I’m not happy.

Tonight I voted to spend some $90,000 for re-engineering the riverfront park, a project I have twice voted against.  A change of heart?  No, but I’ll explain. The PRDA has come up with a simpler riverfront plan.  The $90,000 funds the engineering to bring the plans from the much larger JJR design to the current PRDA plan.  With this smaller plan, the contractors will then provide bid packages on the project.  We will finally have prices.

Without tonight’s redesign spending authorization and the contractor bid packages, the city will be stuck with the current “rock only” situation. This is not an alternative.  With firm bids, we can then see what we can afford.  Again, my position is to spend the $3,800,000 earmark and not our local taxpayers’ money on the project.

So I spend dollars tonight on a project I have twice voted against.  I am not happy.