Letter: Batavia's Riverwalk Expansion Puts Aesthetics Over Infrastructure

To the Editor: I have attended every Batavia City Council meeting since Ronald Reagan's second term, and I cannot recall a more tone-deaf spending decision than the one approved Monday night. The council voted 9-5 to allocate $4.2 million toward extending the Fox River riverwalk south from the depot to Fabyan Parkway, complete with decorative lighting, a cantilevered overlook, and what Alderman Darnell Harris called 'a signature gathering space for the next generation.' Meanwhile, the water main under South Van Buren Street is older than I am, and I turned 74 in March.

I am not opposed to parks. I am not opposed to the river. What I am opposed to is a city government that spent three hours Monday debating the merits of cor-ten steel railings versus powder-coated aluminum while residents on the west side have been dodging the same pothole on Wilson Street since last October. Public Works Director Janet Solberg told the council in February that the city faces a $9.7 million backlog in road and utility repairs. That number was apparently easy to forget once the architects showed up with their renderings.