There were answers Monday to questions posed by Warren Main Street to City Council regarding the mess that is and was the Allegheny Center for the Arts building project and loan, though the answers may have produced as many more questions.
And, an an apology was ordered to be delivered to Warren Main Street for the city's dunning letter regarding a debt Main Street doesn't believe it owes.
Given the issuance of the apology, it appears that on close inspection by legal minds, Main Street is not, indeed, responsible for the rabbit hole down which hundreds of thousands of dollars went while the ACA building itself lies fallow.
There was, however, at least a proposal to attempt to unravel the tangle that has an Erie conractor still wanting payment for work on the project which ceased many months ago.
City Councilman Dr. Howard Ferguson offered a motion to establish meetings involving all of the stakeholders in the ACA building project, including the contractor and representatives of City Council to sit down and iron out the problems. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see just who all the stakeholders are, since during GROWarren's active life, it lived behind a haze of secrecy.
In all likelihood, these meetings as well will be private in nature, since some of the entities involved will insist on cloaking the discussions to protect their privacy.
And that has been the problem with GROWarren from its inception in virtual secrecy nearly three years ago. That has, more than anything else, fostered suspicion and distrust within the Warren community, suspicion and distrust that has spilled onto the public partner in the organization: Warren City Council.
We applaud Ferguson's suggestion, adopted by council, as a way to at least move the issue off of dead center and work toward some closure to the issue. We're sure Council would like to put the whole thing behind it.
We just hope the exercise doesn't become a broom to sweep the whole matter into some forgotten trash bin.