Tom Franks, executive director of Building A Better Brattleboro, sent out a brief press release on September 1 to inform the community that the organization has received five proposals in response to their Request For Proposal. But for reasons that Franks said he would not comment on, the executive committee of BABB has decided to keep the names and project summaries of all five applicants private.
Franks said that the privacy terms were laid out in the RFP and indeed, they are:
"Proposals will be reviewed in confidence by BaBB’s Executive Committee. Once this review is completed, BaBB will inform the designated contact person(s) of the outcome and determine the degree of confidentiality appropriate going forward."
In answer to questions about when information about the various proposals would be made public, Franks was noncommittal. Nor is it clear from the RFP what information, if any, will come out and whether it will be before or after a decision is made on the winning proposal.
According to the press release, BABB's executive committee is seeking more information from applicants and will be meeting next week to finalize questions for each. They intend to forward the questions to the mystery applicants later in the week.
Although Franks said there is no timetable for the selection process now underway, it appears that it will be at least a few weeks before a decision is made on who will be the future owners of the River Garden.