SALISBURY — At the Salisbury City Council meeting on April 2, Salisbury and Rufty-Holmes Senior Center chose to pursue a contract agreement with CPL Architects and Engineers, P.C. totaling $197,373 for the Salisbury Civic Center improvement project’s master plan. An extra $28,000 may be incorporated into the deal that will go towards possible alternates. 

Public Works Director Chris Tester said the improvement project to the facility located on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue would offer residents “regardless of age” recreation, outdoor aquatics, a senior center and park amenities. 

In August 2023, the city sent out a request for qualifications for the site master plan and feasibility study. Salisbury got back 14 submissions and two firms were chosen; CPL is working on the whole project and Lifespan will be focusing on the senior center. 

The scope of services include community engagement, programming and conceptual design, programming and conceptual design for the senior center, opinion of probable cost/project budget, operations and revenue analysis, along with final preparation and presentation. 

The two alternates listed in the scope of service were facility audits, which involves taking into account the “current conditions” of the property, as well as 3D visualization/renderings. 

The scheduling for the scope of services will have community engagement lasting 144 days, programming and master planning 72 days, opinion of probable cost 20 days, and final preparation and presentation 21 days. A final presentation to the city council is expected to take place in early November. The project will commence later this month and final documents are to be delivered in December. 

Also during the meeting, City Manager Jim Greene entered into a memorandum of understanding with Rufty-Holmes where the senior center will be repaying the city 50 percent of the contract amount. 

“This could be a very significant investment for our community. We have very few cultural spaces where we have generations coming together and so I’m really excited about the prospect of having this in our community,” Council Member Anthony Smith said.