JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Ocean Pines resident Frank Brown on Saturday suggests a holding special meeting to again review renovation plans for the association golf and country club. The meeting was scheduled for this Saturday.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Sept. 13, 2018) Plans to renovate the Ocean Pines Golf and Country Club have veered off course again, according to General Manager John Bailey, whose assertion prompted the board of directors to schedule a special meeting this Saturday morning.

During a regular board meeting last Saturday, Bailey said the due date for bids to overhaul the second floor of the building were due one day earlier, but are now extended until early October.

“I had hoped to be able to report to you today a summary of what those bids were,” he said. “However, for the construction world business is booming.”

Bailey said Davis, Bowen and Friedel, the architectural engineering firm handling the process, “heard from bidders … concerns about how the project was presented.”

Those concerns apparently included the construction timeline, the long list of optional items included in the bid request, and a liquidated damages clause that would have charged contractors for failing to meet certain contract stipulations.

Bailey recommended eliminating four optional items from the request for proposals and adding six others.

He also advised replacing existing shingles and flashings, rather than redesigning or replacing the entire roof.

“According to our engineer … that would solve our issues of our leaks,” Bailey said.

The due date for bids is now Oct. 5 and an addendum to the previous request for proposals would be released Sept. 14, according to Bailey. He said the board would have an opportunity to review bids during the next regular meeting, scheduled Oct. 20.

During the public comments portion of the meeting, Frank Brown, a lifetime golf member and builder with four decades of experience, said the reportedly leaky country club roof could not be fixed with new shingles.

He said there some 80 feet of seams in the roofline are responsible for leaks and, if not addressed, the association was just throwing away money already spent on the building. Brown suggested a special meeting on the subject.

Director Ted Moroney on Saturday also called for a special meeting.

“It’s a little more complicated than just a single thing,” Moroney said. “It has really less to do with the RFP and more to do with [the] current business climate.”

The latest set of renovation plans for the country club started in late 2016, when a previous board approved spending about $840,000 over two phases of construction.

A year ago, renovations of the first floor were said to cost about $500,000 and plans for the second are now expected to cost upwards of $1.2 million.

The board on Saturday approved $21,856 for architectural and engineering costs to date and up to $8,000 for additional work “through the RFP decision making process and contract negotiation.”

On Tuesday, the board announced that a special meeting to discuss country club renovation plans was scheduled for 9 a.m. in the Assateague Room of the community center on 235 Ocean Parkway.