A May 24th article in The Lima News mentions plans by the city to spend $26 million for Lima from American Rescue Plan funds.
Lima needs a community ice skating rink. The city is thinking of an all-weather swimming pool. A pool like that has high maintenance costs. We already have the YMCA pool in Lima.
We need something we do not have. People recall we used to have an ice-skating rink. It was a place where families from all over surrounding areas used to come for ice skating for fun. According to one source, it can be built for around $3 million, and maintenance cost is around $600,000.
Lima has a declining population of 35,000, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. We must have something like an ice skating rink to attract folks to a family-friendly facility from neighboring areas to come to Lima and help sustain it.
We have more than 125 houses that are dilapidated and need to come down soon. We are trying to promote the city for investors. This blight does not help.
Can we use funds to pull these houses down, clean an area and get it ready where an ice-skkating rink can be put and invite an investor to put one in? It will generate taxes and will not need taxes to sustain it.
This is a lot better than the city trying to build a recreational facility and trying to maintain it with tax dollars.
Kill two birds with one stone.
Suman Kumar Mishr
Lima
