Out To Fib

To those of us somewhat familiar with free-standing stone construction, the above photograph was alarming. The lower right hand corner clearly shows that the unseen pond on the right was under-dug, threatening the bridge integrity. Although the bridge structure has some mortar, the pond walls are free-standing. It gets worse. Yesterday's article in the Morning Call on the park plans was disappointing. The reporter chose to ignore the fact that there is growing opposition to those plans, and that many informed people believe the plans are detrimental to the parks. It gets much worse. Today I visited the ponds to inspect the progress; the reporter was told (last week) that the ponds would be refilled within a month. No work, what- so- ever, has been performed on the walls. I learned that the bidding process for such work has not even been completed. The ponds, because of the weather, are again partially filled. It is my hope that the ponds survive this so called " improvement". It is apparent to me that this park/recreation director is obsessed with recreation plans, but in way over his head in regard to safe guarding the gems of Allentown, the parks themselves. The reporter was clearly mislead in regard to the ponds being completed. Likewise, the Trexler Trust has comprised its long term reputation by placing blind faith in these plans. It's bad enough that the pond job is still out to bid, it's worse when officials are out to fib.