Thing of beauty or waste of money: 2 distinct views on Riverwalk Boardwalk project

OVERLOOK OVERBUDGET? There's no in-between on Riverwalk Boardwalk. You love it or you hate it (Courtesy image)

ROCHESTER - Rochester's City Council will be voting Tuesday on whether to commit as much as $2.2 million to fund the so-called Riverwalk Boardwalk construction project.
City officials released the following notice of public hearing on Nov. 17.
"The Rochester City Council will conduct a public hearing to take citizen input on the question of whether to appropriate $700,000 for the purpose of paying costs associated with the Riverwalk Boardwalk Project located on the 16 Bridge Street Property and/or whether to authorize the borrowing of $1,500,000, through the issuance of bonds and/or notes, and/or through other legal form(s) for the purposes of funding the expenditures incident to the implementation of the Project."
The wording in the Tuesday resolution, however, does not mention the $1.5 million, only the "borrowing authority."
Safe to say there is a lot of money at stake on Tuesday and lots of details will have to be made fleshed out.

Such as how much will be specifically needed to complete the long-anticipated Overlook adjacent to Duval Park on Bridge Street.
In March of 2022 then-Riverwalk chair and now city councilor David Walker said The Overlook portion of the Riverwalk improvements could be completed as "early as later that year (2022) if grant writing goes well." He said the cost was expected to be around $175,000.
Now the city is looking for up to $2.2 million for the Riverwalk Boardwalk project, which envisions a much grander scale.
"As part of the 16 Bridge Street property transfer, City is including an easement for the construction of a Riverwalk boardwalk that runs along 16 Bridge St river bank down to Fownes Mills and terminates at a second easement on Fownes Mills property, which will then be connected via a future foot bridge over the river to another property completing a Riverwalk loop," according to a summary statement in the City Council meeting packet released on Wednesday.
The summary also includes the need for a retaining wall, which could be "an extremely challenging and expensive endeavor, if not impossible."
Meanwhile, there is a wide array of opinions on the so-called Riverwalk Boardwalk project throughout the Rochester community that has been recently aired on social media, from "ridiculous" and "what a waste of taxpayer dollars" to "This looks really awesome and "I think this is a splendid idea."
The public hearing begins at 6 p.m. and the full council will vote on whether to approve the funding shortly thereafter.