Management of Little Harbor Country Club down to two candidates

Advisory committee recommends Buzzards Bay Coalition as conservation restriction holder
Apr 10, 2022

The search for who will manage Little Harbor Country Club has been narrowed down to two candidate companies: Northeast Golf Company and Sterling Golf Management Inc.

The Golf Course Advisory Committee met Saturday afternoon at the Little Harbor pro shop. Members discussed the future of the course, from management company candidates to proposed holders of the course’s conservation restriction.

The town issued a request-for-proposals — a document detailing the town’s requirements and constraints for the course’s management — in March. An RFP solicits bids from companies interested in signing a final contract with the town.

Chair Jim Giberti said Northeast and Sterling were the two companies that submitted their proposals by the town’s April 7 deadline.

Northeast Golf Company runs two golf courses, Kings Crossing Golf Club in Rhode Island and The Orchards Golf Club in Connecticut. Sterling Golf Management runs eight Boston-area courses.

Although candidates are vying for the right to run the course, questions remain about who will hold a conservation restriction on the property and how that organization should be determined.

Town residents voted in favor of the town purchasing the golf course and placing a conservation restriction on it during February’s Special Town Meeting.

When the town negotiates a conservation restriction agreement with another organization, the third party will be charged with ensuring the land is conserved for open space and approved land use in perpetuity.

Though the Select Board had previously published a request-for-proposals for an entity to hold the conservation restriction, the board rescinded the RFP in a brief meeting on Friday.

Town Administrator Derek Sullivan said during the meeting that he’d heard from two organizations that shared some concerns over the town’s memorandum of understanding, a document describing the RFP, for the conservation restriction.

“As far as the MOUs and conservation restrictions, there’s no procurement on those, there’s no established format,” Sullivan said. “So I was hearing back that there was obviously some concern that this was such a different process.”

As far as Sullivan could find, he said, an RFP is not normally released for conservation restrictions.

After a short discussion, the board voted to rescind the RFP.

At Saturday’s advisory committee meeting, members talked about possible entities that they could contact regarding the conservation restriction.

The committee voted to recommend that the Buzzards Bay Coalition hold the conservation restriction, after a discussion over the coalition’s history of maintaining properties elsewhere.

“Everything I’ve seen them do has been impressive,” member Tom Hannon said. “To me, they just seem like the logical choice.”

The committee said the coalition initially backed off from Little Harbor because of the town’s decision to use an RFP, but now that’s been eliminated, opening the door for an agreement in the future.