ROCKPORT — A Boston firm has submitted the lowest bid to rehabilitate the Community House, and a decision by the selectmen on whether to approve a contract is expected tonight, officials said.
M. O'Connor Contracting Inc.'s bid was $1,654,500, about $613,272 less than the $2,267,772 appropriated for the project by Town Meeting. However, the project calls for additional work beyond what the contractor is under contract to complete, including paving of the right of way behind the structure and landscaping.
"The town did do well in the bids it received," said Joe Parisi, the town's Public Works director and Community House Building Committee chairman. "A savings may ultimately be generated and funds gone unspent; if there are surplus funds, it would be declared at the end of the project and put back into the appropriate fund."
M. O'Connor Contracting, based in West Roxbury, has worked on a variety of historic and municipal projects around the state, including the Neil Houston House in Roxbury, the Malden Senior Center and Ashburnham's historic Fairbanks Town Hall.
"M. O'Connor Contracting was awarded the contract with extremely glowing recommendations from the state," said Community House Users Group subcommittee member Jack Campbell. "They're a family firm specializing in projects just like this."
Mike O'Connor, president of the contracting firm, said he is looking forward to working with Rockport officials on what will be the company's first Cape Ann project.
"It is the type of project our construction company is very familiar with and look forward to the challenge of this renovation," O'Connor said yesterday. "In our 35-plus years in business, we have done many historic buildings — residential, municipal and churches — throughout the state."
Selectmen's Chairman Sandy Jacques said he doesn't foresee any barriers to tonight's contract signing.
If the selectmen approve the contract tonight, construction would begin early to mid-January and is estimated to take about 300 days, Campbell said. During the planned 10-month construction period, the town-owned building, located on Broadway at Five Corners, will be unusable.
Gwen Stephenson, who coordinates the building's current use, held a "come and take it" event recently in which people were able to take a number of furniture items from the building free of charge.
Once work begins on the site, the first step will be to prepare the grounds, which will involve taking out a lot of shrubs, brush and small saplings on the left side of the building. The Rockport Garden Club will be consulted throughout the landscaping process.
"As a community project, we want to make sure the public knows there's going to be some amount of disruption to the landscape outside, but when the project's done, it will be brought back as good as it was before, if not better," Parisi said. "It's an opportunity to remove a lot of the invasive species and replace them with more appropriate vegetation."
The town's Council on Aging will be the rehabilitated building's major tenant as a new and larger Rockport Senior Center will move to the structure's second floor.
On Sept. 14, voters approved $2,267,772 in funding for the project — including $582,407 of undesignated Community Preservation Act money, $185,365 from the town's real estate fund, and a move to borrow $1.5 million against future CPA revenues.
In the last 10 years, some 150 different organizations have used the building, which was originally built in 1865. In 2006, the town engineer and building inspector closed use of the second floor and restricted use to the first floor to 65 people.
In 2008 — the last full year with use figures — 27 organizations and private parties used the building approximately 396 times.
The selectmen's meeting begins tonight at 7 in Conference Room A, Town Hall. The contract signing is scheduled to occur around 8:40, according to the selectmen's meeting agenda.
Jonathan L'Ecuyer can be reached at 978-283-7000 x 3451 or jlecuyer@gloucestertimes.com.
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