Friday, May 14, 2010

Life in "Progress" city - Cincinnati edition

So a city who has millions of dollars to blow on Thomas the Tank Engine has no money for city pools..........

This is the first time the city has closed pools for budget reasons. Doing so should save about $300,000, said Norman Merrifield, director of recreation. The commission's also saving more by keeping the remaining pools open eight weeks compared to the 10 weeks in previous years. The cuts to the recreation commission were part of many officials made to fill a $51 million budget hole.

Closing pools isn't something the Cincinnati Recreation Commission likes to do, Merrifield said. City Council doesn't like to either. In fact, City Manager Milton Dohoney suggested closing 20, but council told him to cut it to 10.

"Our economy is the biggest problem," Merrifield said. "It drives our general fund budget. Until the picture begins to turn around a little, it's going to be tough."

More.....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Once again our politicians are using children as a human shield while they expand non-children related programs. They know that they would never pass a choo choo levy, or a bail-out-the-bankrupt-public-pension levy. So they draw from the general fund to pay for those things until the well is dry. No more money for pools and schools? No problem. Just throw a guilt trip on taxpayers that their selfishness is taking away their only recreation in summer.

To politicians, kids are nothing more than human shields. Pawns bA means to an end on their power trip.