Going through the stories written about Kiama's Blue Haven Bonaira development, it's easy to see where part of the problem the council now finds itself in lies.
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The cost of the project just kept on going up and up and up.
In September 2013, the Mercury reported the council plan was to build a $40 million aged care centre on land it would purchase from the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District.
By July 2014 it had become "the $55 million aged care project". Just a few months later and the price had become $58 million.
In December that year, the price tag had gone up again to $62.9 million. Come May 2015 and the talk was about a $68 million development.
July that year saw the cost of the project climb again, to the $74 million mark. By the time the first sod was turned on the site in 2018, it was a $103 million aged care centre.
Over five years, that's a $63 million increase in the cost of the project - by anyone's measure that's a huge cost blow-out.
As to how it happened, well, that seems to be a bit of a mystery.
In February this year new CEO Jane Stroud sounded the alarm on the council's dire financial straits in a report.
In that report she noted "documentation of how project costs increased are not fully reported or easy to obtain from the public record".
At the time, the ledgers of council and Blue Haven were not separate - which raised the possibility that somewhere along the line ratepayers funds may have been used.
This would have gone against what residents were promised in 2013, that all capital works and operational costs would be fully funded through Blue Haven itself.
It makes one wonder, with the price constantly going up, why didn't councillors do anything.
In 2015 current Mayor Neil Reilly - who was then a councillor - did say the rising costs were getting "a little out of hand".
At some stage, once the council had invested so much money into the Blue Haven development, it simply had to keep going lest it end up with an unfinished aged care centre.
With the benefit of hindsight, it's clear that the council never should have started the project in the first place.
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
