During Monday’s Washington City Council meeting, Councilman Doug Mercer voiced a concern about a guard over the air-conditioning unit on the nearly completed dock master’s station in downtown Washington.

In the initial design plans of the station, Mercer said there was metal guarding protecting the air-conditioning units from thieves and children from sticking things inside the blades.

However, with completion of the dock master’s station set for the end of June and the grand opening in early July, the metal guards have been taken out by designers.

“They put all the mechanical controls for the heat and air-conditioning on the outside wall,” Mercer said. “It seems to me the logical thing would have been to put them on the inside, to worry about people getting to them.”

Mercer said even though it was in the original design, protection has been taken out and he believes it’s needed.

“I think this is something we do citywide, we ask people to look at things they really aren’t qualified to look at,” Mercer said. “In that case, I would have thought electric inspections people would have seen that potential problem.”

Mercer said the facility will be nice when it is done, but added that it has cost the city a lot of money.

The dockmaster’s station, designed to look like a lighthouse, is expected to cost the city an estimated $350,000. It will feature a shower, restroom, washer and dryer, along with an office for the dock manager.

“It will be a multi-purpose facility and it is certainly better than that old eyesore public restroom we got down there now,” Mercer said.

Mercer does like the beautification projects the city has done on the waterfront with Festival Park, the gazebos, swings and children’s play area.

“We have some contributions from the Kiwanis Club to put the swing up and we’re about to put another swing up in honor of the police officer (Alexander Thalmann) that was killed in New Bern,” Mercer said. “The police department has contributed the funds to put that as a dedicated memorial to him.

“We have done a lot down there to make it attractive and I think we’re getting a lot more traffic in the waterfront area,” Mercer said.