Janet,  the $5.4 Million estimate includes a $450,720 contingency.  It is in a section of the estimate called "Project/Owner Contingency".

The original cost projection for the Community Center appears on page 10 of the Community Facility Evaluation document from DAL.  This estimate was the basis for the later referendum and prospectus.  This link should take you to the document.  This estimate contains two contingency entries.  The first, $299,853, is 10% of the $3.0 Million construction cost and was listed as "construction contingency" and was included in the "Projected Construction Cost" sub-total.  The majority of this contingency is no longer needed by virtue of the fixed cost Blades contract.  Only the small portion related to site work is still needed.

The second contingency, $311,776, is called the "Project Contingency".  It is 8% of the total construction plus non-construction cost and is listed in its own separate category just as it is in the latest estimate.  This is the contingency which is increased to $450,720 in the current cost estimate.

Neither you nor I were on the Board at the time that prospectus was written.  I can't tell you therefore where the 14% figure came from, but, I strongly suspect that it was calculated in error.  Someone tried to combine the two contingencies and used the grand total number as the denominator for the calculation.  This results in a 14% figure, but, is mathmatically incorrect.

Contingencies are line items in an estimate which, as Gene Ringsdorf has correctly pointed out, are not planned expenditures.  They should only be spent for unexpected or emergency situations and, hopefully, not at all.

Bill Z