The Iowa State Daily reported on an Ames City Council project earlier this week, known to city officials as the Southeast Gateway project.

The City Council has proposed a series of 14 40-foot-tall LED-lit columns near the intersection of Dayton Avenue and Highway 30 for a budget of a little more than $1 million.

The City Council has offered up $323,000 toward the cost of the project, supplementing the Department of Transportation’s $683,000 contribution through its Statewide Transportation Enhancement program. The city and DOT have partnered with the South Ames Business Neighborhood, Snyder and Associates and RDG’s Dahlquist Art Studio in the development of the project.

The project’s visionaries said in a Dec. 7 city of Ames press release that they hope “the Ames Southeast Entryway is a beautification project that will enhance the area along the U.S. 30 corridor from the Interstate 35 interchange to the South Dayton Avenue interchange.”

“This enhanced corridor will provide an attractive and eye-catching gateway to the community of Ames and the South Ames Business District,” according to the release.

The project likely will accomplish those goals, leading to a more recognizable, noteworthy “gateway” to the city.

But is the project worthy of the city’s resources?

Parks, roads and the vacated Carr Pool come to mind as examples of projects that might have benefited from the funds.

An example relatable to our campus home might be Beyer’s new lazy river and the skywalk connecting the building to State Gym. They’ll be nice to have, sure, and lots of people will enjoy them, but it’s hard to justify the cost in light of the staggering needs of professors’ research and their work in the classrooms, and the overwhelming debt many students already graduate with — we’ll exacerbate the problem by making decisions now that don’t move us closer to solutions for more urgent, immediate problems; good PR for the city and university not being among them.

Fortunately, for the majority of Ames’ residents, they’ll at least be here when the project’s wrapped up, which is more than can be said for many of the students currently paying for renovations to campus’ recreational facilities.

So, is it a bad idea? Probably not. But do we think this money might be better spent on other projects? Certainly.

City officials took advantage of an opportunity put forward by Iowa’s DOT, and we appreciate the effort, but we doubt this is the right approach to bettering the city of Ames.