The Open Space Committee was hoping to have $1 million at the ready to purchase a suitable parcel of land for a multifield athletic complex, should one suddenly become available. But at its Dec. 8 meeting, the Capital Planning and Investment Committee said that’s not how it works. Instead, it told Open Space Committee members Dan Daly and Paul Cohen to follow the normal procurement path by first asking the Select Board to issue a request for proposals for the land.
The request, sponsored by the Open Space Committee, Parks and Recreation Commission, and the schools, asked for $500,000 in each of the next two fiscal years to set aside for the purchase of 6 or more acres. The land would need to be suitable for two multiuse rectangular fields with ADA-compliant facilities and structures for concessions, bathrooms, parking, spectating, ticketing, storage, and maintenance.
Cohen said the town has a demonstrated need for more athletic fields; existing fields suffer from overuse and having too few fields doesn’t allow fields to rest or undergo repair. He said the Open Space Committee has spent more than two years identifying about two dozen possible properties, and is in the process of reaching out to those property owners. If an RFP is issued instead, he said, the town would have no credibility because it lacks funding. He worried that there may not be much of a response. “Asking someone to put themselves out there is onerous,” he said.
Daly agreed, saying the town needs to show interest in the project first, and committing funds for the land purchase is a way to do that. CPIC Chair Nate Finch responded that the town already showed interest when it approved $50,000 at 2022 Annual Town Meeting to pay for a suitability study on a piece of land once it was identified.
CPIC member Don Ludwig pointed out that the purchase of the new Council on Aging building was done with an RFP with no prior funding commitment from the town, and it got responses. “The procurement process tells them we’re serious,” he said.
Finch said after the RFP responses come back, the lowest-priced viable location should be chosen, and the Open Space Committee should come back to CPIC and request funding to purchase it. If CPIC recommends it, it would identify a funding source, and, if time allowed, add it to the warrant for 2023 Annual Town Meeting.
Cohen said that should be doable, and his committee would work with the Select Board to move forward. “This is not a novel concept, to issue an RFP for land acquisition,” he said, adding that if the RFP goes out by the end of January, and responses are due back in 30 days, there would be enough time to choose a response and write the funding request in time for Annual Town Meeting. Finch said if that wasn’t the case, the town could call a Special Town Meeting.
