Hey! Mr. Merlo! Wassup?!?

So here we are, a month after Merlo's Clear-cut was effected.

I went by there today, on a suitably drizzly morning, to record the progress of the 'project'. Lit the candle on the cupcake (laughed as it sputtered and fizzled to nothing), spoke a line or two of poetry, and toasted everything with- Well, not so much a glass of bubbly as a great horked loogie, sent perfectly arcing towards Al's masterpiece. (I think I drowned a snail with my inspired abundance.)

To remind my gentle readers of Mr. Merlo's intention, allow me to quote from the May 20th Stoney Creek News article:

When asked about the bulldozers that have been spotted on the property, Merlo said he is simply “leveling off” the land to make it look neater.

“There used to be a cherry orchard there and we had let it grow over,” he said. “We’re just clearing out the underbrush so that we can seed that land and mow it.”

Now, all speculation aside (and I'm drawing on enormous stores of propriety here, because word-on-the-street is that nobody is talking about any of this. That is, phone calls aren't being returned, an eery element of silence seems to have descended...), the fact is that what was purported to be an issue worthy of practical -if wholly unannounced, uncommunicated and unexpected- action seems to have become-

Well, it seems to have become something else entirely.

Almost as if the plans as stated in the News and the Spec weren't quite as declared...or some thing managed to gum up the machinery something awful. (Which, I'll further remind my readers that this land is zone 'OS-3'. Translated, it means that development plans are limited to 'nothing'. Although in Mr. Merlo's framing of things, maybe 'delusions of grandeur/pie in the sky scheming' might be closer to the truth. I'm just sayin'...)

Once again, I'm calling on those entities in the area who are far more charged with sorting out this kind of stuff than a fairly unknown civic blogger is, to actually provide the public with some answers. Because I'd hate to have suspicions confirmed down the road, and that what results here on this isolated patch of land will further enrage citizenry and reduce faith in public officials (and the media that covers them) to an even lower level.

Towards that end, here are some visual representations for your continued edification:

Stoney Creek Battlefield Park Clear-cutting Débacle, Part Five

N.B. This post is being distributed to the Stoney Creek News as a 'Letter to the Editor', as well as to The Spec, other bloggers and appropriate politicians.