People often suspect the folks at City Hall have lost their marbles and now it looks as if it's literally coming true.

Pending council's final approval, the 3,000 marble slabs gracing the exterior of the 1960 landmark on Main West are being replaced by slices of pre-cast concrete in order to cut renovation costs.

That's a big comedown from using a stone-like product that was supposed to be more "sympathetic" to the building's heritage, which they originally planned to use to replace the marble.

But don't worry. Gerry Davis, director of capital planning for the city, assures us most people won't be able to tell the difference once the concrete is up.

"It's not going to be like the basement of a house," Davis says. "It looks polished.

"It's basically the same colour as before, it's just not marble."

Well, there's some small comfort in that. I'd hate to think we were downgrading our mid-20th-century architectural classic into a Stalinist bunker.

Still, wouldn't it be nice if just once this cash-starved city could take on a big project without rubbing the engraving off every nickel and dime that goes into the job?

But what can you do?

Apparently the current marble slabs have had their day.

"The engineers said you might get five to 10 more years out of it, but nobody would put their stamp of approval on it to put it back up," Davis says.

And new marble slabs would cost more than $6 million.

Faced with an $8-million spike on an approved $50-million budget, it looks like councillors are set on tightening their cummerbunds and going with cut-rate concrete.

The question now is, what happens to that 30,000 square feet of Georgia Cherokee marble once it hits the ground?

Well, it seems most of it will wind up in the hands of whoever wins the contract to take it down, and they can do whatever they want with it -- resell, reuse or recycle.

That's actually good news for this tapped-out town.

According to Davis, the take-away value of the marble will be factored into how much the contractor is paid for the job, thus reducing the cost to the city.

So, how much is all that marble worth?

The team of companies overseeing the reno project are expected to put a price on it for the city in two or three weeks.

Davis says they're reluctant to peg it right now because they think they might be able to use some of the salvaged material in other parts of the project.

OK, now we're talking. Just think of the creative uses, both inside and outside City Hall, we could eke from that metamorphic rock.

They could make marble toilet seats for the new washrooms, providing a cooling-down spot for councillors and staffers who find themselves on the hot seat.

Or they could make marble busts of past and present councillors and scatter them on marble pedestals among marble fountains and tables in the revamped forecourt.

Clearly, with 30,000 square feet of marble to play with, the possibilities are as limitless as the range of ceremonial gifts and official gewgaws they could produce: clocks and vases, chessboards and wine goblets, penholders and paperweights.

Heck, to further recoup some of the costs of the project, they could even open a little souvenir shop in the lobby of City Hall that councillors could take turns running in order to hone their entrepreneurial skills and, during slow times, mull over their mistakes.

Best of all, they'd still have plenty of marble left over to chisel political tombstones for those councillors who don't survive the next election.

Give this council's track record, we could be looking at a whole new graveyard.

Andrew Dreschel's commentary appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. adreschel@thespec.com

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