The City of Oshkosh faces a tight timeline in deciding how to fill a $1.5-million budget shortfall for the Lakeshore Park Four Seasons Building project. The city set a spending limit of $3-million for the project. But contractors submitted bids of $4.46-million and $4.6-million. On Tuesday, the common council received five options to deal with the shortfall from the parks department. Deputy Mayor Matt Mugeraur says there are clearly no easy choices.
“The city staff’s given you the options, ” Mugeraur said. “It’s ARPA. It’s cash reserves. It’s additional debt. I don’t know the implications of attempting to amend the CIP (Capital Improvement Program) for additional debt. All those are options available to us if moving forward is something you want to do.”
Parks Director Ray Maurer, however, says rising material costs work against a delayed start.
“Unfortunately, waiting another year prices may go higher than they are now,” Maurer said. “They could start coming down but I was talking to many people in the field. I think it’s going to be a number of years before they start coming down.”
The council asked the Advisory Park Board to weigh the options and report back. A final bid must be selected by January, if the city wants to proceed with the project.
