Only a few aquariums had fish in them, many of the displays were not turned on. The room was dark and most of the aquarium lights were not on. The place is just dingy. The floor was supposed to be tiled over a month ago but the dirty cement is still there. The parking lot was paved but there are no parking lines so cars were just randomly scattered about.

The city built the building but serious mistakes were made. The heating and cooling system is just two small wall mounted units and one is behind the aquariums. They cannot possibly handle the humidity or hold the temperatures in hot and cold weather. A conference room and classroom were built upstairs but are unusable because there is no window or second door for use as an emergency exit. Obviously no one with building experience looked at the plans and no inspector approved them.

It is my understanding that the aquarium was turned over to the city over a month ago. The city agreed to finish up and maintain everything. I was one of the volunteers so I saw how everything came together while a dedicated individual from Charlotte dedicated two years or more to this project. He raised all the funds and donated thousands himself to make this a reality. He made dozens of overnight trips to Bryson City to personally work on this project.  He got the volunteers and materials. I see little if any progress since the city took charge. I know government can be slow and cumbersome. If the city has issues of some sort that’s okay but don’t open up until you have something the public will enjoy. As it is, I’m afraid the word will spread that this is a big waste of. This could rival the trains as a city attraction but unless changes are made its just a waste of money. Volunteers and folks that donated can only hope their efforts were not in vain.

Chuck Harrell

Whittier