elwood Marshall
Greater Sudbury