Water Street Closes For 5 Weeks

"It's going to be noisy, there are going to be vibrations," as sewer line replacement hits Water Street.

Work to replace the 90-year-old Water Street sewer line is going to get a whole lot more disruptive for those who live and work in that area. Although the project began in September, it is finally going to spill out onto Water Street by the Barbara Tufts Playground this week, prompting Water Street to be closed between Lion and Queen streets for up to five weeks. According to the original plan, work on the sewer line was to have been completed by now. But weather events such as Hurricane Sandy (and even last weekend's blizzard), and persistent groundwater slowed work.  The work is being done by William Anthony Excavating for a total price of $1.8 million.  William Anthony spent much of the fall battling the groundwater, bringing in larger…

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Meadowbrook To Open On Schedule

Crews will work feverishly the next few days, but teachers will be back in their classrooms on Monday.

Meadowbrook School will open on time, with teachers arriving next Monday and students on Wednesday. Crews have work to complete before the doors open to the public, but things look to be on schedule, according to Sean Sullivan of the construction management firm Strategic Building Systems. The school construction started right after students were released for summer break. Crews have been working after hours and on weekends to get where they are now. "We are even further than expected," said School Committeeman David Green, who has been making weekly visits to the site to view progress. This summer, workers removed old floors and replaced them with new multi-colored tile as part of the abatement process. "The school has a new look to it…

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Abestos Mitigation At Meadowbrook Crosses Halfway Point

Building official updates School Committee – abatement is more than 50 percent done.

  Construction at Meadowbrook Farms School is on time and asbestos abatement ­– the most important part of the summertime work – is more than 50 percent done, School Committee members learned Tuesday. Sean Sullivan, of the project management company Strategic Building Solutions, updated the panel during its regular meeting Tuesday evening at Cole Middle School. Meadowbrook Farms is undergoing a renovation to solve decades-old moisture problems at the building. Work began this summer after protracted discussions over what do to and if it should be done at all, the cost, and, finally, when and how to actually complete the work. "The teachers have done an amazing job packing up all their stuff," Sullivan said. Things were ready for …

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School Panel OKs New Timing For Meadowbrook Construction [VIDEO]

After parents protest, School Committee approves an alternate schedule — which will cost an additional $420,000 — with no construction taking place during school hours.

After weeks of increasing pressure from Meadowbrook Farms parents, School Committee members voted 6-0 to approve an alternate construction schedule to solve long-time moisture problems at the elementary school. The schedule change increases the project’s cost by $420,000, to a total of $3.7 million. Committeeman Paul Martin was absent. The vote came after two hours of discussion and testimony at Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting at Cole Middle School. About 80 people showed up, most of them parents of students at Meadowbrook. “The level of concerns expressed by the parents was significant and I think it’s our responsibility to respond to their concerns, so we did,” said School Committee Chair Deidre Gifford after the meeting. …

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[VIDEO] Parents Vent To Town Council

Meadowbrook parents ask for help in convincing the School Committee construction must not take place while children are in the building.

Frustrated over a perceived lack of communication from school officials over construction plans for Meadowbrook Farms Elementary School, some parents appealed to the Town Council Monday night. The parents were reacting to the bid approved by the School Committee in March, which laid out a construction plan that would start in June and proceed through the following summer, including during the 2012-13 school year. The work is meant to solve longstanding moisture problems at the school and would require removing a layer of asbestos floor tiles and replacing the roof. Several parents have said they feel so strongly against construction while the building is occupied that they would enroll their children elsewhere during that time period. "My…

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Kathleen Johnson

10:57 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Frederick-With all due respect, do you have children at Meadowbrook? Our concerns are not overstated as we are well informed about the health risks associated with this type of project. In fact, there are several parents of Meadowbrook students who are also physicians and have just as many concerns as the rest of the school community. You state that "parents have a choice". I realize this is East…   more ›

Letter to the Editor

Fix Meadowbrook When It Is Empty

Parents ask that construction take place without children and staff present.

To The Editor: In September 2011, parents of elementary school children in East Greenwich convinced the Town Council to approve a major renovation project to one of the school district’s failing buildings. For years, the Meadowbrook Farms Elementary School, which houses half of the community’s K-3 students as well as a pre-school program, has had issues with humidity and mold that cause the floor tiles to buckle and crack. More importantly, this compromises air quality. The building’s roof failed not long ago and there is asbestos in the floor. Attempts to resolve these issues repeatedly failed over the years. The approval of the funding brought relief to many in the community, particularly those who fought the hardest to ensure that the …

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POLL: Construction At Meadowbrook – With Students Or Without?

Some parents and staff members have expressed concerns over the removal of asbestos flooring and other construction issues.

As the last major project to be tackled with money from the $52 million bond issue passed by voters in 2008, renovations at Meadowbrook Farms have been discussed and discussed … and discussed. Now more discussions are under way — not about the previous question of whether or not construction should take place but instead when that construction should take place. At a meeting of about 20 Meadowbrook parents and a couple of staff members Wednesday night, it was agreed to fight the possibility that construction — including asbestos removal — take place while children and staff were in the building. The School Committee approved a bid of $2.3 million by Tower Construction to complete all the Meadowbrook renovations at a meeting March 20 — $…

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Elizabeth McNamara

7:12 am on Friday, April 13, 2012

Jen C., Yes, the original votes were part of that original poll, so the whole thing was "erased."   more ›

Chafee Budget Lowers Construction Reimbursement Percentage [POLL]

Instead of getting back 40 percent for school projects like the new Cole Middle School, EG would be reimbursed 35 percent.

Two sentences in Governor Lincoln Chafee’s proposed 2013 budget throw a little rain onto what had become a sunny story for East Greenwich: state reimbursement of school construction spending. Chafee's budget would hold reimbursement for projects such as the new Cole Middle School to 35 percent, instead of increasing to 40 percent in 2013 as had been promised in June 2011. So, under Chafee’s new budget plan, instead of getting a check from the state for $40,000 for every $100,000 paid for the new Cole, East Greenwich would get $35,000. While $5,000 may not seem like a lot, when multiplied by the actual cost of the school — $32 million — that figure grows to $1.6 million. East Greenwich voters approved spending up to $52 million for a new …

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(VIDEO) Westminster Unitarian Church Open Its New Parish Building

More than a year after the original parish house was torn down, the congregation is back on Kenyon Avenue.

The congregation of Westminster Unitarian Church is back on Kenyon Avenue, with the recent completion of its new parish hall. The old parish house was razed in September 2010 and replaced at a cost of  about $2.2 million, according to church officials. During construction the congregation met at a church in Coventry. The old house building, built around 1850, needed serious repairs and presented safety concerns, said Westminster Church President, Abby Addington-May. "Church members looked at the cost analysis of repairing the old building and building a new one," said Addington-May.  "It just made sense to build something new." Brewster Thornton, architects from Providence, designed the building with a focus on using "green" materials. …

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