The city of St. Louis Park is currently adding on to the Rec Center with a needless outdoor recreational facility designed for skating in the winter and other sports and events during the summer.

The total cost of this new facility hovers around $8.5 million, but could be as low as $8.1 million depending on material costs, according to city of St. Louis Park. Such a high cost for a facility that only benefits one sport for half the year is excessive.

The St. Louis Park Hockey Association (SLPHA) plans to pitch in $1.95 million — a positive step because it will likely be the primary user of the facility. Nevertheless, this still leaves a hefty chunk for taxpayers. Also, the association’s payment plan is a bit too lenient, allowing 16 years for the full cost to be paid, according to a February 2016 Special City Council Meeting report.

Millions of city dollars are going toward a facility that a vast majority of people will not use. This money could be put to better use in so many ways, such as improving the Rec Center’s aquatic park, which has had the same two slides for years.

According to the February 2016 City Council report, the SLPHA is obligated to purchase a minimum of 150 hours of rink time each year in the outdoor rink at a rate of less than $5 an hour. This low price barely matches the value of the space the SLPHA intends to use.

During the summer months, the facility will become a turf field that teams and events can rent out. As great as this sounds, this is Minnesota, where Ol’ Man Winter rules the roost. Why not make an extension to the existing indoor rinks, which would decrease competition for ice time, instead of spending the money on a facility that will only be used for part of the year?

That leads to the next question: what should the city spend its money on? The city has approved a number of development projects, such as redeveloping the vacant “Bally Total Fitness” block next to Excelsior and Grand into a six-story mixed-use building.

The Excelsior Boulevard redevelopment is just one of numerous city redevelopment projects, many of which will create numerous jobs and provide housing for hundreds of people and families. All of these new projects happening throughout St. Louis Park benefit the city exponentially more than the new facility at the Rec Center. Additionally, it is unreasonable that the construction at the Rec Center ranks so high on the to-do list.

A good number of St. Louis Park roads are in desperate need of repair. Some roads need very little work and some need to be completely redone out of stronger, newer material. Projects such as road construction and the Excelsior Boulevard redevelopment benefit the city in many more ways and should take priority over a recreational facility.

While the Rec Center may be in need of an expansion to its facilities that will benefit a small population of the city, it gets dwarfed by the benefits from the other projects.

Additionally, the amount of money going toward the new outdoor rink is disproportionate to the value and necessity of what’s being done. The money should be going toward projects that are of much greater importance and that more of the public will more frequently use and appreciate.