While RTD's expansion of its FasTracks light rail system has seen its price tag rise by billions in recent months, at least one local government isn't deterred from pumping millions into a new rail station.
As The Denver Post reports this morning, Lakewood officials "are willing to pay - an estimated $2.8 million - for what they call 'betterments' to RTD's standard light-rail designs." According to the Post, "[Officials] want riders of the Denver-to-Golden train to know they've arrived in Lakewood."
With a vision described as "an ice-cream-sundae," the proposed station could include a "crystalline canopy that flows like clouds across the platform — as a statement that the state's fourth-largest city has arrived."
The total station cost of $2.6 million would come out of urban renewal tax funds. Backing the project is Lakewood City Manager Mike Rock, who told the Post, "We think this is smart business all the way around...This simply recognizes that this is a long-term investment on the part of the community and decisions we make today will live for the next 50 to 100 years."
Mind you, Rock's idea of prudent economics may not be the same as the rest of us. He was, after all, the source of both print and broadcast media investigations demonstrating that he'd charged thousands in taxpayer money to fund his stays and dinners at five-star hotels and swanky restaurants, as well as more than $13,000 to fix his city-owned vehicle (after his wife wrecked it).