Selectmen Renew Beach Food Contract, Approve Garage Funds
WESTBROOK - In a vote supporting the town's new beach concessionaire, Hog Wild, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) extended the firm's contract for two years. John Annello of Hog Wild will pay the town $1,500 for the right to sell food and drinks to Town Beach visitors during the 2013 summer season and $2,000 during the 2014 season.
"Our assessment and that of the Parks & Recreation Department that's [at the beach] every day is that we're pleased with Hog Wild's performance; also, utilization [of the stand's food services] was high," said First Selectman Noel Bishop. "We've received no complaints."
After many years with the same beach concessionaire, the board in 2011 went out to bid for Town Beach concessionaires. Hog Wild was the successful bidder.
In other action, the BOS also approved the Town Garage Building Committee's special appropriation request of $280,000.
Building Committee Chairman Tony Marino told the selectmen, in requesting the funds, that the appropriation will allow them to accept the lowest of 18 bids submitted to construct the new town garage. The low bid of $1.44 million was submitted by Diggs Construction of Hartford. The town's architectural and engineering firm, Weston & Sampson, has confirmed after review that the bid submitted was a qualified bid.
Currently $1.2 million remains unspent of the $1.5 million state grant the Town of Westbrook received to offset costs to relocate the town's public works facility from the Norris Avenue site to the new Route 145 site. Funds already spent from the state grant have paid for the architectural and engineering services of Weston and Sampson and for mandated site clean-up. The extra town funds, if approved by the Board of Finance and subsequently by town meeting, will support completion of the public works project.
Other board action included a decision to hire Gene Cieri to prepare the town's application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for reimbursement of municipal Storm Sandy expenses and approval of funds to buy a generator for the public library.
This will be the second time that the town has hired Cieri for this work. In 2011, the town hired him to prepare documentation for the town's FEMA application for reimbursement of municipal costs of Tropical Storm Irene. For Storm Sandy related expenses of sand and debris removal, the town will likely ask for about $200,000 in federal payments.
By comparison, the town just recently received a FEMA check of $271,000 reimbursing it for storm-related municipal expenses associated with response to Tropical Storm Irene.
The decision to support purchase of a generator for the town's library was, according to Bishop, to ensure that all major town facilities can remain open even during power failures in major storms.
At the same BOS meeting, the board approved the tax sale of a parcel to Brewers Pilots Point Marina for $5,000. The town had to foreclose and sell this parcel located at Boston Post Road (Map-Block-Lot 1-S23) for delinquent taxes.