A second round of bids for fixing the Southborough Golf Club to work around the Public Safety Complex came in too high. Selectmen again rejected bids that far exceeded the funding approved by voters last spring.
Back in April, Town Meeting voters approved using Community Preservation Act funds to keep the former St. Mark’s Golf Course open during and after construction of the new police and fire station on the property.
With built in contingencies, the article allotted $340K for renovations. The intent was to fix impacts to the first and last holes.
Southborough Wicked Local recapped the update and vote at last week’s Board of Selectmen meeting:
The latest rounds of bids came in range of $514,000 to $557,000 for the work. . .
An architecture firm, The Northeast Golf Company in Rhode Island, redesigned the locations of first tee box and ninth green to reroute the 9-hole course around the new building. As part of the construction of the new building, the clubhouse was relocated to make way for the new station. The new ninth green will be placed in what is now woods.
Before rebidding the project, the town worked with the firm to reduce the scale of work.
“I have been working with the golf committee and they are coming up with a phasing approach on what to address first and what we should use the funds on,” Purple told the board last week. “We would like to do some bidding on individual pieces.”
The most important work is the ninth green, while other parts can be fixed as more money becomes available, [Town Administrator Mark] Purple said.
“Hopefully, we will have more targeted bidding that will happen over the course of the winter so we can get going with some of this work as soon as the ground thaws in the spring,” he said.
Click here for the full article.
Voters had approved a bundled article that totaled $581,716 with contingencies. At the time, CPA Chair Freddie Gillespie had been optimistic that the project would come in lower than the approved amount.
Anticipated savings were for the other portion of the budget – work on the parking lot and retaining wall. Following up with Purple this week, he confirmed that there are some funds left from that project that can be put towards the renovations.
Updated (11/28/18 11:51 am): Gillespie further clarified that the original budget was $271,480. CPC would need to be asked to approve using any of the contingency monies (the additional $70K) or any other remaining funds from what was earmarked for the parking lot and retaining wall.
keep re bidding it , you’ll find a co. to do it, when a Co. hears the word southborough They think of big money and summit a very high bid, There are contractors out there that are struggling and would be glad to get the project and most likely do a good job.