LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen on July 2 approved obtaining quotes to resurface the basketball court.

“This is one of those items that was mentioned throughout my tenure so far,” Town Manager Carrie Castonguay said. “It is something that was approved at a prior town meeting and unfortunately, nothing became of it. I need a directive from you folks, what you want me to do.”

It was approved at the June town meeting in 2019, five years ago, Selectman Jim Long noted. “They had projected that the cost to resurface the basketball court would be $11,000 or $15,000, something like that,” he said.

Chair William Kenniston asked how old the quote was.

“I think that was like a year ago,” Long replied. “We had updated it.” There was $24,000, they hoped five years ago to do the tennis and basketball courts, he said.

“The original warrant article was passed by the town, the Select Board back then, but never acted on since then,” Long stated. “I think we should do it. The basketball courts are there, there are some rather big cracks in them still. It would look a lot better if we resurface them and it was authorized by the town five years ago in the general election at town meeting.”

Kenniston asked who would do the work.

“We had investigated two different firms,” Long replied. “Carrie has the information. There was one that was local with two offices, one in Maine or Massachusetts, and another with an office in Rhode Island, I think. The local one had a lot of good references in the state with colleges and towns in terms of resurfacing and cleaning up basketball courts and tennis courts and they had a good price for it. I would suggest that we direct the town manager to proceed with it and contact them first.

“They have been checked out once before, they seem to be reputable with a good price. My goal is to have it done,” Long added.

“I think the town authorized the money,” Kenniston said. “We got stalled with trying to get the tennis courts done, is why we didn’t move forward with it. At least get one of them done.”

Long said the money is in two separate bank accounts. His understanding is the firm would make the court look almost brand new. “We have been putting band aids on it for the last year ourselves,” he noted.

“I see way more people heading towards the recreation field with basketballs than I ever do with tennis racquets,” Selectman Bruce Peary said.

The board unanimously directed Castonguay to obtain quotes.

She asked for clarification about the $10,000 limit in the procurement policy. “I want to make sure you guys are OK with me soliciting quotes from vendors instead of putting it out for public bid,” she said. “The procurement policy says if it is a specialized thing where there are only so many vendors you can solicit quotes from them. It is not like a construction project or something like that where there are multiple people that could do it.”

“We had investigated with the Public Works Department, if they could do it themselves,” Long said. “They told us it wasn’t something they could do.”