Fiscal restraint is needed

It is astonishing how briskly our Burien City Council is willing to cough up $311,797 of our tax dollars to fund the shortfall to the Environmental Science Center Board, an independent, non-profit organization, for their proposed learning center in Seahurst Park.

It would seem that the City’s offer in 2003 to provide the property, access, and maintenance for such a facility at a cost to the ESC of $1 per year was already quite generous, provided the ESC fund the cost for remodeling the existing caretaker’s building, thereby showing their intent to establish a meaningful presence in the Park.

Considering this shortfall two years ago was $182,000 and is now over $300,000, it should be evident to the City that the cost of providing such a costly piece of real estate is prohibitive.

Considering the projected cost of the City’s Town Square project and loss of major revenue subsequent to business moving elsewhere, the City should be focusing all its energies in becoming fiscally responsible.

Fred Novota

Burien