Adam Leech reports in the Portsmouth Herald that local officials have turned down “free money” from the federal government, because building a new water treatment plant with stimulus funds will be too expensive.

When the bids came in, the low bidder — Penta Corporation — presented final cost of $21 million with the stimulus funds and $17.3 million without.So the city said thanks, but no thanks, to the stimulus funds.

“It just didn’t make sense,” said Deputy Public Works Director David Allen. “It was going to cost us more money to take the money.”

Stimulus funds mandate workers are paid using Davis-Bacon Wage Determination, which sets the pay scale for workers on federal projects and added $2.5 million to the bottom line.

The “Buy American” provision would’ve added another $500,000 and Allen said there would have been significant administrative costs — upwards of $100,000 — for the city to track it the way the government requires over the course of the two-year project.