By Graham Trask
Politicking should have no place in our City Council’s ability to articulate a clear set of priorities for Beaufortonians’ limited capital spending dollars.
One would have thought the obvious priority was fixing the Waterfront Park. Nothing seemed further from the truth, however, during the City’s Tuesday, Feb. 17, capital projects quarterly meeting where Council members politicked to continue allocating money to unrelated, over-budget, park projects. In fact, only 5 minutes was spent discussing the Waterfront Park during this two-hour meeting.
Sorry, guys, we’ve got it all backwards here.
The city spent $5 million of borrowed money on Phase 1 of Southside Park – yes, only on Phase 1 which comprised a meager playground, pavilion, parking lot, and toilets.
Another $1 million was spent on Washington Street Park, $500,000 on Pigeon Point Park, and then another $100,000 on the initial planning and design of yet another park, the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Park.
To the utter shock of City Council and residents alike, city staff divulged Southside Park’s expected final costs have ballooned to over $12 million, encompassing five phases. Phase 2 alone is reported to cost $6 million. To date, nothing has been allocated to fix the Waterfront Park.
To add insult to injury, the city’s retained engineering firm, pitched the need for a complete, commercial-like, renovation of the Pigeon Point boat landing to include increasing its elevation by 4 feet for “resiliency” – a solution which vocal Pigeon Point residents don’t want and one which will certainly cost taxpayers millions.
The city is in the midst of its most extravagant spending spree of the last 50 years. The American Recovery Protection Act (ARPA) “gifted” the city more than $23 million of taxpayers’ money. This money caused the city to “find” projects on which to spend such enormous sums. The result is the $12 million Charles & Craven Street drainage project which closed off Bay Street during the Christmas shopping season crippling downtown merchants. The cumulative impact of the ongoing closure of the waterfront park and street closures will result in the future closure of many downtown businesses — all “help protect” 50 homes at a per home spend of $240,000.
The City also spent $11 million on the King Street drainage project replacing what appear to be 18-inch ceramic pipes with enormous, 6-foot-in-diameter concrete ones. The cost of these projects ballooned beyond expectations as too much money needed to be spent by a fixed date by government officials and at any cost on what are overengineered projects. It’s not clear exactly how many homes and businesses the $11 million King Street drainage project benefited other than a perhaps only a handful.
An encouraging show of activism against the City’s misplaced largesse was exhibited by a group of Point residents which successfully convinced the city to eliminate an unnecessary multi-million-dollar pump station in one of the Point’s serene parks.
Politicians spending other people’s money is on one hand intoxicating yet on the other hand a dangerous cocktail. For decades, Beaufort City Councils have used their position of power to spend taxpayer money to compete with the private sector by buying failed commerce parks and unnecessary commercial buildings all while borrowing against future taxpayer revenue to construct extravagant parks and embark on overdesigned drainage and public facility projects. Beaufort now has the hangover of all hangovers from its spending and no more money to fund the “basics.”
Council members must stop politicking. What remains of our city’s meager capital spending financial resources should be directed to what really matters — the Waterfront Park.
Further spending on Southside Park must be delayed and the scope of the entire project revisited and reduced. All spending on other parks must also be tabled. Consistent with the neighborhood’s wishes, the overengineered renovation of the Pigeon Point landing should be downsized to simply fixing the dock and the boat ramp – something I understand has been completed. The overdesigned and overbuilt Charles & Craven and King Street drainage projects need to be finished on time and under budget. Other planned drainage projects such as the $1.25 million Bayard Street and $216,000 Pigeon Point Drainage Study should be put on hold. The same goes for the Duke Street project.
Our city government should not be looked upon to provide for nor does it have the resources, capabilities, nor cash to carry out a wish list of capital spending projects dictated by empirically flawed public surveys and pushed by self-serving individuals and interest groups supported by the politicking of council members.
Let us work together to focus our resources on what really matters.
Graham B. Trask grew up in Beaufort and continues to be a resident of Beaufort. He owns a home in Beaufort’s landmark historic district. He also owns several businesses as well as residential and commercial real estate located throughout the City of Beaufort and specifically in the historic district. He adds value to almost 50 different resident business owner tenants to help them grow their enterprises. He is also the president of Protect Beaufort Foundation, Inc., and Beautiful Beaufort Open Land Trust. Contact him at Graham@grahamtrask.com.