Source: Contra Costa Times (Calif.)
The City Council unanimously approved yet another increase in the budget for the city's first municipal golf course late Tuesday night, bringing total costs to more than $40 million.
The new increase to the Callippe Preserve Golf Course and Open Space Project's budget adds $2.3 million for additional construction costs and brings its total to $40.8 million.
Money increases are nothing new for the project. In 1999, the city estimated the course could be built for $21 million. By the time the council initially approved it in 2001, the project's budget had ballooned to $34 million. In 2004, the council approved two additional increases, adding $4.5 million to the budget.
To cover the latest increase, the city is expected to take money from both its capital reserve fund and interest accrued from another fund.
Tuesday night, Rob Wilson, the city's head of public works, said he still expected the course to be open by late Fall. The course's opening already has been delayed twice from a fall 2004 target date. Forsgren Associates, a subcontractor responsible for the majority of the golf course construction, recently pulled out of the project, claiming to have not been fully paid for its work.
Rob Wilson, the city's head of public works, said his understanding is that Forsgren left because it felt it is owed money by the project's main contractor, Ferma Corp. of Mountain View.