OGDENSBURG – The local share of Ogdensburg’s Paterson Street project will cost the taxpayers nearly $1 million, according to an estimate issued by engineers.

Ogdensburg City Comptroller Philip Cosmo said the original estimate for the local share of the $7.4 million project was around $380,000. But Department of Transportation officials consider several aspects of the project as “betterments,” and therefore will not cover the costs.

Cosmo said the local share will likely be around $998,885, an increase of $618,885 over the original estimate.

An additional $276,143 will be incurred from interest over the 15-year loan.

The federal government will contribute $5.14 million and the state will pay $1.24 million toward the project.

At a Monday meeting, Ogdensburg City Councilor Dan Skamperle questioned whether the total project increase, or just the local share.

Cosmo said the total project cost hasn’t changed much, but more of funding has been shifted to Ogdensburg taxpayers.

Cosmo estimated the city will need to borrow about $2.5 million to pay contractors upfront as the federal and state funding will be issued on a reimbursement basis.

“We will need to front cash to the contractors and we will need to borrow enough to stay ahead of the reimbursements,” he said.

Councilor Jennifer Stevenson questioned whether aspects of the project could be delayed to reduce costs, but City Manager John Pinkerton said department heads went through the plans in detail to reduce costs as much as possible.

The project will improve 1.1 miles of Paterson Street with plans to restore pavement to good condition, separate the storm sewer system from the existing combined storm/sanitary system and improving intersections, sidewalks and drainage.

The project also includes the removal of 54 trees along the roadside as the city would also like to widen the roadway to include two 12' wide travel lanes and two 7' wide parking lanes.