To the editor:

I am responding to an article in the July 30 edition of The Daily Item entitled “Mayor Nicholson empowering youth success.” In that article, it states that there are “350 young adults that are under payroll for this year’s youth program….” Why so many? What are they doing? And what is the cost? According to the city’s site, the YSEP (as it is called) pays participants $16.25 per hour for 20 hours a week — $1.25 above the Massachusetts minimum wage. If we assume that the program runs eight weeks (July and August), the cost to the city would be a little over $900,000.

Again, what are they doing that requires 350 of them? I have walked through Barry Park on several mornings, and I see young people, sitting in the shade, looking at their phones. And please don’t tell me that these jobs keep these young people out of trouble. If that is the purpose — crime avoidance — it sounds like extortion: Pay me or I may do bad things. I would posit that there are better ways to spend over $900,000 than on “no work” jobs.

Bill Morrill

Lynn