September 20, 2007
Douglas Meyer
C/o Fort Scott Development Corp. LLC
Dear Douglas Meyer,
I am writing to you today in regards to the Fort Scott Development project, of which I have received a flyer and have also heard the radio advertisements.
I have followed the development of this property with a great deal of sadness over the years, as I am a former camper and Staff member of Fort Scott Camps. I had hoped that Fort Scott Camp would be a legacy that would be passed on to my children and grand children. Needless to say, that is no longer possible.
Fort Scott Camp was a very special place for me and many of my friends. It was a place where children could still be children, safe and isolated away from the cares in the world. For many children who came from less than privileged lifestyles, it was a brief break from what would otherwise be a very bleak circumstance.
Fort Scott was also a wildlife refuge and home to many plants and animals that cannot be found anywhere else in the Tri State area.
To many of us, Fort Scott was sacred ground. The sale of this property and use of it for anything other than a summer camp to me is tragedy.
I have learned through my correspondence with other Fort Scott Alums that the mailing list that was maintained by another Fort Scott Alum was used by you or marketing personnel working on your behalf to solicit sales of homes in your development. I find this disgusting and liken it to attorneys using the list of persons killed in an airline crash to find new clients.
I also have learned that you are using the names of Fort Scott icons, such as the Fort Scott Bugle, to name your streets and landmarks. I am respectfully requesting that you stop this immediately.
It is painful enough to drive down State Route 128 and see the signs for Fort Scott, knowing that instead of a magnificent camp that impacted the lives of thousands of people, it is now a collection of four bedroom houses on cul de sacs.
Surely there are other names that could be given to the streets of your development that would entice people to buy there. Must you continue to re open the wound of losing camp by stealing the names of things that were precious to us and using them in ways they were never intended?
I can assure you, that if your marketing department thinks that by naming the streets of a subdivision that is built on holy ground, after the icons that made it holy, that they will somehow entice Fort Scott Family members to purchase these properties, they are sadly mistaken.
I will be placing this letter on my website http://fortscottmemories.blogspot.com/. If you care to respond to this letter, I will place your response in the website as well, verbatim and unedited.
I am attaching letters that I have received from my friends and readers regarding this issue so that you can see that I am not the only person who finds your choice of street names profoundly offending and hurtful.
I realize that there is no stopping the development now. I am merely asking on my own behalf, and on behalf of the other Fort Scott family members that you find other names for your streets.
Regards,Robert J. Saurber
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4 comments:
BOB - YOU ROCK!!!
Love the letter. Couldn't have said it better myself.
And I have to admit, I caught myself AGAIN this morning remembering seeing "Bugle Way," "Lodge Lane," and the other street names, and it still feels like a knife in the back.
Beth~
Beth,
I would like to send your post from earlier as well as anything else you feel like writing. Please send it to me care of the Gmail account.
Bob
BOB,
WHEN I SAW THE CABIN ON FIRE I CRIED REAL TEARS I WAS ONE OF THOSE UNDERPRIVELGED KIDS WHO'S LIFE WAS FOREEVER CHANGED BY THE SUMMERS I GOT TO SPEND THERE. ITS NOT FAIR TO THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WHO HAD THE BEST MOMENTS OF THERE CHILDHOOD AT THAT WONDERFUL PLACE FOR THOSE MONEY HUNGRY DEVELOPERS TO NAME STREETS AFTER OUR BELOVED CAMP.HOPEFULLY WITH ALL THE PROBLEMS WITH THE HOUSING MARKET THEY LOOSE MONEY.....
Dear Bob,
I'm a little late responding to this post. Having just visited the "Fort Scott Community" web site and examined the development layout (complete with street names and several remaining to be named), I don't really find it too offensive to have our revered camp remembered for posterity with names we all fondly remember. Since there is no more Fort Scott, as we knew and loved it, at least (since the camp name is being used for the entire development), some preservation and reminders of our beloved camp could live on.
I might suggest the following: St. Victor Avenue, (Monsignor) R. Marcellus Wagner Blvd., (Joe) Link Drive, (Dr. C. Richard)Schroeder Court, (Charley) Yearion Circle, (and to recall the woods trails: Snake Trail, Buzzard's Gulch, Miami Trail and Old Indian Trail.
I appreciate your abhorrence and shock at "Bugle Way" and "Lodge Lane" etc., but our camp is gone and the development will take place -- so let some memories become a part of the future of a very special place in our minds and hearts (and for later generations to ponder and possibly speculate about the historical origin of their place names).
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