Fountainhead of Stupidity

I'm for improving downtown Plattsburgh -- IF the city can maintain what it already has.

As reported in the Press-Republican the city is considering the use of grant money -- $38,000 -- to install a new water fountain in Trinity Park.

That's nice. But take a good look at Trinity Park. It's carpet-bombed with dogshit. Where's the enforcement for stopping the people who use the park as one big canine crap dump?

Over at the Plattsburgh Public Library the fronts steps are still deteriorating after years of useless patch jobs. Walk inside on a rainy day and see the missing ceiling panels that have been destroyed from a chronic leak that like the front steps hasn't been fixed for years. Don't trip over the plastic wastepaper baskets on the floor to catch the water.

City streets are patched up but persistently break down because they're not really fixed.

I'm not against a new water fountain per se. It would spruce up the area. But does the city have the money to maintain it? It can't maintain what infrastructure it has now.

Remember, the larger the infrastructure, the greater the maintenance costs. Costs paid by citizens. And costs keep going up.

Wise up, Plattsburgh. Fix what you have now before adding more.

And by the way -- where's the old water fountain that used to sit in Trinity Park? Can't that be re-used? The city has a handle on its inventory, doesn't it? Or will a new water fountain turn up missing in a few decades?