Say It Don't Spray It

From the Kansas City Star: "The Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners agreed to pay National Streetscape Inc. $1,089,500 to create spray grounds in Douglas, Sunnyside, Harmony and Parade parks." The Parks and Recreation Board of Commissioners is a group of five citizens appointed by the mayor. They are not City employees nor are they required to have any experience with operating a large service oriented organization. The budget for Parks and Recreation gets cut year after year. I've toured the Parks & Rec facilities and let me tell you it's amazing what department director Mark McHenry and staff manage to accomplish with what they're given (or not given) to work with. Last year P&R had to reduce the number of times they mow the parks due to budget constraints. I know of one instance where a P&R truck was pulled from service during routine maintainence because the mechanic discovered the brakes were bordering on inoperable. The garage on Gillham is literally a horse barn. As I write this there's a City employee over there huddled next to a space heater because the building is so old and in such disrepair that the cold wind whistles through holes in the walls. We can't keep our parks sufficiently maintained, our equipment in safe, operational condition or even afford to patch holes in the walls at Parks garage facilities so the P&R Commissioners do what? They spend a million dollars on spray parks?! Let me see if I can understand the commission's rationale. We can't cut the grass as often as we need to but suddenly we're in the waterpark business? I have a hard enough time keeping my lawn sprinkler working all summer.