To the Editor:

The May 5th Planning & Zoning meeting may have been an all-time comedy milestone for Newtown. Wharton Equities LLC had the usual gang of provocateurs led by attorney Thomas Cody on stage once again trying to con the community into believing his client’s 345,000 square foot mega-warehouse is an offer that’s too good to be refused.

Funny thing happened though, they started falling over one another as they tried to respond to questions from the commissioners. One said the warehouse would only use 34 of the 76 very expensive loading dock doors.

Then they couldn’t agree on the truck traffic into and out of the site. And once again employee traffic numbers were missing because they could easily number in the thousands for a three-shift operation, and that would be far too damning to mention.

A commission member asked a Wharton employee if the fork lift trucks at the site would be electric; he couldn’t answer. Then he went on to say their clients were all big ticket companies. Moments later in describing internal operations at the site, he said he didn’t know if they’d use conveyor belt systems to move goods because they’re very expensive.

The scam continued. Attorney Cody played it cool by sidestepping questions about who will occupy the site, the nature of their business, or what will be stored in a “warehouse” that’s not a warehouse, rather an enormous freight terminal. But he knows that publicly stepping up to the truth would doom their application.

And so, the show goes on. Thursday, May 19, will be the next curtain call for the charade. This time the public may finally have a chance to voice their opposition.

Donald Leonard

Newtown

Editor’s Note: Don Leonard is an intervenor of record in this P&Z matter. And according to our report in today’s edition, when responding to officials’ questions about the tenancy of the proposed warehouse, Mr Cody said that the developer, Wharton, does not know who any potential tenants of the warehouse may be.