BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. -- Brevard County may get stuck paying $2 million for a boat ramp on the Indian River in Grant. The work was never started. The contractor says the costs have gone way up and the only way to walk away from that contractor is to pay up.

When County Commissioner Chuck Nelson was Parks and Rec Director, he promised voters in south Brevard County they would get a new boat ramp if they approved a new tax in 2006. In 2009, the empty lot is all there is to show for it.

A contractor named Randal Tedder won the bid for $660,000, but now two years later he's come back to the county saying it will cost taxpayers more than $2.1 million.

"I don't understand why we would ever entertain a bid of $2.1 million," county commissioner Trudie Infantini said.

Infantini says Don Lusk, the Parks and Rec director, either needs to hold Tedder to his original price or find a new builder right away.

Commissioners used a purchase order to do the original deal. That means there is no clause protecting them against price hikes and county attorneys say they'd have to pay hundreds of thousand of dollars to walk away from the deal.

Boaters like Ed Holt say they want the new ramp, but don't want the county to be taken for a ride. Holt says if the people who put the deal together didn't read the fine print and didn't protect the taxpayers from ballooning prices, they shouldn't be working for the county.

"You know what they ought to do if they have a lawyer. The first thing they should do is fire the attorney," he said.

One county attorney tried to put the blame back on commissioners who approved the purchase order instead of doing a regular contract.

The contractor, Randall Tedder, said the price of the boat ramps skyrocketed because the Florida Department of Environmental Protection added several requirements to the project in order to grant permits for construction. Those requirements included handicapped accessible ramps and sea grass installation among other things. Tedder said he kept Brevard County's Parks and Recreation Department informed of the rising costs, but wasn't sure it was ever explained to the commission.

"I knew it would be a hard pill to swallow," Tedder said.

The current Parks and Recs director didn't return calls to Eyewitness News.