A million bucks doesn’t get you a whole lot these days.
We’re not talking about the ever-escalating real estate market in these parts, but rather the parking project the Town of Okotoks is undertaking in the downtown core. The price tag for the work, which has seen a parking area paved and lined along Daggett Street and a fence now under construction on both sides of the rail tracks, is expected to come in at about $1.1 million.
Anyone who has ever had a fence installed or a driveway paved knows such work isn’t cheap, so we’re not quibbling at the cost of the undertaking, but we do have to wonder about its necessity and the benefits that will come as a result.
As far as the parking component goes, if there’s any increase in the number of spots, it’s negligible as essentially a strip of dirt that has been used for parking has now formally become a bona fide lot, complete with asphalt and stall lines.
All those drivers that have been using the area for years will continue to do so, so it appears the only benefits are that we’ve got a neater, cleaner site that’s formally become a parking lot through a lease agreement between the Town and CPKC.
Not sure that’s worth over half a million of our tax dollars.
The other half of the project doesn’t appear to offer great value either. There’s no doubt that erecting a fence on either side of the train tracks will increase safety to a certain extent by making it more difficult to trespass, but those intent on such behaviour will still be able to do so, which begs the question: At almost half a million dollars, is the bang for this part of the project worth all those bucks?