Dear editor:

I just can’t help but comment further on the now infamous Niagara-on-the-Lake gateway project.

It is  a bit difficult to tell for sure from the supplied images published in The Lake Report what this stone structure really looks like.

But if the so-called obelisk they are planning is actually the classic type, then we really do have a problem. A 25-foot high one.

Is this to be the typical four-sided, tapered-to-a-point obelisk? The type that symbolizes the Egyptian sun God Ra?

It's a bit of a stretch to actually think anyone, let alone a visitor from who knows where, would ever actually think this totally out-of-place structure was trying to present itself as a symbol of our earliest historic lighthouse.

Or are they going to actually do a scaled-down version of what is presented in some of the early historical prints showing the historical lighthouse? Why is this the only design they are promoting so strongly? Others are available, according to Coun. Clare Cameron.

Why have we not seen a selection of designs printed in the paper, not just on not on some online site that even fewer people will see and actually access?

Or is this the one preferred by the source of the money for this project, one that we really didn’t know we needed so badly? And are there only two designs? That would be unheard of for this type of major public project.

Why not present them all and let the residents vote on the design? We have to live with this for a long time. This whole project and the way it is being presented really needs very close attention and scrutiny from all of us. Is anyone really offended or complaining about the display we now have?

Of course, any landscape display can be presented in various ways and it may be time for a rethink of this site, but not this sterile and harsh presentation.

There is just nothing like a stone wall, 40 feet long and eight feet high in parts, with a possible 25-foot Egyptian obelisk sticking up.

No one told me this is something we really must have, but big money talks.

One more thought on the look as presented: It seems like the Niagara Parks Commission's “stone wall division” actually designed this. It could be one of their rejects, for sure.

Christopher Allen

NOTL