Letter: Taxpayers shouldn't fund pond's cleanup

Re: The privately owned, backyard pond called Flint Lake:

The push by Lake Barrington officials to secure federal infrastructure funds to clean up this pond is a perfect example of why these federal spending sprees don't work.

These inflation-causing spending sprees are sold to the taxpayer with great sounding names chosen by marketing surveys to illicit a favorable opinion. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act sounds great. Please explain to me why the fine citizens of Kansas, or Mississippi, or Hawaii, should help pay to clean up a small, private, backyard, man-made pond.

The dozen or so houses that surround the pond are valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars each. The housing development built the pond. Those houses have three-car garages or pools or tennis courts. The pond is their concern, it is not the U.S. taxpayer's.

Here is an idea: Remove the ill-conceived dam, let nature restore Flint Creek and build housing where the pond was, to increase the tax base and help all the residents of Lake Barrington

Tom Horstman

Arlington Heights