As state officials consider cutting the Green Line Extension, Somerville is hiring a PR firm to promote the project via placed interviews and op-eds, Reddit Ask Me Anything forums and “memes.”

The city is expecting to pay between $25,000 and $35,000 for the public relations vendor, according to mayoral spokeswoman Denise Taylor.

The city began soliciting bids Feb. 11, a week after MBTA officials told Somerville residents preserving the GLX would require “brutal” cuts to reduce the project’s budget by $1 billion, for a firm to conduct GLX communication services for the city until mid-July. According to the bid document, the firm will provide ongoing project information, community outreach, engagement, public dialogue, and other communication services related to the project.

The city’s Senior Planner Brad Rawson told the Journal in an email that the GLX is “vital” to Somerville’s long-term prospects and he is still confident the state’s recently hired interim GLX team will get the project under budget and within schedule. The communications coordinator is intended to expand the city’s existing public dialogue surrounding the project, he said.

“We want to be sure that all of the advocates, elected officials, and thought leaders—from transit supporters to climate change experts to passionate residents—who have been fighting for the Green Line for decades have this opportunity to be heard not just locally and not just at specific public hearings but in the broader public forum” Rawson said. “It is well worth it to make this modest investment in the final stretch of the process to ensure everyone is both informed and heard.”

Proposals are due to the city by Feb. 25 with the contract running from March 1 to July 15. Mayoral Spokesman Denise Taylor told the Journal the communications firm will be paid for through the city’s Division of Transportation and Infrastructure budget.

According to the bid document, the vendor will create a 90-day public information plan for the project, with the option of expanding that to 120 or more days as the budget allows. The plan needs to be developed within three business days after the contract’s start date. Tasks in the information plan should include, amongst others:

- Facilitate information sharing and public dialogue on the status and impact of the GLX project.

- Facilitate media placement of independent and joint opinion pieces by thought leaders, advocates, elected officials and community voices and set up media appearances and interviews for those people with a range of local and national media outlets including print, online, broadcast, radio and social media.

- Plan should be supported by social media and digital media tools such as online chats, Reddit AMA’s, and phone-based town halls and may include creative informational materials such as infographics, memes, short, low-budget video for social [media].

- Identify and facilitate participation by thought leaders beyond the immediate community in the areas of transportation, climate change, mobility, economic development, union employment.

Taylor said city officials expect the firm to hire a team, not an individual, to provide the communications services for the city.

The city currently has two filled and one unfilled full-time Communications Department positions. Taylor said the communications department will assist the PR firm in the Green Line efforts when it can.

“Communications does not have the staff hours available to mount this public information effort in the timeframe required, but we will support the effort as we can,” Taylor said.

Last fall, MBTA officials announced the fate of the Green Line Extension project was up in the air after the initial $2.3 billion estimate ballooned by as much as $1 billion. Since then, state officials have been looking for ways to bring the project back to its original budget.

At a Feb. 5 meeting in Somerville, state officials said they were not interested in hearing what residents wanted to preserve from the project but were fielding ideas of what could be cut. They said planned Green Line stations would be simplified, the Union Square spur of the project could be replaced by commuter rail or bus stop and sections of the community path could be eliminated.

Officials said they will be holding several other meetings in Somerville over the next couple months, including one on March 3, before the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board and the MassDOT board vote on the fate of the project in May.

Mayor Joe Curtatone has said in the past he is confident the GLX project will go forward and said a commuter rail line wouldn’t meet the needs of the city’s planned redevelopment of Union Square and would pollute the area.

Follow Danielle McLean on Twitter @DMcLeanWL or email her at dmclean@wickedlocal.com.