Do the math on spending projects

The Daily Herald carried a story about the expectation of the Schaumburg trustees to approve Jack Siegal Memorial Plaza renovations to the tune of $814,000. The original default estimate was $647,137. Our fiscally irresponsible trustees opted to go for a higher cost ($166,996) option of galvanized steel over Southern Yellow Pine for the elevated shade structures. The annual maintenance ($347) and staining every few years ($5,000 at the high end) would be saved. Simple arithmetic says that it would take 30 years for the wood maintenance costs to equal the increased cost and that's if there is no maintenance on the steel structures.

Then they decided to vote for weekly interruptions by lawn maintenance crews at $7,000 a year for maintenance and selected natural grass (cost $7,590) over artificial turf (cost $95,040 with annual maintenance of $693). Over 15 years, the outlay for artificial turf would be $105,435 versus their planned spend of $112,590. That is if the lawn maintenance costs do not increase and says nothing of the noise and air pollution of running that equipment every week.

The artist's renderings show lawn under the shade structures. Natural grass does not grow well in full shade.

David Krein

Schaumburg