Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 13, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Saturday free pre local John Douglas 6977292 features Buzz Currie email a3 soaring costs Puzzle exo Wner by Aldo Santon City Hall reporter the former owner of the Union Tower building says he cant believe the City is consid ering a renovation when he offered to do the Job four years ago for less than half that Victor Biasi said he Doest under stand How any of the recent bids for the Union project came in so inflation account for Biasi said of the Cost increase during businessman cant fathom jump in Union Tower costs the past four someone is certainly looking to make a lot of Money on this millions of the City issued a Call for interested private developers willing to renovate the Union Tower formally known As the Union Bank located next door to City it Hopes to move staff from several departments from across the City into the first three or four with the remaining space rented out the plan would involve the City repaying the winning Developer Over 20 years through annual buyback pay which would see the City eventually take Over the completely renovated building without any fur ther development the City originally estimated the Ren ovation would Cost million but the free press has Learned that the administration has narrowed the Competition to three which Are All predicting costs of Between million to Mil All three projects would Only Ren Ovate the first three or four Biasi said he wrote chief commissioner Rick Frost in february 1994 with a guaranteed offer to do the entire 10 floors for adding the City would have owned half the building after is years and could then Purchase his interest for a further million or buy him out at any Biasi said Frost did not respond to the Biasi owned the building from 1989 to the Spring of when the City took it Over in a tax he had spent the intervening years negotiating with the City to renovate the a Sim Ilar project the City is now doing with out Biasi is now suing the City claiming it deliberately and unnecessarily pro longed negotiations with the intent of taking the building and ideas from so percussionist Frederick lessens plays the car Horn on a Jaguar for people at Portage and main symphony Toots its horns in rousing noon hour concert Fly Morley Walker Forte and entertainment columnist 3 t 7atch your Mick a Young musical sprout named Bramwell Tovey stole your Thunder yesterday by conducting the Winnipeg sym phony orchestra in a rousing noon hour con Cert at Portage and this would be a great place for the rolling enthused civil servant Ronald one of the estimated people gathered under Cloudy skies at the closed landmark u even better if it was yesterdays of was the Kickoff event of the sos 50th anniversary the highlight was the world pre Piere of concerto for car horns and commissioned from Winnipeg Sorn composer Victor so principal percussionist Frederick Naessens earned a stirring ovation for his founding performance on the Horn of a 1997 Jaguar accompanying at the wheel of a 67 was cd ctr personality Peter they should have hired some ladies joked office worker Arlene Witwick then they would have been Honky Tonk g Winnipeg police staff Gary Shevehuk estimated the crowd at the intersection was closed from to Shewchuk said traffic problems were min Wesley 3 turn it Down he said Winnipeg transit reported 15 minute delays on some downtown and traffic southbound on main was backed up several so attired in Black trousers and yellow performed from a raised bandstand facing West from Between the Richardson building and the Bank of Mon the excellent sound was amplified through Banks of speakers on either Side of the the orchestra opened the 50minute con Cert with Glinka russian and Ludmilla they also played Strausss radetzky selections from Bizet and Tchaikovsky Marche this is a part of said childrens musician Jake who hiked to the How often can you stand in the Middle of Portage and main and Only hav two cars honking at you the baseball capped Ever the a earned his he told a to v thanked corporate led the crowd in a round of hand clapping and even flogged a so scratch and win season ticket about the Only think he didst do was strip to the Waist like Jagger and set fire to the Bass Tovey adds said up rail employee Linda he has a lot of stage pres that for the so continues its 50th anniversary celebrations with a gala show tonight at the Centennial concert they Are slated to perform Tchaikovsky 1812 overture at the Forks tomorrow Pipit at that concert is also the Only a few years shy of their 50th anniversary will play 30 at Winnipeg it mom t to what served the families of our Community years ago May not be what serves them Well that Why our funeral Home remains at the forefront of innovations that provide real Comfort and practical at a most difficult providing pre services in seven chapels and reception centres with onsite convenience these Are but a few when its time to look for a funeral Call on the one with a Long of looking toward the Glen Eden funeral Home cremation cemetery reception Centre 4477 main Street heart operations lacked Odim tells inquest by Alexandra Paul medical reporter a animosity among surgical staff and Lack institutional support led the surgeon in charge of childrens heart operations to lose Hope in the an inquest heard towards the end of the i was feeling it would probably never work in win Jonah Odim testified on his seventh Day on the just As dims frustration mortality rates forced the Hospital to shut Down the program in Decem 1994 nine months after Odim was recruited to Lead the the program was never Odim listed a series of complaints he feels held the program Back from personality conflicts with Doc tors and nurses to an inability of Hospital manage ment to come through with the support they promised when he was the led by associate chief provincial court judge Murray is probing the deaths of 12 Chil Dren in 1994 after open heart it will examine whether the program was Ever Odim said he wanted the program to continue and tried to answer the concerns of anaesthetists and nurses about High mortality i Felt the program could tackle some higher risk cases but it was strained because of the Way it was he the program was scaled Back briefly after Anes theists refused to assist on harder cases with Odim Dur ing the summer of that an internal Hospital review headed by chief paediatric surgeon Nathan Wiseman tried but failed to put the program Back on Odim testified he Felt the doctors and nurses he worked with didst want the surgery program As much As he i did try to talk about the Lack of commitment to the program but that was deflected by the issues of mortality and he he criticized the commit ment of doctors and nurses in the intensive care units and the operating but it was the anaesthetists he singled out for the harshest i always did sense there was some whether members wanted the paediatric cardiac pro Gram or they were just doing it because it was part of their Odim said of the Anes Odim said he Felt none of the anaesthetists got enough experience on open heart surgery because there were too Many of them doing too few he made similar criticism of doctors working in intensive care Only the per unionists who run the hear lung machines were like Odim said with the same 100 per cent commitment to their under Odim conceded some criticism of his techniques was valid but the real stumbling Block was the hostility of people around in sure i could have done things we in might share that concern but in not sure what i could have done about the attitudinal in not sure i could have done any thing to change others on the team failed to understand the nuances and intricacies of paediatric car Diac surgery and then made the tension worse in the operating room by chattering and talking through critical Points during he also questioned the level of commitment of the Hospital and the doctors who hired it included the whole Structure of the he dims testimony continues next Calvin Klein ;