Lippman Park engineering approved

The Town Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved engineering for designing the road into the Donnabeth Lippman Park as well as a parking area.

The 123-acre Lippman Park is located adjacent to the Sherwin Williams store in North Windham. It surrounds Chaffin Pond.

Portland-based engineering firm Milone & MacBroom, which has done design work for Bowdoin College, the town of Gorham and Sappi Fine Paper in Westbrook, was hired at a cost of $17,500, about $5,000 less than was budgeted by the town. The town’s recreation fund will pay for the engineering.

Dundee Park bathhouse approved

With the Town Council’s unanimous approval Tuesday night, work is set to get under way on a new bathhouse at the town-owned Dundee Park next week.

The seasonal park, which provides residents beach access, is located off River Road along the Presumpscot River in Windham.

The 16-by-16-foot addition to the park’s bathhouse will be constructed by Medway-based McLaughlin Builders at a cost of $55,800. McLaughlin will re-roof the existing bathhouse as well as the addition. A concrete handicap-accessible ramp measuring 75 feet by 4 feet will also be built as part of the project.

A total of 10 bids ranging from $43,000 to $101,000 were received for the project. The low bid incorporated a wooden ramp. The ramp allows the facility to meet requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

RKO gets audit nod

The Town Council voted 6-1 to continue contracting with Runyon Kersteen Ouellette (RKO) of South Portland for municipal auditing services for the next three years.

The town has contracted with RKO for several decades. At the request of residents concerned about lack of transparency, the Town Council promised last year to put the auditing work out to bid.

The town received three bids on the work, and decided to continue with RKO, citing worries about the other two bidders. The low bidder had many clients and the town’s finance director, Brian Wolcott, said he had “a big concern” that the firm was overworked and wouldn’t provide accurate accounting in a timely manner. The third firm posted a bid twice the amount of RKO.

In their comments, councilors acknowledged residents’ past concerns regarding having the same auditing firm year after year. A different partner at the firm will be in charge of coming audits, Chairman Matt Noel said, in an effort to provide a different set of eyes to review the town’s finances.

An unexpected benefit of the recent bid process was to reduce costs, Noel added.

“RKO for various reasons provided me the confidence that the town will continue to get excellent service and I think [due to] the bid process, the costs are lower than what RKO was charging us last year … so the costs will actually come down,” Noel said.

Councilor Dennis Welch voted against RKO’s continued service saying, “We’ve had RKO for many years, and what we should do is get another firm in here. They’re all, I’m sure, qualified to audit the municipality’s books.”

Vice Chairman Kevin Call said there wasn’t a “large pool” of firms to choose from in Maine “and to be honest with you, the finance committee felt much more comfortable with our existing firm just changing up the actual partner that does the audit,” Call said. “So, I understand your concern. I think everybody else had similar concerns, but that’s why we went through this process to do the interview and review their bid.”