RFP Issued for Multi-Purpose Beach Building

The town has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to design and construct a new multi-purpose building at to replace the existing changing rooms. The project has been broken out from the larger Parks Renovation plan, with the funding to come from a .

The deadline to submit bids is 12 p.m. Friday, February 17.

After the bid process, if a design plan is chosen by the selection committee (made up of members of the Parks and Recreation and Municipal Building committees), the project will still have to garner voter approval at a town wide referendum.

“This time we’re doing it bid-bond-build,” Parks and Recreation Director Dennis DiPinto said, rather than getting voter approval for a non-specific project before putting it out to bid.

DiPinto said he hopes this method will allow for more creativity from the prospective candidates.

The size and scope of the proposed multi-purpose room in the was one of the major reasons detractors gave for . The building that has yet to take place, however in the RFP the design was left open.

The documents do lay out a number of guiding specifications (see attached), including requiring space for a concession stand, small staff room, storage space and a common room with a 50 person seating capacity. The RFP also requests a “maintenance free and aesthetically agreeable design.”

The — restoration of the beach seawall, renovation of Cadigan Park and Phase II of the — will likely come before the voters in a separate referendum this spring, DiPinto added.