Contract awarded for Memorial Stadium storage building

Sep 20, 2021

School Committee members last week awarded a $1,675,000 contract to JJ Cardosi of Riverside, R.I. to construct the storage building at Memorial Stadium, part of the ongoing process to upgrade the facility.

The figure is “a little bit higher than we anticipated,’’ committee member Chris Oliver said at the Sept. 13 meeting. 

But, he said, the cost of materials “has been elevated across the board’’ in the current economic climate.

Committee member John Nunes noted that the top bids differed by about $119,000, which he said shows everyone “saw the same thing’’ and submitted proposals that were “in the ballpark.’’

The high price reflects in part “the different rules we have to follow’’ as a local government in constructing buildings, Committee Chair Dr. Shannon Jenkins said. 

“It’s different than the storage shed you put up in your backyard — that’s why it’s going to cost more.’’

Work on the building could start in about a month, Jim Kiely, assistant superintendent of finance and operations, said. 

The site is located “a little ways from the field,” he said, and can be “fairly easily contained with construction fencing’’ without impacting activity on the field, he said. 

The recent return of fans to the stadium for football at Memorial Stadium “put the microscope on the rest of the project,’’ Kiely said.

The storage building is part of the $3.6 million second phase of work at the stadium that was approved at Fall Town Meeting in October 2019 that will also see upgrades to the stands, kitchen, bathrooms, and concessions.

A new parking lot will also be built behind the stadium.

The district is “moving forward’’ with the remainder of this phase, Kiely  said.

The first phase of the project cost $1.7 million and included new lighting, a new scoreboard and new artificial turf. That work has been completed. 

The previous storage area was located in the bathroom building, Kiely said. 

That facility needs to be greatly expanded, he said, which created the need for a separate storage location.