Mr. Mayor:

Your decision to recuse yourself from voting on the public nuisance issue concerning the Wheeling Inn should be respected by all. We feel since you and the manager and representative for the owner, a vote cast one way or the other on the issue would have been inappropriate.

Thank you for your honesty in the matter.

But we do have a few questions for you … if you have a moment.

At any time during one of your extensive conversations with your close, personal friend did you ask him why the owner has chosen to allow the large, rooftop, once-brightly-illuminated sign to crumble into ugly dilapidation?

Or why has the owner decided to retain cracked windows over renovation to its front façade along Main Street?

Did you ask your friend if he knew what a city’s “gateway,” is, and did you explain to him the damage the owner has perpetrated against a municipality, a state, and a private sector that has invested millions of dollars into the downtown district that begins, from the north, with the Wheeling Inn?

As hard as you have worked on our downtown during your first six years as our mayor, we want to be certain you have at least attempted to have this conversation with your friend, but because of where we are right now, we felt we needed to ask.

Sincerely,

Gateway Gawkers