$500G for overlook, $600G for playground; why not spend it on a sewer upgrade

The proposed Cocheco River overlook which already has $700,000 earmarked for the project. (Courtesy rendering)

ROCHESTER - Tonight the City of Rochester will hold a vote during a Special Meeting that will put city taxpayers on the hook for up to $1.5 million for an improved sewer system.
It's very true that sewerage upgrades are often needed, especially for an aging system like Rochester's that is surely seeing more stress as the city population and number of housing units swell, but it should be maddening to taxpayers that two weeks ago, the city spent $1.1 million on two projects that probably could've been achieved through fund-raising instead of taken directly from ARPA funds, which were designed to help municipalities financially devastated by the Covid pandemic.
One of the eligible uses of ARPA funds is for "Investments in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure."
But instead of lightening the load on city taxpayers who are struggling to make ends meet due to rising inflation and interest rates, they are choosing to spend $1.1 million on the now $700,000 overlook project and $600,00 for a playground on the site of the former Nancy Loud School in East Rochester.
Now the overlook project is a bit extravagant for a blue-collar city like Rochester, but people on the Riverwalk Committee, including City Councilor David Walker, have been championing the overlook for years.
According to former city councilor Steve Beaudoin, however, when the overlook project was first floated, it wasn't going to rely on taxpayer money.
"It was going to be all donations, which is a total lie," he told The Rochester Voice last week.
The overlook, which will be located just south of the Arch Bridge on North Main Street, has now been awarded some $700,000 in funds, while the city is still waiting for a go-ahead from the state to approve the engineering.
Meanwhile, that fact that it costs $600,000 to construct a playground seems incredible to this writer.
Several years ago the town of Milton built a playground adjacent it's town beach. No town funds. Just donations from local businesses like Cameron's Garden Center in Farmington and a lot of hard-working volunteers who put the playground together in a matter of days.
Now no one's saying that it wouldn't be grand to have a $700,000 overlook over the Cocheco River or a $600,000 playground where Eastside kids could recreate.
We were just stunned that no one at the City Council meeting on July 2 even asked to comment on either the overlook or the playground.
Nothing to say but "yea."
It's clear that the city just wanted to get that money spent, but if they had just checked out what ARPA funds can be used for, they might have noticed the sewer infrastructure clause. That would have actually helped Rochester taxpayers.
Remember, all the money spent through ARPA and other Covid freebies handed out to municipalities across the country helped fuel the inflation we now have, which is around 30 percent over three and a half years.
So with these two projects - the overlook and the playground - the first was supposed to be all donations and the latter could've been all donations and volunteers like it was in Milton.
The city took the easy way out and the council was good with that.
No discussion. Unanimous vote.

- HT