Ordinarily, on finding out that our city government had entered into a contract that committed us indefinitely and exclusively to use one consultant on any and all pool projects, with huge penalties for actually acting in the city’s best interests, I’d be asking for the head of whomever was responsible for it. But if that’s what it takes to kill off the “Community Center” project, then I guess we all got lucky in spite of this colossal screw-up.
However, this little speed bump doesn’t seem to deter the handful of people who want to shove this cash-eating white elephant down all of our throats from moving forward, full speed.
I’m sorry, but don’t we already have a “Community Center” that, other than when curling is going on, sits idle most of the time? Is a newer, bigger and better empty building really what we want or need? Is that the best thing we can do with the 1% tax “found money,” to just pour it into a hole in the ground? Why not burn it instead? At least that might help keep some of us a little warmer this winter!
I think we can do better, and that we deserve better. We should insist that any project funded with this money be something that actually draws more visitors to our community—visitors that will spend more money, and generate even more 1percent tax revenue. I defy anyone to show us realistically how the anointed “Community Center” will ever draw one more visitor to Cook County, or produce one more dollar of revenue for anybody other than the “consultants.”
Instead, we’ll all be stuck paying for the upkeep for the next 20-30 years.
John Mianowski
Grand Marais
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