On June 13, Rockport residents will vote on whether to accept a $3 million donation from a family foundation to design and build a park at the former RES site along with a $1 million donation to use at their own discretion. The town has said it will use it to help pay for the new West Rockport Fire House.
We here at whispers have a few questions regarding this ballot item.
First, why are these two items tied together?
It appears the foundation is trying to get something they want (a nice quiet, housing-less park that won't allow any poors to encroach on Rockport Village) by dangling something the town needs (a new fire department) to persuade people to vote yes. As veterans of bribery, we can safely say that most of them have followed a similar framework (granted, most of our bribes don't involve us "getting" to spend an extra $3 million).
But while a new fire station might be needed, why does building it require us to also build another park.
Recent news articles have mentioned possible features that would set it apart from Rockport's 8ish other parks including a wooden climbing structure (like a tree?) and a pump-your-own water feature (kids can do old-timey chores at home).
As we've previously discussed, if we're going to keep it a park, we should at least make it a park to be proud of. This proposal has none of those elevated elements, it just keeps it as a flat, green, inoffensive space and eliminates the only feature of any use, the softball field.
And that's before we even get to negotiations.
The foundation is clearly intent on generating goodwill in the area. And we're just going to let them off the hook with their first offer?
If you vote no we're confident they'll be back in November with $10 million.
Maybe, as some whistlers have suggested, they'd even decide to use $3 or $4 or $10 million to help build some affordable housing next to our coveted green space.
Just kidding