Brian Alg said:

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I am not sure what you mean by "now that we're into it." The city has spent a few hundred thousand in consulting fees that they didn't need to. But those are relatively minor sunk costs.

From what I have seen of the current contract with the consultants, they can cancel and are only on the hook for an additional month. That could save tens of thousands right there.

On construction and operating the facility, the bulk of the spending, the city is not locked in. There is nothing, as far as I know, preventing the city from spending the money from the bonds on necessary infrastructure instead of the project that (by their own overoptimistic projections and some very generous accounting) is supposed to be a waste of over $1.5 million per year.

It is not too late.

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What I mean is this council and probably the next council will want to move ahead with this, so I want it to succeed. As I am not a single issue voter and I agree with a lot this council does, I'm not prepared to throw the whole group out just because of a parks project I'm not fully on board with. Their replacements would be worse and send us into a no-growth/development situation, and the city would stagnate as it did in the late 70s and throughout the 80s.

agrab86 said:

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techno-ag said:

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So far the anti-growth wing in Bryan has not been able to derail the Superpark. Let's hope it makes it and is highly successful.

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I agree with you on most posts, but you can't lump everyone who doesn't like the Superpark plans in their current form as anti-growth. I'm very pro-growth, but prefer for it to be spurred by the private sector, not with $70+ million in public bonds that taxpayers are on the hook for. We have more pressing needs for those funds, like better roads and drainage throughout the city, and maybe hiring someone who knows how to synchronize stop lights.

That being said, I hope the project is successful now that we're into it. I'd rather be wrong than get to say I told you so.

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I'm okay with the $70 million bond. To build anything these days is expensive. Bryan ISD is probably going to float a $175 million bond next election for a new school and other things. A&M just spent $42 million on the new student services building. If we shut everything down just because it cost money to build, nothing would ever get done.

I partially agree techno-Ag, building anything is expensive these days, but I wouldn't put educational institutions in the same category as an entertainment venue, which is really what we are discussing. Millions in debt for education is one thing, millions in debt for a park is different. I don't think they are equal in necessity.

And to think the main argument they made about closing the municipal golf course is that it lost money...

It just wasn't losing enough money. The new project will correct that.

"That work is expected to cost more than $10 million"


https://www.kbtx.com/content/news/Bryan-planning-to-drain-excavate-Municipal-Lake-for-Regional-Park-improvements-567567061.html


How much is this going to really cost once they find out the settled arsenic exceeds EPA limits ?

When I worked at the golf course in the 90s they had to drill deeper than 90' to even find arsenic so I doubt that will be an issue.