Few local issues evoke multiple layers of frustration like the Deshon Woods-VA debacle in Butler Township.

Once a 16 acre tract of forest, walking trails and picnic benches, Deshon Woods is now bare earth and tall weeds. The township commissioners, who sold the property two years ago for $2.4 million, recently called it a visual “sad sack”, an “eyesore”. It’s an accurate description.

The commissioners want the property on Evans City Road cleaned up and developed.

Unfortunately, there’s one significant roadblock: The owner can’t be reached.

VA Butler Partners, a subsidiary of Ohio-based Westar Development Co., bought Deshon Woods in 2013, intending to build a $74 million VA Medical Center. The company cut down all the trees before Veterans Affairs rescinded its contract, citing two individuals convicted of federal felonies controlling the company.

Since then, another company was selected to build the center on another site, this one in Center Township. A third developer acquired the option to buy the Deshon Woods property, but it presumedly is no longer interested since it was not awarded the contract.

Also since then, VA Butler Partners and Westar have disconnected telephones. The Cleveland, Ohio, address listed on the company’s county tax records was registered to a different company.

A website for VA Butler Partners lists the names of executives, but does not provide contact information. The website appears to have been abandoned. A phone number provided by township officials for Ross Farro, who is listed as the CEO of VA Butler Partners, also has been disconnected.

And the company’s plans, if any, for the land remain unknown.

And that’s only half of the mess.

The other half is the VA itself. In a March 31, 2014, report, the VA’s Office of Inspector General described how the VA changed its bidding procedure because Deshon Woods was owned by Butler Township and had to be sold through a separate bidding process, under regulations specifying municipal transactions.

The change involved the combining of two contracts — one for the purchase of a building site and the other for the construction — into one transaction.

Deshon Woods was one of six potential building sites, but was ranked highest of the six because of its proximity to the existing VA health center.

Westar gained an advantage when it acquired the favored site, Deshon Woods.

When the VA awarded a contract to a second bidder, it backed away from the favored ranking for Deshon Woods.

It adds to the mess that Westar/VA Butler Partners paid $2.4 million for property that was appraised at only $880,000, according to the Office of Inspector General’s report — and the appraisal was done before the timber was stripped and sold, and before the VA stripped it of its favored status.

So now, the property, neither aesthetic nor shovel-ready, would appraise for much less than $880,000. The buyer might never recover its investment.

There’s no clear answer, ironically not even a sheriff’s sale, since the owner discretely has kept up with the property tax payments. The total annual tax bill, about $926, reflects the land’s assessed value, not its purchase price.