Four suitors for ice arena
Published on August 20th, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - The timetable has been set and the evaluations are underway in choosing a management group for the Stoneham Arena, according to town officials involved in the selection process.
A total of four management proposals for the arena, including a proposal submitted by Stoneham Youth Hockey, were submitted by the Aug. 4 RFP (Request For Proposal) deadline, and the Arena Oversight Committee (AOC) has whittled the choices down to two during subsequent meetings.
RFP's were sought by the Town after a series of fiscal years in which the Stoneham Arena was losing thousands of dollars, according to Town Administrator Dave Berry.
"We've gone through our screening process, and also completed the evaluation and scoring of each proposal," said Arena Oversight Committee Chairman and Finance and Adivsory Board member Eric Rubin of an arena evaluation scoring system previously used in the towns of Burlington and Arlington. "We had our meeting last week, basically narrowed it down to the top two candidates, and the next step would be a face-to-face interview with each of the candidates."
According to Rubin, the rating system will involve giving numerical scores (1-4) to approximately 20 areas, and whether the management's proposal is "highly advantageous", "advantageous", "not advantageous", or "not acceptable."
"The criteria basically related where across the board related to the benefits that the arena would give back to the town," said Rubin. "We want to give back to the residents of the town, and make sure that they have access."
Rubin stated that the AOC hoped to set up a meeting with the top two management firms next week, but couldn't name which companies the AOC favored.
"Once we conduct the interviews, we may have our final recommendation as soon as next week," added Rubin. "We can't release the names of the two finalists because we're still meeting with all four candidates. We'll have the face-to-face meetings, and then we'll narrow down our recommendation from there."
The four contenders
The members of the AOC include Eric Rubin and Peter D'Angelo of the Finance and Advisory Board, Selectman Charlie Smith is the assistant Chair, and Dennis Visconti and James Sarno of the Open Space and Recreation Committee.
"We didn't want to wait...we wanted to move forward for a number of reasons," said Rubin. "We wanted to get someone in there as soon as possible, and someone can start making progress. Whoever goes in there, I'm sure is going to be looking to make some changes as well, so the sooner the better."
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