Protest to save tower crumbles

An unusually tumultuous town hall meeting in Senneville Monday night saw one resident escorted out the room by police and several leave disappointed after council confirmed it would grant a private owner a demolition permit to destroy a 148-year-old water tower on his property.

"They have just decided that the tower is a bunch of rocks," an outraged Liz Morgan told reporters outside town hall after she was told to leave.

Morgan has been a vehement defender of the structure, which was built in the style of a medieval tower by her great-great-grandfather James Morgan on what used to be his property in 1860. That part of his property now belongs to a private citizen who asked for a demolition permit last month.

At Monday night's meeting, council underscored it had received four written requests by Senneville residents, and eight by non-residents, to revise their decision to grant the permit. However, despite this, council decided to go ahead with the permit, citing vandalism fears.

"It wasn't in the last two years that police handed 300 tickets," Senneville Mayor George McLeish told assembled residents. "It was this summer that police handed out 300 tickets."

For years the tower has been a nocturnal hang-out for teenagers. A recent daytime visit by The Chronicle revealed discarded bottles of alcohol and soft drinks.

This summer, one resident who tried to shoo the teenagers was reportedly roughed up, local police said.

"I've had to call police too many times," said one young man at the meeting. Living at a home near the water tower, he said, one gets a better understanding of how dangerous the vandalism is.

He revealed his name to be Adam McLeish when Morgan asked him to identify himself, and he confirmed he lived at the same address as the mayor, which neighbours the tower property.

When Morgan refused to be silent, the mayor asked her to quiet down. "No," she said.

"Please leave," the mayor then said. She walked out, flanked by a police officer.

Though some residents hope to have the tower recognized either federally or provincially as historical property, councillor Allison Hackney said this was already attempted in 2001 when council wrote to the provincial Culture, Communications and Womens' Condition Ministry.

"The tower is not classified as a building of exceptional significance," she said.

However, upon further questioning by residents, it emerged Senneville never received a written response by the Ministry confirming this.

"(The Ministry) have 12 months in which to respond. If they don't respond in 12 months, it's game over," said the mayor, claiming the lack of an answer from the ministry is the same as a definite no.

"I don't think this letter was ever sent to the provincial government," interjected one resident, recalling Senneville was part of Pierrefonds back in 2001, and the letter could easily have been lost in bureaucracy.

Several residents suggested council withhold the permit until citizens try to again get the tower recognized as historical property, but McLeish said even putting it on a list might not change a thing.

"Even if it made it to the list, it would be difficult," McLeish said, adding that convincing town residents to pay for the tower's upkeep out of their own pockets would be no easy task.

One man who refused to identify himself said those against the tower's demolition would perhaps think twice if they lived in its vicinity, like he did. "There are tens of thousands of kids who know about (these parties)," he said. Sometimes, he continued, there would be so much debris on his way home that he would have to stop his car to remove it while hoping some teenagers would not hop into his vehicle and steal it while he was busy.

After the meeting, Lachine resident John Doak, a real estate restaurateur and history buff who has worked on other historical properties in Montreal, told The Chronicle another alternative might be to buy up the part of the property that includes the tower and restore it.

Doak was in disbelief Senneville would not consider the tower's historical value. "The other tower is on the village's masthead," he said, referring to a twin structure which lies near the water on the other side of Senneville Road on what used to also be part of the Morgan property but now belongs to the Saputos. That tower remains untouched, Doak said.