Southampton Town Rejects Bids For Good Ground Park Phase One

The Southampton Town Board voted to reject all bids for the first phase of the Good Ground Park project on Tuesday, saying the costs were more than double what was anticipated, a temporary setback for a highly anticipated undertaking in Hampton Bays.

According to Deputy Supervisor Frank Zappone, the town will work to clarify several portions of the bidding notice before resubmitting it at the next Town Board meeting on August 25, which would push the projected start date from mid-September to mid-October, he said. The project could be awarded to a company in mid-September.

“It really doesn’t mean much of anything except that we will rebid the project,” Mr. Zappone said of the town’s rejection of the four bids submitted the first time around. “When we looked at the bid documents, we saw that perhaps some of the bids were higher than expected because the document was not as precise as we would have liked.”

Plans to revitalize downtown Hampton Bays have been in the works for years, and are meant to culminate in expanding Good Ground Park. The estimated $4 million project will be centered on an amphitheater and several playgrounds and trails in the 36-acre park.

Phase one of the project will include installing utilities, building the amphitheater and playgrounds, and putting in a road to allow access to the park and parking, plus paving, landscaping and signs. Eventually, a new boulevard, providing a setting for stores and 150 new parking spaces, also will be added to connect Main Street to the stretch of new businesses and park.

The project will be partially funded with a $943,000 grant from the State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the Empire State Development Office. A $1.9 million bond was authorized in December for the first phase of construction, and the grant money will be used to pay down the bond.

According to Mr. Zappone, none of the submitted bids met the Town Board specifications. He said that the lower bids—while still over budget—failed to include portions of the proposal and were incomplete.

“The worst-case scenario might mean a month or so of delay in awarding the contract,” he said. “But I don’t think this will have any significant impact on the proposed timeline.”