“We need to do something symbolic,” said Coun. Whitehead. “What is a fountain symbolic of? Nothing. What is a waterfall symbolic of? Hamilton.”

Coun . Whitehead has embraced the city’s growing recognition of becoming a “City of Waterfalls”, a tag line that local businessman, Chris Ecklund, has been promoting throughout the area. To date he has identified over 120 waterfalls in the Hamilton community. Mr. Whitehead and his family have participated in a number of“waterfall walks” Mr. Ecklund has organized every weekend. Later this month he will be holding a special walk to celebrate his first year anniversary of his community project.

It was against this background that Coun. Whitehead proposed a waterfall design for the city hall’s forecourt. “It would be iconic to have a waterfall,” he said.

Coun . Whitehead suggested at this week’s city hall renovation subcommittee, that it would be appropriate to have a symbol of Hamilton prominently displayed in the heart of the city’ local government.

There had been two pools with fountains in the forecourt, but they were eventually closed, covered with dirt and trees planted because of high operational costs. In addition, said Mr. Whitehead, there had been instances of people taking baths, and other vandalism problems that made keeping the pools active a constant headache.

Acting public works general manager Gerry Davis said adding a waterfall design into the already $2 million forecourt budget would increase the overall city hall renovation cost and extend the time needed to complete city hall. He said a landscape architect has been selected and is already preparing drawings for the area.

“It’s late in the process,” he said. “There would be a scheduling impact.”

Coun . Whitehead earlier this year suggested the new city hall should include a “green roof” that would save on energy and become symbolic of the city’s commitment to environmental sustainability. City staff initially balked because of the price tag to install it and the cost to keeping it operational. Now, the green roof will be installed on the second floor, and it will cost about $3,000 to maintain. The energy the roof saves will help pay for its upkeep, they said. The public will not be able to access it because of safety issues and design problems, staff said.

Meanwhile, the city hall parking lot will be essentially closed starting next week. The second floor parking area was shut down two weeks ago as construction crews began renovating the wishbone area behind city hall. Mr. Davis said since the crane operating on the site needs to be located in the back of the building, the first level of parking has to be walled off for health and safety issues.

“This is a construction site,” he said. There will still be some parking available in the west parking lot, said Mr. Davis. The project remains on its $74 million budget and it is still scheduled to reopen for business the first week in July, 2010.