Not every city investment qualifies as an extravagance

Here's one for the Aginners

A few years ago, when the city and the Salina Soccer Club first started talking about building a soccer complex, they framed their undertaking as a good example of a public-private partnership.

It made sense to many people but not to some short-sighted folks in town we call The Aginners -- those "agin" most every city expense except making sure the street pavement right in front of their own home was smooth.

The city and the soccer club talked of an investment in our families and the community: Instead of families loading up the Yukon and heading to Wichita or Manhattan to play, buy gasoline and spend money in those towns' malls and restaurants, let's have games here, let's have tournaments in Salina and let others spend money here.

The Aginners' response was to whine about ... well, everything.

This weekend through June 7, the future has arrived as Salina plays host to the Kansas State Youth Soccer Association tournament, the state's premier soccer tournament.

The Salina Area Chamber of Commerce, the city and the soccer club put together a bid to host the tournament, which will bring in about $325,000 -- a conservative estimate, according to the chamber.

That's a lot of gasoline, meals, soccer supplies, movie tickets, sports drinks and bags of ice.

But it's part of the payoff the city and soccer club envisioned when they proposed the project.

Yes, the city has to take care of its streets and provide police and fire protection. But there is more than one way -- taxing the locals -- to get that money. Not every expense is an extravagance.

We'll always have The Aginners, who've fought everything from the Bicentennial Center to the soccer fields and now the city's aquatic complex, under construction in Kenwood Park.

The challenge for the rest of us will be to not let such naysayers impede the efforts to make this a vibrant community, one that others want to visit, and spend money in.

-- Ben Wearing

Executive Editor

822-1421

bwearing@salina.com

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