Council to revisit Sailor’s Beach feasibility work after contract proposals fail; mayor warns open grants affect future awards

Staff reported that the city has a grant contract in place to complete a feasibility study for Sailor’s Beach but that two council proposals to allocate contract funds or to award a contract for the study were rejected in the prior council meeting.

Alicia, who oversees the project work, told councilors the Sailor’s Beach award is a multi-year grant (five years) and that the city should not let the award sit unused. She said the city’s incomplete progress on an open Sailor’s Beach grant was among the factors that reduced its score on a separate Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation application; staff said the city lost points in the evaluation of another park-improvement grant because reviewers saw unclosed or slow-moving projects.

Staff explained that one of the other grants is proceeding to bid (stairs project scheduled to go out to bid on Feb. 4) and that some grant-funded work is moving forward. Councilors asked for another conversation and clearer feedback about why the feasibility-study contract proposals were rejected and whether the contract for the Sailor’s Beach study can be resubmitted or restructured so the grant funds are put to use within the grant period.

No new contract award or reallocation of funds was approved during the session. Staff said they will bring the issue back for further council discussion so the council can provide clearer direction on whether to proceed with the study and how to advance open grants to avoid negatively affecting future grant competitiveness.