Portsmouth Puts Melville Campground out to Bid

“Are you interested in running your own business? Do you like the outdoors?”

That’s the sales pitch from the town of Portsmouth, which is putting the operations of Melville Campground out to bid.

Following a debate about the future of Melville Campground, which has been losing money over the past few years, the town has released a request for proposals that looks to find someone to take over 123-site campground within the town-owned Melville Recreation Area and make the perennial money-loser into a moneymaker again.

The bids will be opened on Oct. 3 at 3 p.m. in the office of the town’s finance department at 2200 East Main Road.

The RFP seeks someone to maintain the campground, ”provide continued public access, resource protection and use of campgrounds, trails and recreation facilities to the maximum extent possible.”

The town is hoping to turn the roughly $200,000 expense to run the campground each year into a revenue source and the RFP clearly states that the proposed payment to the town would be ranked highest above all other categories.

The decision to put the campground’s operations out to bid came during budget planning in May after Town Manager John C. Klimm said the “system is broken and it needs to be fixed.”

There was a time that the property actually generated revenue for the town, providing it with money to fund recreational programs and activities for children.

Operations used to be put out to bid, but “it hasn’t been put out to bid for years and years,” Klimm said. “Best practices would suggest that not going out to bid is not a healthy situation.”

The current operators of the campground resisted the change, saying there were structural issues with the campground’s operations and they weren’t given the tools to fix them.

“We are overcharging our campers,” said Bill Bryant, a manager, in comments to the Town Council.

Bryant said he’s come to the table with requests that could have generated positive change but was constantly rebuffed.

“We get constantly turned down,” he said.

The current managers are welcome to submit a bid to the new RFP, but they’d have to put up substantial up-front money.

The bid will require a successful proposer “at a minimum,” pay the full annual rent paid up in advance, the ability to stock and sell merchandise for campground visitors, offer an operations plan, provide a $50,000 performance bond and obtain a $5 million commercial liability insurance.

The full RFP can be accessed here.

Melville Campground is currently open from April 1 to Nov. 1. It has 123 sites. Thirty-two have water, electric and sewer hookups.

Along with the camp sites, the campground has an office, store, pavilion and a small residence for a manager.

Along with an annual fee, the town is seeking a portion of revenues.