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Cost for Bahia dredging now tops $16 million
Homeowners recently learned the cost of the project had more than doubled. Now, the estimated cost has jumped another $1.2 million - to $16.7 million. The new figure comes from a $90,000 assessment for households directly on the lagoon, and $45,000 for property owners off the lagoon. Property owners have spent more than $3 million trying to clear regulatory hurdles to start the project, and they are still waiting for a final ruling by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that could doom the effort altogether. "All we are trying to do is get back what we had," said Allan Hulme , a 35-year Bahia resident. "Some of these agencies, and especially the Audubon Society, have fought us and fought us, hoping we'd run out of money." The Audubon Society opposes the plan, saying it would destroy key wetlands habitat for the endangered clapper rail. The Fish and Wildlife Service ruling will decide if a proposed habitat replacement across the Petaluma River is enough to override their objections. The homeowners association board of directors also is trying to rid itself of court-appointed receiver Marshall Levy, who has filed a motion with Marin Superior Court to recover more than $11,000 in fees and attorney charges he says he is owed. A hearing on the motion will be Thursday. Levy did not return calls requesting comment, and his lawyer Stephen Fraser also declined to comment. Levy was appointed receiver by the court in 1996 after the then-board of directors resigned, frustrated with the legal and political battles surrounding the project. For eight years, he attempted to move the dredging project forward with little or no success, and left the homeowners association $300,000 in debt, said Lynn Emrich , president of the Bahia Homeowners Association. "There was very little oversight," Emrich said. "He had our checkbook and he paid himself. All of this stuff he should have been doing just wasn't done." Levy's receivership ended in April 2004 when the court approved a newly elected board of directors. While reviewing his records, Levy kept cost estimates for the dredging project at about $6 million by steadily lowering the percentage of contingency funds and failing to update construction costs, Emrich said. Before 2005 the last cost estimate, in 2002, pegged the project price at about $6 million. Last month, consultants presented stunned Bahia homeowners with a revised budget of $15.5 million for the work. The cost jumped again last week with the addition of three items that were not included in the earlier July estimate because price quotes were not then available. The association plans to dredge the west Bahia lagoon, block off the original access channel to the Petaluma River , dig a new channel to the east lagoon and create a lock between the east lagoon and the Petaluma River . A total of 14 acres would be dredged. Dredging the channel between the east lagoon and the Petaluma River will cost $150,000. Constructing a drawbridge to cross a new channel between the west and east lagoons will cost at least $500,000, and it will run at least $250,000 to raise PG&E power transmission towers when dredging is complete. The additions also require $324,000 more in contingency funds and design costs, bringing the new total to $16.7 million. The new costs are "ballpark" figures, said Emrich . "I actually think it is probably a little low." "It's maddening because (the cost) shouldn't be anywhere near that high," Hulme said. "It's unjustified, but I think it's still worth it." Hulme thinks it was bureaucratic red tape that has delayed the start of the project. "I think Marshall (Levy) did his very best," he said. http://www.marinij.com/searchresults/ci_2923391
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