THUNDER BAY -- On any given day, if the wind is blowing from the west, Joe Salini starts his morning with a waft of diesel.
The president of Blake's Funeral Chapel said he also has to yell directions at mourners over idling bus engines and although he can count on one hand the amount of times he's had to call 911 in his more than 60 years on the job, since city hall became a bus terminal in 2010 he's had to call twice a week sometimes to get people off of his property.
Construction of the Thunder Bay Courthouse forced the city to move its southside bus terminal.
A temporary location on Violet Street was given as an option but costs and safety concerns made the council of the day find a compromise by choosing city hall.
Salini predicted all of these problems as one of many residents and business owners in the area to protest the city's decision to relocate its south side bus terminal at city hall.
Since then his issues with air quality, noise and unwanted people on his property have only gotten worse.
The bus terminal was only supposed to be a temporary solution but on Monday councillors will vote to make city hall a permanent bus terminal, one of five key transfer points across the city. That would mean a $340,000 upgrade to widen sidewalks and build new heated shelters so that city hall would no longer stay open for extended hours in the winter, eventually saving $50,000 a year.
As he did in 2010, Salini said there's no doubt the city needs a bus terminal on the South side but it shouldn't be at city hall.
"This isn't the place for it because it allows for too many bad things to happen around here," he said.
"I could make an interesting movie with our closed circuit TV as to what goes on."
People in the area were also told they'd be consulted but Salini said he hasn't heard anything from the city in more than two years as to what the longterm plan would be for buses.
"It's frustrating that we haven't even been consulted. It's so typical of how our city does things," he said.
But Salini won't be back at city council Monday after receiving what he calls unacceptable treatment the last time he raised concerns. When he brought up the fact that people were using his parking lot for city hall business, Salini was told that wasn't true.
"They think that you're stupid and that you don't know what you're talking about," he said.
"It sounds like they've already made their minds up as to what they're doing."
