The recent decision by the village of Celoron to approve a possible $900,000 of borrowing to pay for improvements to Lucille Ball Memorial Park seems irrational to those on the outside of village government.

Contrast the recently approved serial bond issue with the village’s years of hemming and hawing over the costs associated with a $90,000 water line project. Amenities are nice, but we think everyone would agree that safe drinking water is certainly a more important use of taxpayer money.

In fairness, the village may not need the entire $900,000 bond issue — the village recently received a state grant for roughly 42 percent of the project’s cost and other outside funding may be available — and improving the area makes some sense for the village. Village officials hope to see increased foot traffic with the opening of a new hotel on the Celoron waterfront, so it is important to have amenities across the street from the hotel for people to visit or spend time in without having them leave the village for Lakewood, Jamestown or other areas.

The village carries a low debt load this year compared to similarly-sized Brocton. According to Open Book NY, Celoron carried $128,000 in debt into 2017. Compare that to Brocton, which has a population of roughly 400 more people than Celoron yet carried a debt load of $4,823,952 into the year. It is good to see the village keeping its debt load low, but taxes have increased 19.7 percent since 2012, according to Open Book NY. According to the resolution approved by the Celoron Village Board, the serial bond issue will be backed by property taxes. The village would have to cut existing spending in order to pay for the bond issue without increasing taxes, and that is increasingly difficult to do in this age of ever-increasing costs. Taxpayers who hope for a tax decrease or even to see taxes stay the same are unlikely to see that happen for the life of the bond issue.