Friends of the Zeiss Statement of

P.O. Box 1041 Glenn A. Walsh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230-1041 U.S.A. Before the

Telephone: 412-561-7876 Council of the

Electronic Mail: < friendsofthezeiss@planetarium.cc > City of Pittsburgh:

Internet Web Site: < http://www.friendsofthezeiss.org > 2005 July 12

Good morning, I am Glenn A. Walsh of 633 Royce Avenue, Mount Lebanon; Project Director of Friends of the Zeiss.

Tomorrow afternoon, there will be an important public hearing before Pittsburgh City Council. This will be the final public hearing, and culminate a half-year public process, for the historic designation of Pittsburgh’s original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science building, in Allegheny Center.

As the President of Pittsburgh City Council is responsible for the scheduling of all City Council public hearings, I must compliment Gene Ricciardi for the perfect scheduling of tomorrow’s hearing, which begins at 1:30 p.m. Shortly after the hearing, America finally returns to space with the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, scheduled to blast-off at 3:51 p.m.!

Again, this public hearing, for the historic designation of Pittsburgh’s original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science building, will occur tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 1:30 p.m. in the City Council Chamber on the fifth floor of the City-County Building, located at the corner of Grant Street and Forbes Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Any member of the public may attend and speak at this hearing. Your public comments do not have to be long; short comments are fine, and, in fact, comments before City Council should not exceed three minutes per person. The City Clerk’s Office does ask people to pre-register to speak by calling the City Clerk’s Office at 412-255-2138; once again, that number to pre-register to speak is 412-255-2138.

For those who cannot attend this public hearing, you may support the historic designation of Buhl Planetarium by e-mailing a short letter of support to < Buhlletters@planetarium.cc >; again, you can e-mail a short letter of support for the historic designation of Buhl Planetarium to < Buhlletters@planetarium.cc >.

You can read more about this historic designation proposal on either of these Internet web sites:

< http://www.friendsofthezeiss.org > or < http://www.planetarium.cc >.

For more information about tomorrow’s public hearing, you can send an e-mail message to

< Buhlinfo@planetarium.cc > or telephone 412-561-7876. Again, for more information, the e-mail address is < Buhlinfo@planetarium.cc > and the telephone number is 412-561-7876.

Thank you.

gaw