RFEI.pdf

TOWN OF PORT DEPOSIT, MARYLAND

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

Maritime Heritage Preservation Planning and Interpretation

Issued: October 8, 2026; Due October 23, 2026 by 4:00 PM

1. Summary of Opportunity The Town of Port Deposit regularly receives or seeks resources for historic preservation and as described below and thus seeks a continuing, long-term relationship with a firm or team that can assist the Town on a variety of related-projects. The Town has been invited to apply for funding through the National Maritime Heritage Grant Program administered in Maryland by the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT), with a very brief application window anticipated in late October 2026. The Town is moving quickly to identify a qualified project partner that can undertake the work if funding is awarded. The Town will prepare and submit the grant application; grant-writing assistance is not part of this request.

The Town invites expressions of interest from cultural resources consultants, preservation professionals, historians, archaeologists, academic institutions, and others to help develop a maritime heritage preservation and interpretation project centered on the Port Deposit waterfront.

The grant requires a meaningful historic preservation planning component; the assignment cannot consist solely of designing signs or exhibits. The Town wants to create the foundation for future interpretation through research, documentation, archaeology, oral history, mapping, archival work, or other preservation activities.

As described below, this RFEI may be the basis of a contract for up to three years with two two-year options for renewal by the Town.

The central questions: What would your approach be for preservation planning that leads to the design - but not yet fabrication - of interpretive displays along the Port Deposit waterfront? What maritime heritage themes are of particular interest?

How would you approach the project so that it is scalable as implementation resources permit?

Wayne Tome, Jr.

Mayor

Vicky Rinkerman Town Administrator

Patti Gray Treasurer

Town of Port Deposit 64 S. Main Street Port Deposit, MD 21903 410.378.2121 www.portdeposit.org

2. Port Deposit and the Opportunity Port Deposit occupies an extraordinary setting along the lower Susquehanna River at the head of the Chesapeake Bay. Transportation, commerce, military, industry, fishing, recreation, flooding, adaptation, and community life have all been shaped by the river. The Town is advancing an approximately $9 million redevelopment of Marina Park, creating an opportunity to interpret that history as part of a new generation of public waterfront access.

The Town does not have a predetermined storyline. Potential themes previously identified include, but are not limited to:

• Port Deposit as a Susquehanna and Chesapeake working waterfront: navigation, commerce, canals, lumber and rafting, fishing, boating, and rail-water connections;

• granite and quarrying, including the movement of Port Deposit stone throughout the region, together with surviving wharves, docks, pilings, bulkheads, and industrial or archaeological resources;

• flooding, ice, erosion, changing river conditions, and the community's repeated adaptation to the waterfront environment;

• Wiley Manufacturing and Port Deposit's role in fabricating and launching the 32 immersed-tube sections used to construct Baltimore's Fort McHenry Tunnel, as well as the waterfront's relationship to the Bainbridge Naval Training Center; and

• Port Deposit's transition from an industrial waterfront toward public access, recreation, environmental stewardship, heritage, and tourism.

• Respondents are encouraged to challenge, reorganize, expand, or narrow these ideas. The Town wants a consultant who can identify what is historically significant, what can be supported by evidence, and what will make visitors stop, explore, and remember Port Deposit.

3. Initial Task: What Could an $80,000 Project Accomplish?

The Town deliberately has not established a fixed scope for this first take. An effective approach might combine archival and primary-source research; historic resource or cultural landscape documentation; mapping of waterfront resources; targeted archaeological assessment; oral histories; historic photographs and cartography;

development of an interpretive framework; identification of primary stories and audiences;

and conceptual or final design of exhibits, panels, digital interpretation, or other installations.

The work should lead to implementable interpretive designs, but fabrication and installation are not anticipated within the approximately $80,000 assignment. The Town strongly prefers an approach that also leaves behind lasting preservation value - such as a research archive, resource inventory, archaeological understanding, historic context, mapped database, preservation priorities, or interpretive framework that can guide future initiatives.

4. Expression of Interest Responses should not exceed five (5) pages, exclusive of brief resumes or project examples. Elaborate marketing packages are neither necessary nor desired. There is no specific format to be used.

Please address:

• Firm, Team, or Principal Professional(s). Identify the relevant historian, researcher, preservationist, archaeologist, or interpretive professional who would personally lead the assignment, including qualifications and anticipated role.

• Relevant Experience. Identify comparable projects performed by team members, especially work connecting preservation research with public interpretation, waterfront or maritime history, cultural landscapes, archaeology, or community heritage; and/or precedent work of the same kind that could be used as a model for Port Deposit

• Approach. How would you use an initial investment of approximately $80,000 to produce meaningful preservation planning that leads to compelling, implementable interpretation at Marina Park? Identify major work elements, priorities, and intended end products.

• Availability and Schedule. Availability to begin following award in late November and ability to complete the initial assignment by December 1, 2026.

5. Evaluation Criteria The Town will use the following criterion to evaluate proposals.

Criterion Weight Evaluation Emphasis

Proposed Approach 30% Quality, practicality, creativity, and connection between preservation planning and future interpretation.

Team 25% Relevant qualifications, expertise, and expected personal involvement of the project lead.

Relevant Experience 25% Demonstrated success on comparable preservation, maritime, archaeology, research, or interpretive work.

Understanding & Creativity 20%

Understanding of Port Deposit's opportunity and ability to identify compelling stories, resources, and long-term possibilities.

6. Potential Long-Term Relationship Port Deposit views this project as potentially the beginning rather than the end of a relationship. The Town has significant historic, archaeological, industrial, maritime, architectural, and cultural resources and expects to pursue additional preservation planning, research, interpretation, grants, and implementation activities. Through this RFEI, the Town hopes to identify a long-term cultural resources partner who can bring scholarly rigor, practical judgment, and creativity to that work.

This RFEI is intended to fulfill the Qualifications Based Selection process requirements of 2 CFR § 200.320(b)(2)(iv). This RFEI may be considered in identifying a consultant for the Maritime Heritage project and/or future cultural resources assignments, subject to applicable grant and procurement requirements.

7. Submittal requirements; deadline Submit expressions of interest electronically in PDF format no later than October 24, 2026 at 5:00 PM to Jamie Kendrick, Woodvalley Community Strategies, at jamie@woodvalleystrategies.com. Given the short timeline, respondents should focus on the people, ideas, experience, and approach they would bring to Port Deposit rather than an elaborate marketing package.

8. Administrative Matters

• This RFEI does not obligate the Town to enter into a contract. If a contract is awarded, the Town intends a three-year contract with two optional two-year renewals.

• The detailed scope and fee for all tasks issued under the contract shall be negotiated in accordance with the requirements of a grant or funding agency.

• Interested parties are advised that federal funds may be used for some or all tasks under this contract. All applicable local, state, and federal laws shall govern on a task-by-task basis.

• Please provide evidence of insurance with your proposal with the Town as a named insured.

9. Questions Please contact Mr. Jamie Kendrick, Principal, Woodvalley Community Strategies at 410- 948-9444 or jamie@woodvalleystrategies.com with questions. The Town will not issue formal addenda but will make best efforts to notify interested parties when matters are generally applicable.

mailto:jamie@woodvalleystrategies.com