I’m at an age when I shouldn’t worry about the future. But I do. It’s a habit hard to break. Besides, there are young people I love that will have to live into it. We once had a little plaque that said, “Don’t tell me worry doesn’t help. Everything I worry about never happens.” If only that was the case. But it isn’t.
Financial things worry me. Not personally. A modest pension and Social Security will see us through to a secure end. Both look less certain for our kids and grandchildren. More than personal finances, though, it is public finances that puzzle and worry me. This summer we’ll once again hit the national debt limit. Congress will point fingers and play chicken, but it’ll probably get raised again and we’ll continue spending beyond our means as our $32 trillion national debt keeps mounting.
Meanwhile, Ottawa County is distributing a $54 million federal COVID-19 relief handout. And Holland is spending its $8.1 million. Stimulus money, they say. Tell me, if you can, what needs stimulus with federal money we don’t have? And doing it while we’re trying to cool an overheated economy verging on runaway inflation. It makes no sense.
Another worry is that policymakers often forget everything has two costs: the cost of getting and the cost of keeping. We’ve certainly seen this with Windmill Island. Originally projected to be self-sustaining, even profitable, it has never lived up to that hope. We just invested $16 million in an unfinished renovation of the Civic Center, hoping revenue increases would substantially offset operating costs.
I’m not sure if we’re coming close yet.
A new fire station is on the drawing board. We need it, but I suspect we’ll build it with more borrowed money. Check your tax bill to see what it cost to build and maintain a $26 million world-class aquatic center.
Locally, we live in good times. Established industries are prospering and new ones are popping up. As property values rise, tax bases swell, pumping up tax revenues. Governments seem awash with money. If we’re smart, we’ll treat these times like a bubble, not a new normal.
Global supply chains, already fragile, could collapse. Something healthier for our world could replace lithium batteries. And it would be foolhardy to believe industry’s history of chasing cheap labor is done. So when I hear talk of a new recreation center, I wonder about the cost of building, but also about the forever cost of staffing and operating it.
If we do have a recreation facility deficiency, I hope civic leaders cast a creative eye before assuming the only option is to build new and expensive. In hindsight, we might have focused the civic center project on recreational uses. Its heart always was and still is a gym with lockers and bleachers. Only its sheer size attracted other uses in years past. It will never be a first-rate banquet hall, convention center, exhibition hall, concert hall or performance venue.
Unfortunately, we can’t rewind that clock.
But look at other options. The Holland school system demolished four elementary schools over the years. Admittedly, none was well situated for community recreation, but at the time, it seemed like wasting potential resources. Are any other schools destined for closure?
Evergreen Commons grew around a former school. Boys and Girls Club repurposed a former church. There are several local churches that might be candidates for “former churches.”
Holland Township, with 38,000 residents compared to the city’s 34,000 is leasing and redeveloping an empty big-box commercial site for its recreation program.
We expect public facilities to cast a favorable light on our hometown. We don’t always expect them to be new. Sustainability is more than LED light bulbs and recycle containers at the curb.
It is operating public facilities that the community can afford to build today and maintain tomorrow. Financial things worry me. Public finances especially worry me. I just hope they worry others, too.
— Community Columnist Dale Wyngarden is a resident of the city of Holland. He can be reached atwyngarden@ameritech.net.
