LARGO - Taxpayers who are taking the time to examine the city administration's plans for capital improvement projects over the 2008-2013 span might have involuntarily had a spasmodic intake of breath when they see what is in mind for the recreation department.
That is shorthand for the Recreation, Parks and Art Department which is a growing empire on the order of the Roman expansion in ancient times.
In all, the city's CIP plans total some $242,909,000. If you want that turned into English for speedy understanding it is approximately a quarter of a Billion dollars. Yes, "B" for billion.
To put two hundred and forty two million, nine hundred and nine thousand into perspective, think of it this way - If you began counting one number every second consecutively for twenty-four hours a day without stopping for prayer or sustenance it would take seven years, eight months and two weeks to reach the total.
But what is extraordinary is that the Recreation, Parks and Arts empire is going to get 22 percent of that planned money.
Only the Environmental Services Department, at 42 percent ($101,674,000), gets more.
And just what does Rec et al. plan to do with that $52,554,000 it is slated to get? You can imagine Joan Byrne, empress of the department, is licking her lips and greedily rubbing her palms together anticipating getting hold of an average of $10.5 million a year.
More than $2.5 million is going to the Cultural Center. The city now dumps (and that is the correct word) $10,000 a week (a week!) into that misbegotten project just to keep the doors open.
They ought to paint it white, put a howdah on it, bring Sabu out of retirement and use it as a posing platform for children and tourists who flock through Largo.
About $3.3 million is listed to create a lazy river and wave pool at the Highland Family Aquatic Center. What would be wrong with just a plain old ordinary big swimming pool?
Almost $2 million is scheduled to build a super-duper entrance to Largo Central Park, located just where the old library was.
This will include, according to advance plans, a fancy fountain and a Martin Luther King plaza. Why the latter is needed is a mystery, as the sainted King never had any connection to Largo, and a commemoration of Andrew Jackson, who brought Florida into the Union, might be more appropriate.
An examination of these high flying plans, much of the money predicated on what Penny for Pinellas will develop in the years 2011-2020 (if it passes in the March referendum), shows that the Police Department (the folks who keep us safe) is scheduled to get less than $10 million (4 percent) and the Fire Department even less at $8.5 million.
One wonders, as one observer said, where the priorities are.
But in a city that views the availability of money as no problem ("plenty more where that came from") and in the government spirit of unlimited funds, what difference would priorities make?
Sewer rates, trash collection rates and the other services costs are all going up. There will be a tax increase, too, you can bet on that.
Oh, well, throw the cat another gold fish.