The $15 million tram is now estimated to be a $55 million tram, with the end not yet in sight. It occurred to me to host a contest to pick the actual final cost of the Tram, with a small prize (yet to be decided) for the winner. Although whatever prize I decide on will be less than the $millions promised by the Oregon Lottery's Megabucks Program, I am also undercutting their entry fee by a dollar.
Here are the rules, which I reserve the right to change if I should feel like it:
1. One entry per e-mail account. (If you have a lot of e-mail accounts, you can enter once for each of them.)
2. Entries close by June 1 or thereabouts. (No fair waiting for the total to be announced.)
3. The City's final definitive cost for designing and building the tram, hard and soft costs together, is the magic number. I'm figuring that someone at the City will announce a number within a month or two after the tram is complete.
4. The judge's decision, no matter how irrational or whimsical, is final.
I will start this off. I predict that the final certified cost of the tram will be $66,241,288.
Good luck!