Letter to the Editor

To the editor:

I witnessed the demise of the Crestwood mall since 2001.

More than a month ago there was a letter drafted by a lady that addressed the questionable operations of this “developer” UrbanStreet Group and previous practices.

Having considerable experience regarding this demolition over the course of over the last three years, I witnessed the “salvage phase” re: recyclables and such, but then came who knows how many of the cubic yards or metric tons that were collected at this site; it was endless.

There was material that was not a part of this original development site. The massive amount of soils and unassociated debris continued until it stopped about two years ago.

I went to a “code person” at the Crestwood City Hall and asked where all this material comes from “somewhere”?

The code person’s reply was, “They have a permit.”

There are different ways to assess such an environment of a “dump.” The material is either moved from onsite on the property and then taken to the same site, or the material was brought from outside the original site; if the latter is the case, money is being made by either one or different entities.

Now the Crestwood “dump site” removed material at whose expense? But there will be a profit made doing so.

There could be extensive provisions to this chaos that no one will know without reading the “fine print.”

It was stated two years ago by a city management person that there would be additional revenue from the development of businesses at the Crestwood mall site within 10 years of the person’s comment.

But the city will not see any such business income increase in this estimated time frame unless someone has a magic wand.

Steve Malone

Crestwood