The thought of the cost of a community center to be built on the west side of town makes me nauseous. I was going to write an in depth commentary about this but Marty Augustine beat me to it. And that's good, because he probably said it better than I would. His commentary can be found at the Shawnee Dispatch at this link by clicking here.
I would like to add that the figure he quotes of $34 million could actually become $42 million if one adds in the cost of a lap pool that some folks on the council want included. They are talking about a possible partnership with the school district for that add-on. Hmmmm.
Also there is an element on the council that wants to have this item put on a spring mail in ballot. We are looking at approximately $70-75K for that when it can go on the primary or general election ballot for free (covered in a previous post). Some will come up with bovine scatological reasons for having a mail ballot. Actually I feel they are afraid that a regular ballot item won't pass. And it shouldn't. Asking the folks on the east side of Shawnee who earn substantially less than the west siders to subsidize their play pen is outrageous. Folks on the east side are not going to be rushing to use the facility.
