Bricks and Boondoggles

My local town purchased an old building to become a new "civic center".  There are only about 6,000 residents in our town, and the majority of those people do not own their homes.  They are property renters, which means that they vote but do not directly pay property taxes to the municipality.  Our town sometimes falls prey to the idea that because something is a nice idea that we must spend taxpayer money on it.  I highly differ.
When it comes to this civic center, it was a boondoggle from the beginning.  It was an old building owned by the American Legion.  Well, the leader of that post is now on our town council.  The woman who was leading the charge to purchase the building and renovate it is also now on the town council.  At least the building was purchased by the town prior to her being elected.
The problem is that we already have a civic center building for public use.  We also have an unused Lion's Club building in town.
The idea was to get private donations to renovate the building.  The building cost the town $60,000 and the renovation to make it usable was going to be $300,000.  Private donations were never going to cover the cost.  So what do fundraising leaders do?  They look to handouts from government grants, of course.  What does an empty building in a rural town have to do with the USDA?  Why are our federal tax dollars funding a civic center in Podunk, NC?  What business is it of taxpayers in Arkansas or California to help fund a boondoggle project in Selma?  The only positive side to this is that it was not a loan, so we are not being taxed on the front end to supply the funding by the federal government and taxed locally on the back end to repay the loan.
Well, the fundraising is not quite over yet.  The town is still taking donations/purchases of bricks to fund the project further.  I have purchased a brick to pave a veterans' memorial before, and they were about one fourth the cost of what the town is asking.  But, IF the town is willing to take my $100 to engrave the brick I want to purchase with the message I want, I am willing to buy one before the upcoming deadline.