SOUTH PORTLAND – Somewhat lost amid the tar sands debate that has raged since late summer is a bond question the South Portland City Council put on the Nov. 5 ballot back in April.

Voters will be asked to borrow $14 million to build a public services complex housing the public works, transportation, and parks departments in a new 41,500-square-foot structure off Highland Avenue, where the transfer station now sits. The project, which the City Council has long deemed its “top priority” nonetheless produced some sticker shock last year when initial construction estimates ranged as high as $23 million.

The three departments to be joined under one roof are now housed in and around the city’s public works garage on O’Neil Street. The city hopes to sell off that site to a developer, although there are cleanup concerns. Assistant City Manager Jon Jennings will apply later this year for an environmental hazard, or “brownfield study,” grant.

The final iteration of the plan, prepared by the city’s civil engineering firm, Sebago Technics, lopped 23,500 square feet from the original 65,000-square-foot storage area, knocking total construction costs down to $16 million. Originally designed to house all 72 vehicles in the city fleet, the reduced area allows space for only the salt trucks and buses now kept under cover on O’Neil Street.

According to Mayor Tom Blake, the downsizing, far from being a concession made to win voter approval, could be a boon. Given recent talk of creating a regional bus service, it’s possible South Portland could find itself without a bus fleet of its own in the coming years, which could have left the city with an oversized building.

Councilors have already set aside $500,000 for the project, and Finance Director Greg L’Heureux said he expects that reserve fund to grow to $1.28 million before it’s tapped. That and a $715,000 grant the transportation department already has in hand would reduce the borrowing need to $14 million.

If voters approve the bond, a nine-month period of permitting and final design approval would put off bidding on the project by contractors to late 2014, said City Manager Jim Gailey. With site work to start in May 2015 and building construction set for mid-2016, when the first bonds would be issued, the complex would be ready for use by December 2016.

However, the first $700,000 payment would not be due until 2018, following a small interest layout in 2017. In that way, said L’Heureux, the first hit to taxpayers could be timed to the expiration of other debt – from retirement obligations and road paving – reducing the pain that might otherwise be felt. After all, L’Heureux noted, taxpayers already have the $41.5 million high school renovation bond with which to contend. That bond starts coming due in earnest next year, adding 17 cents per $1,000 of property value to the tax rate.

According to L’Heureux, the tax rate would continue to climb based on borrowing for the high school renovation and the proposed public services complex through 2018, when debt alone, irrespective of other increases to school or city operating budgets, would make the tax rate 31 cents higher than it is today, before it starts to decline as debt is retired.

L’Heureux’s data predicts that by the time the proposed $14-million bond is paid off in 2038, at a total cost of $20 million with interest, the median home in South Portland will have paid $1,097 to support the project. The one real unknown at this time, said Gailey, is the potential costs to clean possible environmental hazards at the public works garage on O’Neil Street, 6 acres that the city would like to redevelop for residential use.

Given how South Portland had to make several tries before voters agreed to pass the $41.5 million high school project, Councilor Mellissa Linscott has questioned the timing of the project, especially with an even larger bond to consolidate middle schools looming within the next 10-15 years.

“I think this is something we need to do as a city” she said, “but I am concerned about us setting ourselves up for it not getting passed.”

Still, for many councilors, the decision to move the $14-million bond before voters came down to concern for the safety of public works employees, who labor in a building that dates to the 1930s with garage bays that fall short of the standard needed to work on modern vehicles.

“I can be very conservative but I’m real big on safety,” said Councilor Michael Pock. “If we have people working in unsafe conditions, we’ve got to make the step. It’s got to be done. We can’t be Chicken Little and worry about the sky falling all the time even though we have a middle school issue.”

“Putting it off one more year is one more year of putting our employees’ health at risk,” said Councilor Linda Cohen, who argued that rising interest rates also make this the time to act.

“I hate to say this, but I think of those buildings as one welding spark away from a tragedy,” said Cohen.