Pender commission rocked by school cost overruns
PENDER COUNTY, NC (StarNews) — On Tuesday, the Pender Board of County Commissioners heard another construction update from the school board and two of its design firms. The good news: Penderlea is only an estimated $200,000 over budget, though it has not yet gone out to bid. The bad? The new school in Surf City is an estimated $3.4 million over budget, and it has not gone to bid yet, either.
The K-8 Surf City school was originally estimated to cost $35 million, meaning the overrun, even after all other contingency fees have been applied, is about 10 percent. Put another way, the cost overrun equates to a potential tax hike of about a nickel, since each penny raises about $670,000 in revenue.
The main culprit, LS3P architect Charles Boney told the board, is the challenges of the site, which was the best of four locations originally considered but is still 60 percent wetlands and offers other expensive obstacles in terms of access. Boney also tried casting a little blame on the commission, which has slowed and questioned the process since the bond referendum was passed in the fall of 2014.
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