The gasps from City Council members were audible last week as City Manager Monte Falls delivered the jaw-dropping news that the estimated cost to rebuild the storm-damaged Humiston Beach boardwalk had nearly doubled – to more than $4 million.

“Late last month, we received the new cost estimate, which took the boardwalk project up to $3.99 million,” Falls told the City Council at last week’s meeting. “Add on the engineering design and permitting, it’s $4.6 million.”

That’s a dramatic increase from the city’s original $2 million estimate, as well as the later updated $2.5 million projection that took into account the engineering, design and permitting costs.

“Prices keep going up,” the city manager said, “but nobody could’ve predicted the costs going up exponentially.”

In June 2024, the council approved a plan to replace the historic boardwalk with an elevated sidewalk at a cost of about $700,000.

But six months later, a grassroots campaign sparked by Vero Beach 32963 convinced the council to abandon that plan, and in January, the council voted unanimously to change course and rebuild the boardwalk.

The city in the months since accumulated more than $2 million in funding for the Humiston boardwalk – from pledged contributions by community members, from the county, state, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and from its own coffers.

“With our fundraising to date, we’re at $2.1 million,” Falls said. “Add in the $450,000 worth of construction materials (being donated by) Clayton Sembler and his manufacturing company, and we’re at about $2.5 million.

“But we still need another $2.1 million,” he added, “which is pretty close to what we’ve raised so far.”

In other words: The city and community have a lot more work to do to cover a significant shortfall in funding.

“The bad news is that costs have gone up,” Falls said. “The good news is that we’re still a year away from construction. We have time to do some additional fundraising.

“So, we’ll go back to the people we’ve already asked, and we’ll ask again, he added. “I’ll ask the state. I’ll ask the council to ask the county again. And we’ll ask the community again.”

Mayor John Cotugno said the city might need to tap into its capital fund, specifically the money remaining from the sale of its electric utility to Florida Power & Light, to further support what he described as a “community project.”

He said the city took such action to contribute $1 million to the construction of the Jimmy Graves Sports Complex across the street from Vero Beach High School.

“We’ve used it in the past for one substantial community project – for which we’re finally seeing some fruition – and I think, as the year progresses, my personal recommendation to council would be to consider the fact that we might need to do it again.”

Cotugno also suggested the city could modify the boardwalk’s design to make it more cost-effective, but Falls warned against it.

“You can eliminate a stairwell to the beach; you can eliminate one shade structure; you can go back and not use stainless-steel rebar,” Falls said. “Those kinds of things save you a few dollars up front, but in the long run …

“We need to build what we want to build.”

“We’ve got five sources of funding – the city, county, state, FEMA and the private sector,” Falls said. “If each gave $400,000 more, we’d be pretty close.”

He then included the funds the city already had spent to demolish the remains of the previous structure and make the temporary repairs needed to make the area accessible, which he equated to the “site prep” often required for new construction.

“The all-in cost of this project,” Falls said, “is about $4.75 million.”

The most recent estimate – provided by the local office of Kimley-Horn, the council’s oft-contracted engineering, planning and design consultant – includes a contingency of more than $500,000.

But, as Falls warned, it’s unlikely construction costs will decrease any time soon.