Terry Ryan continually claims his fiscal conservatism by bragging about how well he manages our tax dollars. Let us take a closer look.
The Mill Creek Sports Park (MCSP) is a beautiful sport facility and a credit to Mill Creek. The estimated total cost of the MCSP to date is $4,358,679, with $1 million of the total coming from a state grant. There was no participation by Snohomish County, even though the MCSP is substantially used by Everett and county residents. To date, the MCSP is operating in the red because the operating expenses continually exceed the revenues.
Terry Ryan has been a major force for the future expansion of the MCSP. The land for expansion has already been purchased, costing the city $5,345,000. The city budget had called for $7,650,000 in the next two years to complete the expansion of MCSP. Upon completion, the total cost of the MCSP would be in excess of $17,300,000 assuming no cost overruns. The county has no plans to share in any of the cost of expansion.
Because of the uncertainty of the economy, the Mill Creek City Council decided to review the planned expansion of the MCSP at their meeting on June 2. The unanimous opinion of the council was to stop further funding of the project. The recorded tape of the meeting reflects that Ryan wanted to proceed with the expansion at some time. It appears that Terry Ryan may perceive the MCSP as a monument to himself.
We need to ask ourselves why Terry Ryan, who promotes himself as a steward of our tax dollars, is willing to make the above additional expenditure to expand the present facility.
Ralph Ehrlich
Mill Creek
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