City has put very little thought into long-term needs

To The Daily Sun,

While I applaud the decision made by the City Council to preserve Sanborn Park, the discussions surrounding its best use reveals some larger issues.

First, the very thought that a city as small and remote as Laconia has placed itself in a position where it must seek federal government approval for how it uses one acre of land is both ludicrous and repugnant. The cause, of course, is the lure of “free” money from the federal government without regards to the future consequences of the strings attached to that “gift”.

The second issue is the disposition of city-owned land. It is more that a bit ironic that the city-owned land at the corner of Elm Street and Union Avenue (former fire station) was all but gifted recently to a private marina owner as a consolation prize for losing the bid for an adjacent plot of city property. The fire department property is as close to the opera house as Sanborn Park is and would have been an ideal spot for more public parking at a very low cost. Now, a mere 18 months later, we can’t find a place to park a few cars. These events happen due to the short-sightedness of our community leaders, the absence of a reasonable policy governing the disposition of public property, and the failure of the City Council to use the Laconia 10-Year Plan which is designed in part to help guide the city in making decisions on all land use in Laconia.

Warren Murphy

Laconia