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CAMPRIELLO:
Barry McLaughlin is the manager of the Mosholu Golf Course, a nine-hole course with a driving range, first opened in 1925. The current owners purchased the course after talk of the water treatment facility had begun. McLaughlin didn't participate in the decision to choose the course as the plant's site. But he says that he and Mosholu's new owners were assured by officials that it was unlikely they'd have a new treatment plant under their course.
AX McLAUGHLIN (24.6 seconds):
When we took over, we talked to the parks and we said, you know what is the situation, where are we going to be with this? And at point, they told us, it looked like other sites were being favored over Mosholu. So we were comfortable that we could go ahead and take this project on. Ah…then in 2004, I want to say in February, it was going to happen and it was going to happen at this location.
CAMPRIELLO:
McLaughlin says that the owners of the course had no choice but to submit to the city's decision.
The city says it chose the Bronx site partly because it's closer to existing water pipes that feed into the city. And, they feared the Westchester site could be vulnerable to a cataclysmic event because its water would flow through the same pipes as water from other sources that supply the city.
The city also said it would be cheaper to build in the Bronx.
The Reverend Richard Gorman has been the chairman of Community Board 12 in the Bronx for seventeen years. He never wanted the water treatment plant to be put in his neighborhood.
AX GORMAN (12.0 seconds):
We were concerned about trucks rumbling across the road with dirt, and the pollution that comes forth from these heavy deisel trucks. We were concerned about the pollution that would come from the blasting and the digging.
CAMPRIELLO:
But the city chose the Bronx anyway. For the next two years, trucks rumbled in and out of the site all day long. Rocks were blasted from the ground to create a massive, 11-acre hole. Gorman was furious:
AX GORMAN (12.7 seconds):
And I said why are we wasting all this money digging a huge hole so we can put put the building in this hole when we could put this somewhere else, and they said it was the most fiscally responsible place to put it.
CAMPRIELLO:
The project was supposed to cost around eight hundred million dollars. So far, it's cost much more than that:
AX GORMAN (2 seconds):
It is now up to three billion dollars.
CAMPRIELO:
Gorman is one of several elected officials and community members who are demanding an audit. They allege that the city purposly underestimated the cost of the project. They also allege that contracts were awarded unfairly. Those allegations may have some merit. City officials announced last week that they will be conducting an audit into certain contract details of the Bronx project.
At a meeting last night, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, said that an audit of the contract addressed only half the problem. He, and others at the meeting want to know why the project is so over budget.
But, Ann Canty, of the Department of Environmental Protection, says that the project is NOT over budget.
AX CANTY (3.3 seconds):
The cost estimate has changed over time.
CAMPRIELLO:
Canty says the cost estimate has changed over time because construction prices have risen, like they have with so many projects across the city. Canty also acknowledges that the proposed water rate hikes are due, in part, at least, to adjust for the project's increased costs.
But back at the Mosholu Golf Couse, the water treatment plant has been a boon. It was reimbursed to rebuild its clubhouse and maintenance building. They were paid to move the driving range and holes. All together, golf course manager Barry McLaughlin, estimates that they was reimbursed eight million dollars by the city. He says it's been great for their business.
AX McLAUGHLIN (16.9 seconds):
I think for the public golfers it was a great thing, because they now have a brand new nine hole golf course. They'll have a …brand new clubhouse and other amenities at the end of the project. And the water will get filtrated as it needs to.
CAMPRIELLO:
City official say they plan to produce more details about the audit into the water treatment plant in June.
Susan Campriello, Columbia Radio News.