Chalk up another lost chunk of change in the city of Dunkirk.

Last week, council members found out that because the city missed a 60-day deadline for a contract for the water treatment plant and the Benton Street water tank another $215,000 more will be paid on the projects than was originally approved in March. Council members – all Democrats – who spoke up were none too happy with the waste of money.

“I realize there might have been more work added, but we have to be wary of, there’s a timeline to make sure these things get done or we’re going to end up, bottom line, paying more. … To me that’s just bottom-line irresponsible,” said William Rivera, Second Ward councilman. “That’s all I’m asking … bottom line, it’s city taxpayers’ money.”

Yes. Those property owners who continue to see increases in fees while results of any tangible developments still elude the region.

From the outside, it has the look of being careless. On the inside, there is definitely frustration.

“I feel that something’s wrong with our system when we get a resolution for the first time, we unanimously passed it, but it didn’t meet the deadline that they had, which we were unaware of because that was never communicated to us,” said Willie Rosas, councilman at-large. “If it had been communicated to us, I could have and would have called a meeting to meet that deadline, and it would have saved city taxpayers about $170,000.”

Instead, the city of Dunkirk’s mistake adds to an all-too-familiar trend of overspending for no good reason.