The cover of the proposed City of Manteca municipal budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 has an interesting photo.

It is of an unfinished municipal project that has been that way for 15 years and counting. The subject is a huge photo of the kiosk on the Tidewater Bikeway plaza on Yosemite Avenue.

It was supposed to contain a map of the Tidewater as well as rules and other information. It was never completed because the city ran out of project funding plus the designer placed an insanely high $35,000 price tag on finishing it.

Given the fact the city is now in the advertising business with bus stops around Manteca, maybe they can find a creative way to generate money for the parks by selling ads on the kiosk. Or, better yet, maybe make it a place to post information on recreation and other activities around Manteca.

Or maybe they can lease it to CBS Billboards that has repeatedly rebuffed legal demands from the city to remove their billboards from along Moffat Avenue on city property as allowed in the contract they acquired when they bought the company that owns the billboards. The city has left the billboards stand despite contractually being in the right because CBS over the years has repeatedly threatened to sue the city if they enforce the legally binding contract.

As it stands now the kiosk is just a bunch of metal in the middle of the sidewalk.

But then again it does represent unfinished city projects of which the municipal budget has plenty within its pages.

Maybe next year the budget cover can feature the CBS Billboards that hawk everything from beer to fast food on city park land along the Tidewater Bikeway.