By The TimesLedger
How many legislators does it take to waste $200, 000? In the case of Jacob Riis Park, it took three. U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Forest Hills) announced last week that the federal government has initiated a feasibility study to see whether the government should build an indoor pool in the city’s only national park.
Weiner enlisted the support of U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY).
Riis Park, set in the Gateway National Recreation Area in Rockaway, has served as a public beach and recreation site since 1932. Weiner argues that the lack of a pool forces ordinary citizens and high school swim teams to leave the peninsula if they want to go swimming.
He’s right, by golly. But if he already knows this, why did he ask the federal government to spend nearly a quarter million dollars on a feasibility study? This is the kind of reckless spending that drives taxpayers nuts. In the end, the company that has been hired to conduct the feasibility study will tell us what we already knew before the study began: Yes, the pool is needed. Yes, the pool will get year-round use.
Things are tough all over. This study, if indeed it is necessary at all, could have been done in-house by the U.S. Department of the Interior at a fraction of the cost.
