Parks staff: single $5 million bid forces Taneytown to defer Memorial Park expansion

Taneytown parks staff told the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board on July 15 that a single construction bid of roughly $5,000,000 for the long-planned Memorial Park expansion came in far above the project’s budget, prompting the board to defer awarding the contract and explore other funding options.

“The numbers that came back were just much higher than anticipated,” said Staff member, the parks staff representative at the meeting. She told board members that rebidding without reengineering the project would likely return similar proposals and that, because the principal federal grant is reimbursed after work is complete, the city lacks the capital to front the project.

Staff described a federal Land and Water Conservation Fund grant administered via the Department of the Interior/National Park Service and said the state DNR offered to increase the grant match to 50% to protect the existing award. Even so, the staff representative said the city would need to carry up-front costs and then wait for reimbursement, creating a substantial cash-flow and financing burden.

Nick Kalanock, the board’s liaison council member, told the meeting he plans to ask the council for permission to seek county support and to contact the city’s federal representative about possible earmarks. “If there was $1.07 million it would have been no problem,” Kalanock said; he added that financing the roughly $6 million total (including the building) would produce debt-service costs in the hundreds of thousands annually and make large cuts elsewhere unavoidable.

Board discussion cited construction-cost drivers such as tariffs and petroleum-price increases for asphalt. Staff gave one line-item example: the bid included approximately $1,155,000 for field lighting. Board members discussed reengineering components of the plan but cautioned that removing items could force grant modifications and additional approvals.

The board voted to defer a decision on the bid award and the project’s status until its August 5 and August 10 meetings to allow staff and council members to pursue additional nongrant funding sources and to return with options. If funding cannot be found, staff said the project would be shifted on the capital improvement program and organizations using the fields should anticipate continuing with current facilities; staff also suggested the city could consider giving registration priority to local residents if capacity constraints persist.

What happens next: the board will pursue county and federal avenues for funding, and staff will present updated options at the August meetings. The advisory board emphasized it will avoid committing to debt levels that would unduly cut other essential services.