North Stonington — The Emergency Services Building Committee went before the Board of Selectmen with a proposed request for about $2.25 million in additional funding to cover shortfalls in the construction budget during the selectmen's meeting on Tuesday night.

Brian Elias, who serves on the emergency services committee, delivered the progress report to an audience of residents, committee members and members of the North Stonington Volunteer Fire Company. The presentation may mirror one the committee plans to give to the public in February, ahead of a potential referendum on the funding.

Central to the discussion were the cost overruns that led to all five bids of the second phase of the construction to be rejected in August. Elias explained that the primary reason the bids were over budget was because of cost escalation: when the $4.5 million budget was set and approved back in 2013, he said, the costs were based on construction projects that were approved in 2009 and 2010.

These projects were bid at a time when labor and construction costs fell for the first time in decades. When the project stalled and was finally sent out for bid in 2015, costs had risen over 17 percent. Elias said the bids ranged from around $1 million to $2 million over budget, despite the committee's cost-saving measures in choosing single-story design and consolidating the structure into a smaller footprint.

Project manager Peter Springsteel noted that the committee arrived at the $2.25 million in additional funding by taking the average cost of the five bids, and adding a contingency raised from 5 percent to 7 percent to better mirror construction industry standards. Other additional "soft costs" of administrative and legal expenses were about $219,000.

Addressing Selectman Nick Mullane, who asked why the committee chose to take the average of the bids they received in August, Springsteel said they chose to be as conservative as possible with its estimates to prevent another round of over budget bids.

"We don't want to go out to bid again and come out over budget," he said. "We want to cover ourselves."

Other efficiencies that hadn't been calculated in the numbers presented to selectmen were the $300,000 grant-in-kind announced by state Rep. Diane Urban and the State Bond Commission on Friday, and potential USDA funding that would eliminate the built-in bonding costs.

 n.lynch@theday.com

Twitter: @_nathanlynch