Committee to draft RFQ for survey and wetlands work; aims to issue within a month

The committee agreed the first procurement priority is site engineering: surveys, wetlands delineation and soils borings. Christian Smith said a full boundary/topographic survey with wetland flags would likely cost in the neighborhood of $15,000, and he recommended issuing RFQs for survey firms and wetlands scientists so the committee can get boots on the ground quickly.

Committee members confirmed the town has $50,000 available for engineering to carry the project through conceptual design to town meeting. "So we have $50,000 that we're approved for for engineering, for all the basics to get us through conceptual design, to get us to town meeting," a committee member said. Members set a near‑term target to circulate RFQ/RFP examples and agreed to aim to have draft RFQ language ready within a month and to meet again on May 21 to review drafts.

The committee debated whether to use a design‑build approach or to procure the survey and engineering work separately first; most members favored doing the survey and wetlands work before committing to a design‑build contract so the town would have firm site data to inform any subsequent architectural or design selection.