Duxbury Awarded $3 Million for Seawall Project, DPW Building Faces Redesign
Town officials grapple with budget constraints as they seek to move forward on major infrastructure projects
DUXBURY, MA - September 30 - Duxbury has been awarded a $3 million grant for Phase II of its Seawall Project, providing a boost to the town's coastal resilience efforts. The announcement came during a Selectboard meeting where officials also discussed ongoing challenges with the Department of Public Works building project.
Town Manager René Read informed the board of the grant, expressing gratitude to Candice Martin and Pat Brennan for their efforts in securing the funding.
"I could not adequately express my gratitude to Candice Martin for her efforts on this and also to Pat Brennan for playing a very strong supporting role in the endeavor," Read said.
The grant comes as welcome news for the town, which has been working to improve its coastal infrastructure. However, Read cautioned that the full details of the grant award are not yet known, and there may be conditions attached to the funding.
"These grants are discretionary," Read explained. "The reason that it's been taking so long to deliver them from the state is because they're putting a condition in there, in some cases, that you can have this if you pass the MBTA."
The reference to the MBTA relates to ongoing discussions about zoning changes required by the state's MBTA Communities law.
While the seawall project received a financial boost, the town's DPW building project continues to face challenges. The project, initially approved by voters for $26.4 million, has undergone several revisions due to budget constraints and rising costs.
Read presented a new plan for a 32,600-square-foot building, down from the original 33,700 square feet. This revised plan includes one bid alternate for a canopy and restores some previously cut features.
"We're hopeful that the bids will come back favorable, meaning less than $5 million," Read said, referring to the additional funds needed beyond the original appropriation.
The town plans to go out to bid on the project before the Nov. 18 special town meeting, allowing for concrete numbers to be presented to voters.
"The ads for the project will go live, and the bid documents will be available to contractors on Wednesday, the 9th of October," Read explained. "The filed subbids are going to be due on Nov. 6, and the general contractor bids will be due on Nov. 13."
Selectboard members expressed concerns about the changes to the project and the potential need for additional funding.
"If you're a resident, you went to town meeting that year, and you looked at the plans, and they get up there, and they said, we've got a cushion, things we're going to be able to build. This is what you're appropriating money to build," said board member Amy MacNab. "And then what's happened for a number of reasons is that the money that we spent hasn't been enough to buy us what the town thought that they were buying."
Board member Fernando Guitart emphasized the need for a functional building, saying, "The last thing we're going to do is spend all this money and build a DPW building that doesn't serve its purpose, right? That we've made so many compromises that it operationally becomes very difficult for the DPW team to do their job."
Read defended the changes, highlighting efforts to find cost savings through "value engineering." These include having the town install water service instead of a general contractor and using existing town buildings for temporary office space during construction.
The board agreed to have the project engineers present an update at a future meeting to address questions about the redesign and expenditures to date.