The Permanent Public Building Committee on July 21 began its selection process for on-call cost-estimating services after opening eight responses to the request for qualifications (RFQ). Committee staff said submissions arrived from a mix of regional and national firms; the review subcommittee (Merrill, Lynn, Barry and a staff lead) will score the proposals and present ranked recommendations at the committee's next meeting.

Catherine (PBBC staff) told members the eight submissions were opened that afternoon and included firms with local offices and several from other states; she listed example firms in the meeting including CHA, HDR, NV5 and others. The RFQ allows for remote work with some in-person meetings if required. Committee members agreed to form a four-person review panel to evaluate materials using a scoring sheet based on RFQ criteria; the subcommittee will score, interview if needed, and recommend one or two firms to the full committee at the next PBBC meeting. The selected contract(s) would be available to other town departments over a three-year term and would be used first for the library project.

Staff said they will distribute the full submission materials and a preliminary scoring template to committee members after the meeting. The review subcommittee will meet in the days ahead to complete evaluations so the PBBC can request interviews or make a selection on Aug. 4 (the committee's next regular meeting). Committee members asked for firms with strong benchmarking experience and cautioned against selecting a firm that could prioritize narrow cost approaches over broad, locally calibrated estimates.