OCEAN CITY – Resort officials voted this week to award a $502,000 bid for a playground build at the Downtown Recreation Complex.
On Tuesday, the council voted unanimously to award Commercial Recreation Products LLC the full bid of $502,000 for the Downtown Recreation Complex playground build. Recreation and Parks Director Susan Petito said the company provided the most play value.
“As we reviewed these proposals, or these bids, we had given them our budget figure for this project and asked them to give the most play value that they could for that amount of money, and that’s what they did,” she said. “Commercial Recreation did provide us with what we believe to be the best play value and the biggest bang for our buck for this community.”
Located between 3rd and 4th streets bayside and bounded by Philadelphia and Chicago avenues, the Downtown Recreation Complex is being redeveloped in phases to include various recreation opportunities.
For the east section of the complex, the plan includes an expanded skate park, relocating the existing basketball courts and an improved inclusive playground area. The section to the west would be less developed and more passive. It includes a vast flexible lawn in the center surrounded by trees for pickup sports and other events, a playground area, new restrooms and more. The recreational fishing areas along the bulkhead would also be retained.
As the project moves forward, the town received bids from six vendors for its playground build at the complex, with Commercial Recreation Products being the highest bidder at $502,000. After the council remanded the bids back to staff for review, officials met one-on-one with each company. Procurement Manager Scott Wagner said they were recommending the town select Commercial Recreation Products for the project.
“It was a very hard decision, it really was,” he said.
With no further discussion, the council voted unanimously to award Commercial Recreation Products the full bid for the playground build.
The council this week also voted unanimously to award EZ GO Division of Textron Inc. the full bid for the Eagle’s Landing golf cart lease in the amount of $143,520 a year and $717,600 for five years.
The council also opened five bids for the pay-by-plate solar powered pay stations and remanded them to staff for review. City Manager Terry McGean said the stations will be exceeding their useful life.
“We expect a number of financing alternatives for this, subscription based, pay upfront, etcetera,” he said. “So at this point, I simply ask that you remand the bids to staff for review. We will do an analysis and look to see which is the most cost-effective option, including potentially keeping the existing machines.”
