To the editor:

I’m glad our city officials have such a low threshold for success. A taxpayer-subsidized service that barely reaches 1 percent of our population, generates less that 5 percent of its cost to run, and faces ever-increasing operating, labor, maintenance, and insurance costs is a success?

At a time when the city struggles to meet the core needs of our community (police, fire, and emergency services), there is an overwhelmed judicial system facing cutbacks, and the city faces large income shortfalls, Lawrence needs more successes like the T and Eagle Bend. After all, we have been so successful at attracting major employers and businesses to help foot the bill. And we can always pass on the extra costs to the taxpayers. What’s another increase in our sales tax and property tax. Our residents can handle it.

Wake up! Lawrence is a quaint small town with a lot of strip malls, not a bustling metropolis with a growing, taxpaying, revenue-enhancing business community. We can’t afford the “amenities” that the city spends money on now, let alone a “sculpture garden.” downtown art, a “signature park,” a presidential debate, or the repair to historic old buildings.

The city certainly wouldn’t subsidize my business to the tune of $2.66 million, and consider my service growth of from 0.75 percent of the population to 1 percent a success.

Ken Meyer,

Lawrence