A Fond du Lac city councilmember says a citizens group is twisting his comments regarding Lakeside Park to try to make him look bad. Ben Giles is responding to an email posted on the Friends of Lakeside Park Facebook page that appears to show he is the one who initiated the development project at Lakeside Park. When Giles asked the council in the fall of 2019 to “pause” plans to build a new pavilion at the park he stated private investors reached out to him. In the email from last March, a representative of the business group writes Giles “You came to us with this plan and we have all worked extremely hard to further develop and supported it as best we can thus far.” In an interview with WFDL news Giles say he initially contacted three businesses to ask them if they would support stopping the project to halt building a new pavilion at the park. Giles says at that point those businesses went out and asked for donations, and then came back to him and said if the pavilion project is halted, they would support the park and donate. Giles says he has upfront about this from the beginning.
