Pool Decking Repairs Still Not in Project Budget

While improvements at Mills Pond Pool are set to move forward, Canton officials are still grappling with a lack of funding for decking repairs. 

Last fall, the town approved $400,000 in improvements at the facility with the intention of installing updated, reliable and safer mechanicals, housing them in a new aboveground structure, replacing the pool decking and doing some work on the pool shell. 

The town sent the project out to bid but the estimates were higher than the budgeted amount. The second round of bidding involved a scaled back project but the low bid from Construction Services of New England still left the town short of the approximate $91,000 for new decking. 

At a previous meeting, officials investigated whether they could save money by asking CSNE to subcontract the structure that will house the mechanicals to another company that had projected a lower cost for that portion of the project. 

However, due to several logistical problems, the complexities of how it all ties together and other factors, that was not a viable option, Chief Administrative Officer Robert Skinner said Wednesday. 

Wednesday night selectmen reiterated their hesitancy to ask the Board of Finance for additional funding. 

However, officials have not given up on getting some work to the decking. A "rough estimate" for repairing and patching the hazardous, uneven areas is $15,000 to $20,000. 

While the contingency (reserve funding) of $11,654 for the project is somewhat low, the hope is that it would be untapped and could be combined with $4,223 in the Mills Pond Capital Improvement Fund and perhaps some cost-saving measures, such as "value engineering," Skinner said. That scenario could leave the town with enough to at least address the unevenness of the decking. 

As currently approved the project is set to cover:
Professional Services - $35,246
Base bid (mechanicals and structure) - $345,000 
Alternate for overhang and enclosure of portable toilets - $8,100
Contingency - $11,654

Work is set to begin this fall/winter. It would likely be Spring when the project is done and the town knows if it would have enough left over for any decking work, Skinner said,