Now 3rd St. Is Going to Cost $2M More

In the continuing topic of the day, N. 3rd St. costs continue to go up.

Last city council meeting, $5M from the 2006 transportation bond and $1M from the 2/3rd bonds (a mystery in and of themselves) were allocated to N. 3rd St.  This isn't counting the $1M that the state gave to the city for taking over ownership of the street.

Apparently, that's still not enough.

StarNews:

As of April, the city had estimated the project would cost about $6.5 million but the lowest bid came in last month at almost $8.5 million from Sealand Contractors out of Charlotte. 

[...]If the council doesn’t decide to add money to the project, some landscaping and street beautification won’t get done.

[...]Officials say project costs are on the rise because of the increased price of fuel and asphalt. City public services director Richard King said the cost of asphalt recently increased by $22 a ton. (Is this really that much?  How many tons of asphalt to we need to pave 10 blocks on one street?)

Of course, what's not asked is why did the city issue the debt if they weren't even sure they could continue with the project?  Now that we've issued the debt, we have to pay interest on it (we don't until it's issued,) $240k a year on the $6M alloted for 3rd St. alone.