There is little the city can do to reduce costs for its new Public Works garage.

Council members will have little choice in April but to swallow hard and increase the bond anticipation note for the garage and other miscellaneous projects from $4.6 million to $6.3 million.

There was a lot not to like about the Washington Street garage project when it was originally approved, including the use of the site for a garage as opposed to private development and the fact the city had to pay $400,000 to acquire a site rather than build on land it already owned.

For some, those would have been reasons to hold off. The signs of inflation in 2021, before the project was approved by the City Council, would have provided another. The National Bureau of Economic Research noted in a September 2023 working paper that the annual inflation rate, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, was 1.7% in February 2021. It was more than 5% in June 2021, when the Public Works garage was approved by the council. Inflation then rose steadily for another year, peaking at about 9% in June 2022. In other words, in addition to the other issues that were raised with the Washington Street site, the city picked perhaps the worst time in decades to undertake a building project.

The result is a garage that was supposed to cost $2.1 million will cost $5.7 million. There’s really nothing else to say. The bill is coming due, and city residents will have to pay it.