Remember when the Walldogs came to Butler last summer? Before the sign painters ever got here, they sent an advance party one week early to whitewash the masonry with primer.

It’s the same thing conventional artists have always done. They stretch their canvases on wooden frames and apply a coat of white paint before they apply any pigmented oils or acrylics.

Home improvement contractors and D-I-Yers do it too. Pick a project. Any project. Chances are the first step has to do with surface preparation — or at least it should, if you don’t want to do the same project again very soon.

The Romans had a name for it: “tabula rasa” — a clean slate.

It’s time to start looking at Deshon Woods from this frame of mind.

Time to stop lamenting over the loss of 16 acres of pristine old-growth forest, sold by Butler Township and clear-cut, leaving a red scar of bare ground.

It’s time to get past the very real loss to Butler Township of the honor of hosting the VA Butler Healthcare complex, which was supposed to rebuild on the Deshon property. At the time, that seemed like a fair sacrifice: giving up the woods for the sake of treating sick and wounded veterans. But now the complex is relocating in Center Township. The fate of the current VA complex, which has stood for decades on property adjoining Deshon Woods, remains uncertain.

The rescinding of a $74 million contract to build the complex at Deshon Woods now represents millions of dollars in losses related to haste, waste, greed and oversight — and lawyers’ fees. There’s no disputing that the dispute has been expensive.

But what’s done can’t be undone. Let’s move on. Butler Township commissioners gave final approval this week for commercial rezoning of the Deshon Woods property, enabling its new owners an opportunity to develop it or sell it to someone who will develop it.

The ugliness of the property in its current state loudly reminds us that it sits at one of the main entrances to our community on Evans City Road. For first-time visitors it is a not-so-welcome first impression of us. For native sons and daughters returning from a time away, it’s a sad suggestion that we’ve let ourselves go — that we might not be the proud community they remembered.

With this picture in mind, we implore the property owners and their prospective buyer/developer: do a nice job on this property.

Deshon Woods is our front gate. Now with commercial zoning secured, it should be developed to reflect what this community can aspire to be.