Standish voters still don’t know whether the question to build a community center will be on ballots. What they do know after the release of the report Tuesday by the committee examining what kind of center is needed is that the committee wants a big, expensive center.

The recommended center makes no fiscal sense, in part because some of what it would offer would be better left to private enterprise.

The proposed $8.7 million community center would have a pool and fitness area, an elevated walking track in a building with more than 34,000 square feet.

Supporters of the plan say the pool and fitness center would make the community center financially self-sustaining in five years.

Aside from wondering why the town of Standish needs to be in the business of running a fitness center and pool, the financially self-sustaining part does not cover the bond payments of 20 or 30 years.

The bond recommended by the committee “would not exceed $8 million,” language that almost makes it seem a model of restraint. Of course, paying that bond adds at least $112 to the annual tax bill for an owner of a home valued at $250,000. Those payments will not go away no matter how profitable a fitness club becomes.

There is a clear and critical distinction between the need for municipal spending on roads, emergency services and education and spending to operate businesses that belong in the private sector. Cybex weight machines and a spa do not qualify as essential municipal spending. Standish taxpayers are weighted and soaked enough by paying the rising School Administrative District 6 town share and for the $1.2 million bond (with $500,000 included to expand the Standish Municipal Building) approved at the town meeting in June.

Committee member Linda Brooks, also director of the Standish Recreation Department, is justified when she says the town needs a community center because it’s difficult to find locations for recreation programs. However, the price tag for a center needs to be in balance with the economic realities faced by those who would use the programs.

There is no disputing the benefits of a strong recreation program. What is disputed is that a municipal building twice the size of a Rite Aid and not on tax rolls holds more benefit for the community than enticing a business such as a health club to town that might offer discounts to the recreation department.

Such a scenario would create more tax revenue and reduce the size of a bond needed to build a community center scaled to real needs.

Larry Simpson, a former Standish councilor who has served on the community center committee, noted Tuesday that $400,000 has been spent on the project already. That includes $325,000 for a parcel of land for the proposed center that might not be usable because of new regulations on vernal pools.

Simpson is one who believes that obstacle can be overcome. He may be right, but what has been spent is no reason to suggest another $8 million should be spent on an inflated project that harms the financial fitness of the residents it purportedly helps.

David Harry, editor