Imagine my surprise (well not really) when I was reading the approval of contracts (Item #1) for Tuesday’s council meeting and I found this item;
Parks/Rec NA Furnish Three Editions of the 2016 Summer, Fall, and
Winter/Spring Activities Guide
$ 82,742
A couple of years ago, the Parks department told the public they were going ‘another direction’ on the activities guide, and only make it basically available online with a ‘few’ mailed copies. They still have to implement that idea. According to the bid specs, they plan to mail this guide to 76,000 households (3x)Â with an overrun of 3,500. Hardly scaling back the mailing. I can also tell you that the above number probably doesn’t include postage either, which could easily run about $40,000.
So what happened? I actually liked the idea of just mailing the guide to people who ONLY wanted the dead tree version and didn’t have a computer to access it. It makes economic sense. When we start talking about subsidizing a city indoor pool at over a $1 million a year, cutting free passes and raising rates on paratransit why are we not eliminating this booklet that most people recycle and could access online?
While they nickel and dime the rest of us to death, they throw the greenbacks in a burn barrel on stupid things like this.
I got the mail out. It’s about 25 pages of frivolous uncommon activities. Small groups and private clubs do a better job with groups and instruction. Maybe I don’t want my tax dollar supporting pickle ball.
Makes perfect sent$.
Based on this and the pavilion sculpture garden paid for by taxpayers, why not start a recall of all the city officials who okayed this kind of waste?
Must be a L&S production to cost so much. The state of Sd can produce large highway maps in color for 11 cents or so. Is the parks dept so out of touch with the city taxpayer.