Westport in Brief!
EverythingWestport.com
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Quick Article Index . . .
Letter to the
editor: Multiple pilot errors wreck the Navy cruiser “Yankee.”
Housing
Opportunity Purchase Program application deadline set for December 19, 2017.
Jonathon Levi Architects fleshes out school
building design.
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Letter to the editor:
Multiple pilot errors wreck the Navy cruiser “Yankee.” EverythingWestport.com Sunday, July 9, 2017 As a
charter member of the Westport Fishermen’s Association, I have always been
proud of our accomplishments. The latest is our wreck display.
Project coordinator Tanja Ryder did most of it. Tanja is super
at building programs.
Seeing
the picture of the Navy cruiser “Yankee” sitting on Chickens Reef off
Westport made me think someone might like to know how she got there. The
“Yankee” was a cargo ship when the Navy bought it and covered it with rapid
fire guns and torpedo tubes. It did a great job during the
Spanish-American war. It was retired a few times and then used as a
torpedo training ship.
The
day of the grounding, the Yankee had a torpedo explode in the tube while in
Vineyard Sound. No one was hurt but if you look at the picture in this
(June 22) newspaper, you will see the black color up forward on the port
side. That’s the location of the explosion. The
Yankee came through Quick’s Hole Channel into Buzzards Bay and set
course about northwest for Newport. The fog was very thick and when the
captain heard the horn of a ship entering the bay, he called for full astern
to stay clear of the approaching ship. There
was no radar or sounding machines, and when the entering ship had cleared the
captain ordered the single screw vessel to go forward and the Yankee
drove onto the Chickens Reef. It
is possible that the captain did not know about what happens when a large
propeller is put in reverse. It will turn counter-clockwise and, as if
the bottom of the prop were on solid ground, will cause the stern to go to
port. Instead of heading northwest, the course was now north and headed
for the ledge.
Forty
years ago, as a member of U. S. Power Squadrons, I taught boat handling and
this subject was part of it. A salvage attempt for the Yankee is a
story in itself at another time. Carlton
“Cukie” Macomber Westport Housing Opportunity Purchase
Program application deadline set for December 19, 2017. Application packages are
available in the information rack on the second floor of Town Hall, 816 Main
Road, Westport, and at the Westport Free Public Library, 408 Old County Road,
Westport. EverythingWestport.com Sunday, July 9, 2017
In this funding round, the Trust will offer one grant of up to
$125,000 to an income and asset qualified household for the purpose of
“buying down” the selling price of a two or three bedroom existing market
rate house in Westport. In addition, the program will reimburse each
potential home buyer up to $1,000 toward initial home inspections and any
additional inspections required under this program. The information and application
package is also available
online or can be requested by emailing: WestportHousing@outlook.com.
You can also call 774.264.5126; or
call or click Housing Specialist Leonardi Aray at 617.270.3912, or e-mail: Leonardi@lararyarchitects.com. To qualify for the HOPP program, households
must be eligible under the Department of Housing and Community Development
Local Initiative Program Guidelines as summarized below. To be eligible, the
combined gross annual income for all household members, from all sources in
the household must be at or below 80% of the Providence-Fall River Metro Area
Median Income (AMI) as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD). The homes purchased through this program will be subject to a deed
rider that will permanently restrict the value of the home and will require
that upon resale, the home be conveyed to an income and asset eligible
household through an affirmative fair marketing/non-discriminatory process
according to DHCD guidelines. The unit will be
eligible for inclusion on the town’s Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI) list.
One qualified applicant will be eligible for the grant funds in this
cycle. Eligible participants must be approved by the state Department of
Housing and Community Development and get financing pre-approval from a
qualified lender. Buyers should be aware that sellers must be willing to work
with potential purchasers and the DHCD to complete
the process required to complete such subsidized
sales. Application packages are available in the information rack on the
second floor of Town Hall, 816 Main Road, Westport, and at the Westport Free
Public Library, 408 Old County Road, Westport. The information and application package is also available
online or can be requested by emailing: WestportHousing@outlook.com
by calling 774.264.5126; or by
calling Housing Specialist Leonardi Aray at 617.270.3912, or e-mail: Leonardi@lararyarchitects.com.
EW 06/28/2017 Jonathon Levi Architects fleshes
out new school building design. EverythingWestport.com Sunday, July 9, 2017 Photos |
EverythingWestport.com
Special Correspondent to EverythingWestport.com WESTPORT – The Westport School Building Committee continues to refine
floor plans for a new co-located junior and senior high school on the site of
the closed Westport Middle School, getting the latest updates on recent
changes in the design on June 28 from owner’s project manager Dan Tavares and
architect Jonathan Levi. It will be a challenge for School Building Committee members to manage
JLA “esthetics versus functionality” paradigm as they
flesh out final plans for the co-located school building on Old County Road. Tavares said that both a finalized site plan and completed floor plans
should be completed by August 4th, when the design team begins preparing firm
cost estimates for the project. The building committee is scheduled to present finalized plans and
cost estimates to the Board of Selectmen and Westport School Committee at a
joint meeting set for September 6, according to Building Committee Co-chair
Dianne Baron. If the plans and budget are approved by those two boards, the project
package would be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) by September 14th to get on the agenda at the
October MSBA meeting, Baron said. A quick MSBA approval would firm up the town’s reimbursement
numbers from by the state agency, and help determine what local funding is
needed for the project. Baron noted that the building committee will have time to make a few
last-minute, cost-cutting adjustments to “finalized” specifications if cost
estimates are too high. Levi offered some “alternate” or optional parts of
the project that could easily be cut out or scaled back to cut costs if the
overall budget is too large; those options would be included in draft bid
specs, he indicated. Early preliminary (building) designs are experiencing major changes as
the building committee prefers “front-door drop-off” over the proposed rear
of the building; and JLA in mid-steam has proposed “flipping”
the high school portion of the building with the middle school portion to accommodate
operating functionality. While the majority of the site plan work is done, the building
committee asked for more work on the proposed traffic pattern, including a
planned school bus drop-off point at the rear of the building. Several
members expressed a preference for drop-offs at the front of the building,
allowing middle schoolers and high school students to be immediately routed
to their separate academic wings.
EW 06/28/2017 Building committee member Tony Vieira expressed concerns about the
encroachment of athletic fields serving the new school invading the adjoining
Westport Elementary School (WES) campus. The new fields seem to cut back the
outdoor space currently used for physical education classes, he noted. “They should have the same amount of space at the elementary schools
for physical education activities as they do now,” Vieira suggested, noting
that some woods to the north of school could be used to make a new space for
those classes. Incorporating that effort into the project plans will be
considered at a future meeting.
EW 06/28/2017 Above: The newest version of the site plan showed two
regulation-sized baseball and softball diamonds behind the new junior/senior
high school, with both spaces used for field hockey and soccer in the fall.
Two small practice fields are located in front of the school, near the road. The newest version of the site plan showed two regulation-sized
baseball and softball diamonds behind the new junior/senior high school, with
both spaces used for field hockey and soccer in the fall. Two small practice
fields are located in front of the school, near the road. One less softball
field than originally planned is shown in the latest revisions. The four tennis courts between the current school building and the
nearby public library would be relocated to open space behind the library,
and a fifth court added, Levi indicated. Superintendent Ann Marie Dargon and various
school staffers have been working with the design subcommittee to finalize
floor plans for the two-story H-shaped building in recent weeks. The floor
plan calls for the high school wing on the west side of the building, and the
middle school wing on the east side, with a shared front entrance and
separate administration offices for the co-located facility. Design refinements are allowing the overall square footage to be
reduced in every new version of the concept plans, Levi said. The reduced
footprint will help keep building costs down, he noted. The two wings would share a centralized cafeteria, kitchen, and learning
commons, plus have a large auditorium helping to connect the two wings. A
generously-sized back lobby will offer after-hours access to the auditorium
and adjoining gymnasium on the north side of the building. The dividable gym will feature two basketball courts for separate use
by middle school and high school physical education classes during the day,
and both the gym and auditorium will be accessible after hours via “public”
side entrances when the rest of the school is closed off. Tavares said planners will soon meet with police and fire department
officials to get their input on proposed safety and security issues, needed
to finalize the floor plans. Another big decision coming up is the proposed exterior appearance.
Levi surveyed all of the municipal buildings in town and found that except
for Town Hall and several school buildings, “all of them are shakes and
shingles” on the outside. Traditional brick, or a
mix of stone and shingles is another option to consider, he suggested. “I want to make a building that fits in with the town,” the Drift Road
resident said. His preference would be “a lot of shingles, a lot of stone”
for the new school, he indicated. Despite the traditional exterior proposed, Levi is recommending lots
of glass for passive solar energy and access to the outdoors. He is also pitching the school roofs to maximum their solar power
collection abilities, he said. He is also proposing use of specially-designed windows that block the
sun’s rays in summer time to help keep the building cool, but allow sunlight
coming in from a different angle during the winter months to generate heat
and light. One architect’s sketch proposed a framework of support poles for
“sun shades” along the front of the building, shading the south side in
summer but permitting winter sunshine to get through. (see below)
Still to be firmed up are the demolition costs, estimated at around $8
million before the Middle School was shut down several years ago. Tavares
told the building committee he wants to “double-check” those old numbers for
remediation and demolition costs. The total project budget includes that $8 million for abatement of the
hazardous materials in the closed school, and demolition and disposal costs;
Tavares noted “some” soil remediation funding in the demolition budget, but
wants to make sure the estimates are still accurate.
EW 06/28/2017
EW 06/28/2017
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