Wrong Date - Too Late

When the Woodstock City Council set May 1, 2014, for the date by which the baseball stadium is to be built on the Merryman mining project land, it picked the wrong date.

This project was rushed through the Plan Commission and the City Council to accommodate Tom Merryman's position that he wouldn't do the deal if the City Council didn't approve it on December 16. When that statement was made, had I been mayor, I'd have said, "Too bad; so sad. Let's go home."

The pitch was that the site for the baseball stadium needed to be "pad-ready" in the Spring of 2009 to allow time for building the stadium in time for opening day of the 2010 baseball season.

So why the 2014 date? Does anyone doubt that mining activity will commence right away? Could Merryman mine gravel for five years and walk away, just saying, "Well, the stadium guys didn't do their part; not my fault."

This is not likely, if the baseball guys are to be believed. It appears that they are anxious to bring the Frontier League (who???) to Woodstock.

Let's hope they do. For me, the question remains. Why 2014? Why five years down the road? Why did the Council not, instead, create a progress schedule for construction and condition the mining on that?