At the October 3rd Board of Selectmen meeting, the Community Center Building Project’s Owner’s Project Manager (OPM) presented its responses to the BOS’s requests first raised at a joint BOS/Building Committee meeting on August 25th, a summary of which can be found here. The OPM’s presentation can be found here.

The presentation covered the following:

1) The steps and timeline to rebid the project approved at the June 2021 Special Town Meeting. The estimate is 5 months. If the rebid begins in November, the information required to present at a STM would be available March 2023.

2) The steps and timeline required to develop design options for Town Meeting consideration that would meet program requirements and the approved budget of approximately $19 million. Two options were presented:

a. Option 2 – a full redesign estimated to take approx. 12 months. The 12 months would allow for the community to undertake a full redesign effort which include community input and stakeholder engagement.

b. Option 3 – an expedited redesign that would take approximately 5 months. The expedited redesign would allow for a condensed schedule that would allow construction to begin sooner, should this be the option chosen. The modified redesign would utilize the current building program, minus the Recreational Court, Community Room, Kitchen and Café in order to expedite the redesign process.

3) A comparison of costs between our facility and a similar Community Center facility approved by residents in Pembroke MA at a lower cost per square foot.

Their findings in summary:
Cost differential
$2.240 million (Pembroke materials less expensive)
$ 1.600 million (Dover fire protection more expensive)

The BOS members then discussed the presentation with the OPM, the architect and members of the Building Committee. Key areas of discussion focused on the following:

Board members agreed that neither Option 2 nor Option 3 met their requests that design options met Town program requirements
Board members agreed that the cost comparison information was well done and quite useful
Board members discussed potential additional options and next steps including a Design Peer Review. This review was projected to take 3-4 weeks and cost $7,500.

Next Steps

The BOS voted to approve the $7,500 for a Design Peer Review to be completed in November.
The BOS also discussed ways to meet its objective of being able to present to a future Town Meeting a Community Center option that would meet Town program requirements and not exceed the current approved budget of approx. $19 million.
The BOS targeted a spring Special Town Meeting to obtain a yes vote from the community on the choices then presented.
You can view the full meeting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgfTsjGgszQ

10.6.22 Meeting Summary

At the October 6th BOS meeting the Board continued to discuss a timeline for the Dover Community Center project. The Board laid out the following timeline:

November 2022 - Conduct and complete a Peer Review of the existing design
December 2022 – Holiday pause
January to May 2023 – Reopen, execute, and complete the rebid process
June 3rd or 10th 2023 – Hold a Special Town Meeting to approve funding, if necessary, for the Dover Community Center
June 17th or 24th 2023 – Conduct a Town election to approve funding, if necessary, for the Dover Community Center.
We will be updating the status regularly on the website, social media and regular news channels. To ensure that you get current information please sign up on the website for regular updates via  this link: https://www.doverma.gov/list.aspx and follow the instructions at the top of the page.  You can also call the BOS Office and provide us with your email address so that we can add you  to this list.

View/download a PDF version of the above update here