Published in the March 23, 2021 edition.

By MARK SARDELLA

WAKEFIELD — By a slim 4-3 vote, the public comment period has been extended to May 21 for those who wish to opine on what form boat rentals on Lake Quannapowitt will take this year.

Several members of the Town Council felt that the 30 days added to the comment period were superfluous and feared that the delay in selecting a vendor until late May could severely limit the town’s options or jeopardize the program entirely.

At their March 8 meeting, the Town Council decided to seek bids for providing the service and simultaneously opened a 30-day “comment” period to allow the public to weigh in on what form boat rentals should take in the future. But now, some councilors feel that the public should have an additional 30 days beyond the initial comment period to weigh in on the specific bids that the town receives. Bids are Due by April 21.

Since about 2009, Boston Outdoor Recreation (aka Boating in Boston) has provided rentals of canoes, kayaks, paddle boards and pedal boats from a location on the Lower Common. They have been allowed to place a shack there and, during the season, a dock and a rack for storing watercraft as well as a picnic table.

There have been complaints, however, that the company has been slow to remove its equipment at the end of the season and has been lax in its care and attention to the public space it occupies. They have operated at the location rent-free. The company was brought in during the economic downturn following 2008 in hopes that attracting more people to use the Lake for recreation would spill over and result in more traffic for downtown businesses. The boating program has proved to be very popular with the public.

It was stressed last night that the question wasn’t whether to have boating, but what form it would take.

The argument for extending the public comment period is rooted in the town’s “Lake Structures Policy” enacted several years ago, which requires a 30-day public comment period for the installation of structures like benches around the Lake. The policy stemmed from what was perceived to be a lack of control over the number and style of benches that were popping up around the Lake.

With boating vendor bid proposals due on April 21, it was suggested that the comment period needed to run to May 21 to comply with the policy.

Town Councilor Jonathan Chines didn’t think that extending the comment period would delay the ability of a vendor to get up and running for the season.

But Councilor Edward Dombroski pointed out that the board doesn’t put other contract proposals out for 30-day public comment periods. He also argued that vendors don’t want to wait until May 25 to be notified that they have been selected to provide a service that’s expected to be up and running by Memorial Day weekend.

“People don’t need to review all the provisions of a contract,” Dombroski said. He said that the public could weigh in now, during the current comment period, on what form that they’d like the program to take.

But Chines insisted that the policy required allowing the public 30-days to weigh in on what specific structures a boating vendor might place on the Common.

Dombroski said that the Town Council should make that determination itself,  based on consensus gathered from the public feedback it’s receiving now.

Councilor Paul DiNocco said that he tended to agree with Dombroski that the comment period currently in effect is sufficient and should not be extended. He said that parameters for any structures should have been part of the RFP.

“People can comment now,” he said.

Councilor Peter May also agreed with Dombroski that the comment period should not be extended, adding that dragging out the process was not fair to the present company.

Town Council chair Ann Santos said that she was torn. She said that while she didn’t think this issue fit the intended purpose the Lake Structure Policy, she felt like there was no way around it. She wondered, since a comment period has already begun, if a shorter extension would suffice.

Dombroski said that he suggested issuing the RFP with the intention of getting this done well-ahead of the boating season. He said that the Town Council was putting itself in a bind and could end up forfeiting the chance have any boating program at all this year.

In the end, councilors Chines, Smith-Galvin, Santos and Mehreen Butt voted to extend the comment period to May 21. Dombroski, DiNocco and May opposed the extension.