NEW: Ding, dong, the beach bids are in

Dog Pound's 11 year run looks like it's over

Town Treasurer Anderson reviews and tallies the bids

By Will Collette

At one minute past 3 PM, Town Treasurer Patricia Anderson opened the sealed bids from contractors bidding to become the concessionaire for Charlestown's two town beaches.

Since September, I have written about this topic extensively, detailing the problems the town has had with 11-year contract holder, the Dog Pound, the hot dog wagon owned by Deborah Dellolio, long-time household mate and business associate of Council member Lisa DiBello.

After a summer of trouble, the town notified Dellolio that the town would not exercise its option to renew the Dog Pound contract for a second year and would instead conduct a round of new bidding.

Today was the day for the decision.

No joy in the Dog Pound

Dellolio's Dog Pound submitted a bid, despite the town's documented problems with the Dog Pound's performance last summer. The bid was $4,501 for Charlestown Town Beach only.

N.E. Frozen Lemonade, which lost to the Dog Pound in 2005 under peculiar circumstances, bid $3800.

Johnny Angels, who lost to the Dog Pound last year by $1, bid $4504 each for both Charlestown Town Beach and Blue Shutters Beach.

Since this bid represents the amount the vendor offers to pay the town, it is the HIGH bid that should win.

By that principle, Johnny Angels is the apparent HIGH bidder and should be awarded the beach concession contract for 2012, with the town option to extend an additional year on the same terms.

In my opinion, the audacity of Dellolio filing a bid - given the past problems she's had with the town as well as the obvious conflict of interest related to Lisa DiBello - underscores the need for Charlestown to adopt a Responsible Contracting policy that pre-screens and weeds out bad contractors before they submit a bid.