To the editor:

The May 3 article in the Journal-World said that the city must figure out how to balance its budget. We should learn from our mistakes. We have had a lot of opportunities to save money and did not:

¢ Roundabouts; we could live without them and save hundreds of thousands of dollars.

¢ Wal-Mart at Sixth and Wakarusa. That lawsuit should never have happened; we could have saved $300,000 in legal fees.

¢ We had the opportunity to have a casino here. We lost a lot of jobs and revenue.

¢ The new library. Live with what we have.

¢ An ice rink. Forget it. It costs too much and benefits so few.

¢ Consulting fees. We spent $250,000 one week recently. A lot of smart people in Lawrence and Kansas University could have come up with the same results.

¢ City vehicles. Not everyone at City Hall has a critical job and needs a vehicle. There is no reason for city employees to drive city cars home for lunch and to and from work.

¢ The T bus has never made money, and Eagle Bend Golf Course always operates in the red.

The city has had opportunities to save money but did not. We need someone to step forward and say, “no, it costs too much,” or “no, we do not need it.”

We must learn from our mistakes.

Scott Henderson,

Lawrence