Scarborough should reconsider the way it is adhering to a $400,000 spending limit on projects.

The limit dictates that the town sends to referendum projects that cost more than $400,000. Yet, the town has set aside money for three recent projects that cost more than that.

Scarborough has started building a park off Black Point Road that will ultimately cost $1.2 million. To get around the limit, the town is building the park in three, $400,000 phases. The town has also set aside $400,000 for a fishing pier that will ultimately cost $900,000. The town is hoping to get grants to help pay the rest of the tab. The just-completed turf field would have exceeded the $400,000 limit if the town had considered the cost of resurfacing the track as a part of that project.

Scarborough used to have a limit of $200,000 on projects that hadn’t gone to referendum. Voters raised that to $400,000 last year.

“I don’t think the people of Scarborough would want to see over $400,000 spent that can impact their taxes without a say in it,” said Tom Deignan, a resident who lives close to the park.

Town Manager Ron Owens said breaking down projects like these can sometimes save the town money. The town can use the $400,000 expenditure on the pier, for example, to leverage state and federal grants. In the case of Black Point Community Park, the town could get developers to donate money to help complete it.

Getting donations and grants for projects like these is certainly not unheard of. When Scarborough was building Memorial Park, Risbara Brothers Construction donated a gazebo. In Gorham, Shaw Brothers Construction built a park for the town on the Presumpscot River.

However, Scarborough can’t depend on getting donations and grants. The town might have a hard time, for example, competing for a grant for a fishing pier at Pine Point. There are certainly other communities in Maine that might be competing for such a grant.

It’s rare that developers will actually pay the whole cost of constructing a park, as Shaw Brothers in Gorham did. More often than not, towns will be left holding a majority of the bill.

Another problem with breaking up projects like this is that it makes it appear as though the town is trying to do an end run around a rule that’s in place to ensure residents have oversight over projects that will affect their tax bills, even if that’s not the case. Particularly with projects like Black Point Park, which some residents are opposed to, it might appear to residents that the town is being heavy handed or trying to sneak a project in under the radar.

Scarborough should reconsider how it’s handling projects that cost more than $400,000. In some instances, it might have a case for putting down a little money to attract grants or donations. In those cases, though, the town should then consider how to make it clear to the public what it is doing and how much the project will ultimately cost, because taxpayers deserve to have a say.

-Brendan Moran, editor