Bike overpass too frivolous these days

I can't believe I'm the only one upset about the recent Elk Grove Villager Fall mailing regarding the Busse Woods overpass. The first article on the front page tells of a recent federal grant awarded to Elk Grove for a bike overpass at the Higgins Road and I-290 intersection.

I'm not quarreling about the need of the overpass per se ... but the price involved! The grant is for $444,600 and only for the design and engineering. That's just obscene at a time when federal funds are so desperately needed for more other worthy projects.

Local food banks, college and junior college training and counseling for unemployed and underemployed individuals, emergency funds for legitimate hardship cases -- are just a few that come to mind and there are probably many more agencies the could assist the general public and the real needy in this bad economy. They would love to be part of this federal grant program.

What really scares me is, if it's $444,600 just to engineer and design the overpass, what will the build cost be? My guess it will be over a million dollars.

In my mind this is totally an obscene project for this delicate time when federal funds could be more effectively used elsewhere. If little Elk Grove Village, IL. can swing a deal like this, just how many other questionable federal grants are out there in the rest of the 50 states?

Come on people, wake up and smell the coffee. Let your feelings be known to your government peoples and representatives.

I did get a small smile when reading the end of the bike federal grant article. It said the interlinking of the Busse Woods trail to the Illinois Prairie Path and the Fox River Trail will generate more visitors than Yellowstone National Park annually. I don't think so!

Ron Leaf

Elk Grove Village