To the Editor:

It may be true that John Day City Councilor Heather Rookstool’s proposal to build a $2 million pool instead of a $6 million pool facility might weaken support for the $4 million bond vote in November. But her proposal should have been included as an alternative from the very beginning. Instead, John Day city staff came up with an even grander alternative that included a large gymnasium, an impossible dream.

This is one more example of inadequate due diligence by city staff, to go along with a failed greenhouse and questionable claims for future customers of reclaimed water from the new sewer plant. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe the city council’s job is to take a close look at city staff proposals. In that light, Rookstool is doing her job, albeit a little late.

A curious point is this — how can the pool cost only $2 million while the concrete apron and wooden building cost $4 million? You could buy land and build more than a dozen fine single-family residences for $4 million.

Richard Hanners

John Day