3rd Street Dam (not a Bridge) – Annual Cost per Resident

Unfortunately, I missed this little tidbit posted on All Things Media PA which raises the specter that the closed 3rd Street Bridge (actually, it’s a dam) has cost Media Taxpayers over $240,000 during the past 11 years.

Wow. Let’s think about this for a second.

$240,000 sounds like a rather big number doesn’t it? I feel like it’s an awful lot.

But let’s break it down:

$240,000 spent over 11 years is around $22,000 a year.

Media has (on average) 6000 residents, then it has cost Media residents:

(drumroll, please)

About $3.60 a year!

So, about the cost of a beer in town, per resident.

The Media Borough has an annual budget of around $7 million dollars. $22,000 a year represents around 0.3% of the annual budget per year.

Hmm. Doesn’t sound like such a big deal at all, does it?

I do appreciate Tedman bringing up the 3rd Street Dam (not a bridge) because it is a point that newly elected Borough Council president Pete Alyanakian has brought up as one of his issues.

I plan on doing some research with former Borough Council members to figure out what the true story is. Hopefully, they’ll be able to explain it, because apparently Alyanakian believes it’s beyond our ability to understand.

And yes, I’ll ask him again as Pete Alyanakian has been on Borough Council since 1998 2000 … which is … what, 12 10 years ago?

[Editor’s Note: Mr. Alyanakian’s old web page (since taken down) indicated he was borough council member since 1998, however, a reader corrected this. He was elected in 2000.]

And he’s the only one who has been on Borough Council for the entire time. So… of anyone on Borough Council, Mr. Alyanakian is the only one who could have actually done anything for the past 11 years, as current borough council members have only been around for 4 and a half years (Williamson, Simpson), at most.

(Roe, Rehoric and Stein have been around only since January 2010. I’m actually unsure how long Cunningham has been around.)

More to come!