Saturday, June 27, 2009

Gravel pit on; ballpark stalled


The Woodstock Plan Commission was to meet last Thursday night. Presumably they did, although no work of discussions was published in the daily newspaper on Friday or today. This view, looking west from the newly-paved Lily Pond Road, shows that mining is well underway. More new "mountains" are to the right of this view. Drive on Lily Pond Road and take a look.
Woodstock was supposed to get a baseball stadium out of the deal, which was rushed through last fall, because (apparently) the Seller of the property put a deadline on Merryman to seal the deal. Nice work by the Seller...
As you may have read elsewhere, the stadium is on hold because of a wetlands issue to the west. Rumor has it that the wetlands issue has been known for years.
Now Merryman, according to Thursday's Northwest Herald (Page 1C), wants to add 7.72 acres "to the 240-acre baseball stadium site". Well, first of all, is it really to be added to the baseball stadium site? Or is to be added to the overall site, since the article goes on to add that the proposed "new" gravel mining site is "at the far east side of the baseball stadium site, on the west side of Lily Pond Road". (The stadium site is only 38 acres.)
I wasn't at the Plan Commission meeting. Was anyone there, apart from the commissioners and the interested parties?
The word "snookered" keeps running through my mind. I didn't like the rush put on the City Council when the deal was pitched to them, and I didn't like the 50 conditions attached but subject to approval by Woodstock City employees, not that of the City Council. This deal got rushed through and then passed off on employees to green-light it.
If the deal for the stadium falls through, then Woodstock inherits the land where the stadium was to be on May 14, 2014. Big deal. Merryman makes a ton on the gravel it mines; Woodstock gets no stadium but gets vacant, perhaps undevelopable, land.
Does this sound like a good deal for Woodstock to you?

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