Project mistake costs the City of Fargo nearly $50,000

(KVLY)
Published: Oct. 7, 2019 at 10:52 PM CDT
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A project along 40th Avenue South went all wrong when the City of Fargo didn't perform a specific test on the gravel being used, causing federal aid to be lost.

"The test isn't something we normally do, and we just missed it,” said Jeremy Gorden, Transportation Division Engineer. “And federal funds are such that if you can't verify what they are paying for, they just won't participate in any of the funding."

This mistake meant losing nearly $50,000 and having to pull more money from sales tax funding.

"Now we have learned our lesson,” Gorden said. “This is the first time they have pulled federal aid on any project in North Dakota for years and years."

There were three things funding this project: federal aid, sales tax and special assessments.

Fargo residents expressed concerns this mistake would end up costing them higher specials.

Dan Eberhardt, Special Assessments Coordinator, says it was our sales tax that took the hit on this problem, and people will actually see a slight decrease in specials for this project.

"When we started the project, we were working on an estimated fund, and as it progressed, we got more information for the final numbers from the state and applied them to our project,” Eberhardt said. “The numbers came down at the end a little bit."

Gorden also said using sales tax dollars should not have any serious impact on other projects or city funding as there are millions of dollars of these funds dedicated to projects each year.