POULSBO — The first park development project in Poulsbo’s park system history is about to be completed.
And while staff praised the outcome, there was a big financial chunk to bite off this week.
At the Oct. 6 Finance/Administration Committee meeting, Poulsbo Parks and Recreation Department Director Mary McCluskey reported that the Nelson Park project had overrun its budget by about $59,000.
The $655,000 project began in November 2003. Vision Builders of Port Angeles was in charge of developing the 11-acre park, including adding landscaping, a picnic shelter, additional parking, restrooms and a children’s play area. Construction was funded through a more than $320,000 matching grant received in September 2002 from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).
McCluskey explained that she had originally budgeted about 5 percent of the project costs as contingency. But the ultimate price ended up straying a little less than 10 percent past that.
A number of reasons were cited for the overrun, including change orders and items like two city water hook ups for which $6,000 was budgeted but $21,000 was needed.
“These are things that just come up in a project,” McCluskey said.
Even the large amount of dirt that was purchased for the project ended up costing more. It was estimated that the humorously-named Mt. Stephenson would cover grading that was required but ended up only having half what was needed. McCluskey said the actual amount of fill used at Nelson is equivalent to the former pile at Nelson plus the new mound at Fish Park.
“Even with that big pile of dirt, we had to buy more dirt,” she said. “So much grading was needed to bring it up to a working level.”
City staff are recommending a $59,000 transfer from Poulsbo’s real estate excise tax to cover the overrun. The tax on home sales in the city limits was also used as matching funds for the Nelson Park grant. The budget amendment will be coming to the full council for a decision Oct. 20.
Finance Director Nanci Lien said McCluskey had been keeping the Finance Department, Community Services Committee and mayor appraised of the situation all along. She said the additional expenditure was available and she felt it was small compared to what the cost could have been.
“Fifty percent of this project was funded by grants, we would not have been able to do this without the grant funding,” she commented.
McCluskey said she has made a request for additional LWCF monies to help cover the cost as well and expects to receive notification sometime in 2005. If Poulsbo receives the proposed conservation funds, the city would recoup half of the transfer from real estate excise taxes.
