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Gardner to demolish Greenwood Pool after attorney general rules on bid protest
Summary
The mayor said the Massachusetts attorney general ruled a bid submitted to a locked drop box should be considered the low bid, clearing the way for the city to award a contract and move forward with demolition and hazardous-material remediation of the Greenwood Pool building; several historic elements will be preserved.
The mayor of Gardner City announced that the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office has ruled in a bid protest and authorized the city to move ahead with awarding the contract to demolish the Greenwood Pool building. The ruling settled a dispute over a bidder whose submission arrived in a locked drop box and was not included in the livestreamed opening.
Why this matters: The indoor Greenwood Pool building is slated for demolition this summer; the site work and hazardous-material (hazmat) remediation must be completed before demolition and disposal. The project affects how quickly the city can remove a longtime facility and how the outdoor pool and spray park will operate this season.
City officials told residents the bid protest delayed work by about a month. “After about a month long review, the attorney general's office ruled that the bid that was in the drop box is the 1 that should be considered the low bid and gave the city the green light to go ahead and start awarding the contract and move forward with the demolition,” the mayor said. The city purchasing office described the issue as a delivery error: a bidder provided a FedEx receipt showing delivery to City Hall but a courier left the envelope in a locked exterior drop box; state procurement rules required a separate bid opening for that submission under Chapter 30B of the Massachusetts General Laws.
Officials said the timeline moved because of the month-long adjudication. The city expects the pool building to be fully demolished by the end of the summer after crews complete a few weeks of fence installation and then an asbestos- and hazmat-removal phase. The mayor said crews will remove hazardous materials first to limit potential asbestos contamination and reduce disposal costs, then perform a one- to one-and-a-half-day full building demolition; the outdoor pool may close for a day while debris is hauled off and then reopen.
Several architectural and historical items will be removed and preserved before demolition, the mayor said: the copper cupolas (two large and two smaller), the front entry counter, the Greenwood Memorial Pool sign, and bronze plaques and recognition markers (which have been stored in city safes for about a year). The mayor also said repairs to the outdoor pool building — a new roof and siding paid with leftover school project funds — are complete, and work remains to clear one clogged pipe at the spray park and to check its pump so the spray park can open this season.
The city referenced Chapter 30B (Massachusetts General Laws) in describing the procurement and bid protest process. Residents were advised to expect construction fencing to appear and to watch the city's announcements for any temporary pool closures or schedule changes.
