The Belfast City Council has said it wants to open a park across Route 1 from where Nordic Aquafarms wants to build its $500 million land-based industrial fish farm. And the City has said parking for the park would be across Route 1 from the park, leaving park-goers to cross Route 1 in a 50-mile-an-hour zone with less than optimal visibility.

I don't know how the City expects park visitors to cross Route 1 safely, but in a December 7 email to me, Paul Merrill of the Maine Department of Transportation said a crosswalk in a 50-mph zone would cost the City of Belfast — not DOT — more than $200,000.

If however the speed limit were dropped to 40, a crosswalk would cost the city less.

And it would presumably have the added benefit of fewer people killed or injured en route to a park that is being created for the sole purpose of allowing Nordic Aquafarms to lay its saltwater intake and effluent discharge pipes over land Nordic has been unable to acquire by legitimate means.

Either way, it is mind-boggling that the City of Belfast would spend a dime — let alone $200,000 — for such an obviously reckless and dangerous park.

Lawrence Reichard lives in Belfast