Dear Editor,
Your lead story on the bridge into Milton was excellent. I’m sorry more citizens haven’t responded. Bridges have a single purpose, to move pedestrians and vehicles over an obstacle. If a new bridge is needed and can be built for $3.5 million, it’s a responsible use of tax dollars.
When an organization wants to add beauty or historical relevance to a functional piece of infrastructure, they need to pay for it, particularly when it more than doubles the original price. The council’s approval of this scheme demonstrates exactly what’s wrong with our government at all levels. “We got some federal funding” doesn’t meet the common sense test. Federal dollars are still tax dollars paid by the public. The extra millions could have been better spent. The city council remains as out of touch with reality as the ‘spend and bankrupt future generations’ Congress in D.C. they all need to get a real job and we, the taxpayers, need to make that happen.
This debacle reminds me of the caller who wanted the county to hire more people to pick up trash by the road. I would have suggested that she and some of her friends adopt that stretch of road and assume responsibility for cleaning it up. Government should not be the answer for every trivial problem.
The cost of the bridge project is scandalous and the council memebers who supported the Historical Society’s demands should be very ashamed of their fiscal irresponsibility.
J. Briggs Diuguid, Colonel, USAF retired
Milton
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Additional cost of Marquis Bridge irresponsible