text: Great idea, Donnie. The city allocated $20,000 of its citizens hard-earned tax dollars to park bench maintenance, and then generously spent $10,000 of that on two new ones. How many carbon-fiber 2x4's could they have made for that and just bolt-casted them to concrete piers for people to sit on instead? I'll bet the geniuses in charge of this boondoggle could produce a 2x4 for less than $100 -- a comparative bargain to $100 pickleball paddles, but few will end up in homeowners decks at that price. 
  Those in charge of city parks need to have one of those high-tech 2x4's laid up'side their heads. If they needed $20k to maintain their existing benches what is going to happen to them now? Will they rot? At least wooden benches can be burned to keep homeless people warm. Do that with carbon-fiber and you'll get fined for hazardous waste disposal without a permit. At least Boeing won't have to pay for it, and that's the whole point of this exercise, isn't it?