SUBMITTED BY DAVID COTTLE.
OPINION

Dear Editor,

The front-page headline and the editorial in your Feb. 21 issue are outrageous.

TOWN WILL PAY ‘A FORTUNE’ IN LEGAL FEES, your headline states boldly. Has The Lake Report already decided the outcome?

Your editorial is entitled: Stop spending bad money. You say “If a hotel at Randwood isn’t going to cause the apocalypse, we might as well let it happen.”

Benny Marotta’s sentiments exactly!

Mr. Marotta must be very pleased with your paper. It seems safe to say that most residents and, probably, Town Council are not. That a fledgling new paper in town would take sides against the residents and town makes one wonder where you’re coming from. Why isn’t the paper on the side of the residents and town, against Benny Marotta?

Now, about Mr. Marotta. It’s not unusual for a developer to be at odds with existing zoning and the wishes of residents. What’s unusual in this case is that this is the historic Old Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake; that Marotta says he appreciates its history and charm; and that he and his family have taken up residence here to be a part of it. Yet Marotta has bought up much of the vacant land in town and is intent on filling it with high-density residential construction and a hotel that are out-of-character with the Old Town and everything residents and visitors cherish — whether we like it or not. “It’s a business,” he’s quoted as saying. If residents and Town Council continue to object, he’s going to make us pay for it in legal fees. With this plan and attitude, Marotta is becoming persona non grata in the community of which he wishes to be a part.

Is that the “legacy” he wishes to create for his family and their Two Sisters Winery here?