Three strikes and you're out!

Does anyone else get the impression the rookie Town Manager is going overboard to keep our famished White Elephant under town control?

Town Meeting “strongly urges” the Select Board to put out an RFP for Cherry Hill by “no later than August, 2006.” The town manager finally gets around to it on March 1’st, 2007; and according to state bidding law the offer requires a minimum of two weeks public notice.

In 2004 when the previous town manager put Cherry Hill out to bid he did so with two months notice.

One little ad in the legal section of the Daily Hampshire Gazette (exactly two weeks from response deadline) and placement on the town web page is hardly maximum exposure.

Plus the first RFP was written requiring a bidder to show up at the Clubhouse for a conference a week before bid deadline, otherwise you couldn’t bid. Thus the two-week notice was really only one-week notice.

So I called him on it (strike one) and Mr. Shaffer reissues a second RFP. Niblick Management responds with a $5,000 offer plus an additional $25,000 to $30,000 annual Payment In Lieu of Taxes.

The town manger instantly rejects it because, although he approved the RFP documents, somehow he forgot that the property tax payment was included and reported to the Select board only the $5,000.

Then when I call him on that (strike two) he “reconsiders” the deal; but then rejects it because Niblick, not surprisingly, wants a three-year deal.

Strike three!