DENNIS – The Town of Dennis will have to wait at least another year before building a new bathhouse at Mayflower Beach.
Officials had intended to go through with the project this winter, but after two bids for the venture came in well above the $1 million approved budget, selectmen have decided instead on a stopgap measure to rebuild the existing bathhouse’s septic system.
Dennis officials plan to put the bathhouse project out for rebidding at a later date.
Earlier this year, Dennis received three bids for the undertaking, two came in at about 1.6 million dollars, a third came in at just over 1 million but was later withdrawn.
“We were anticipating the project being bid and bids coming in at around 1,042,000 dollars. That was the project, that was the project budget,” said Brian Hume, the town’s contracted architect on the project.
“When bids were open we felt pretty positive and confident that we can get this project instructed as we are planted mad but you did.”
Work on the existing septic is expected to rectify many of the issues the public has with the current facility, including continued bathroom flooding. That project is expected to cost taxpayers 150 thousand dollars.
Hume indicated that factors driving the steep anticipated costs could include the difficulties associated with winter construction, a busy construction market, and the fact that the town submitted this bid together with a project at the Dennis Highlands Golf Course.
“Throughout not just the Cape but throughout Massachusetts contractors right now are very busy and they’re being very selective about which projects they’re actually going after,” said Hume, “We found that there was limited contractor interest in this project. We saw that with only 3 bidders, that was a low number compared with other projects we have out to bid.”
By DAVID BEATTY, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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