Being a lifelong resident, Mr. Stritzinger has a strong interest in working with the community to make this a project that will do justice to this beautiful site, and he is open to ideas and suggestions from residents that would be legally and financially possible to enhance the development.

I realize that there are many residents that are upset at the thought of losing the beautiful Country Club, myself included, as it has always been so nice to drive by and see that open green space with all of those beautiful trees. There are a lot of “would have, should have, and could have” comments being made and there are certainly a lot of fingers being pointed at individuals and groups that are considered to blame for the loss of the Country Club site, but it has happened, and the project is now a City of Newark approved development. This is now water under the bridge and it would be best if we all try to work together to make this development as attractive and as least disruptive to the city and residents as possible.

We are fortunate to have a local developer who has a concern and appreciation for life in Newark heading up this project. The Country Club site could have easily been purchased by a big developer who was bottom line motivated and who had no concern or appreciation for the residents of Newark. I hope that we can all work together to make this a beautiful development that will do the site proud and also have a minimal impact on the existing traffic problems that we currently have in Newark.

The West Branch Civic Association has set up a public meeting with Bill Stritzinger to give us all more information and exchange ideas pertaining to the Country Club Development, and we hope that many of you will attend and participate in this meeting.

The meeting will be held:
April 23, 2008 @ 7:30 PM
George Wilson Community Center –
303 New London Rd.

The meeting will be moderated by Marty Valania (Editor of the Newark Post)

The Wilson Center was the largest facility that we could obtain at this time, and we hope that it will accommodate all the folks who would like to attend. The seating capacity is rated at 150 people, so I would suggest getting there early to secure a good seat.

I do want to stress that this meeting is not intended to be a venue for individuals to voice concerns in an attempt to prevent this project from happening; this is a done deal, and now is the time to come together and work with the developer to enhance the project.

Steve Purvis
9 E Mill Station Dr.