Westport in Brief!
EverythingWestport.com
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Quick Article Index . . .
Westport’s
Jr/Sr Building Committee gets an impactful progress
report of new school building.
29th WRWA
River Day Festival will feature Music, Kids’ Activities, Vendors and
Exhibitors.
Little Compton Garden Club to host 2-day
Flower Show in September.
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Westport’s
Jr/Sr Building Committee gets an impactful progress report of
new school building. The
Owners Project Manager noted that the completed schematic design for the new
facility needs to be finished by August. EverythingWestport.com Monday, June 5, 2017 Photos |
EverythingWestport.com
Special Correspondent to EverythingWestport.com The Westport School Building Committee
got its first look at revised site plans and the latest tweaks to the floor
plan for new combined junior/senior high school facility being proposed on
the Old County Road campus of the closed Westport Middle School at its May 31
meeting. Owner’s project manager (OPM) Daniel Tavares updated the full committee on recent
meetings with Superintendent Ann Marie Dargon,
faculty representatives, and special education program staffers that produced
some minor changes in the floor plan for the roughly 184,000 square-foot
facility being designed. Tavares also reported on an April 10
meeting at the site with state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
representatives regarding options for the well that will need to be installed
for the new school. He indicated that none of the probable well sites and
surrounding buffer zones being considered are over
the boundary lines of adjacent properties, and a follow-up meeting with the
DEP will be held to try to pinpoint an exact location for the water supply. The OPM noted
that the completed schematic design for the new facility needs to be finished
by August, so that final plans and a project budget can be approved by a joint
meeting of the Westport School Committee and Board of Selectmen in early
September. That timetable would allow final plans to be submitted to the
Mass. School Building Authority (MSBA) by
mid-September, he said. Under the projected schedule, completed
plans could be approved by the MSBA by the end of
October, setting up a hoped-for town meeting approval and a follow-up bond
financing ballot question by the end of 2017. Architect Jonathan Levi told the building
committee that the site plan remains “a work in progress,” with the latest
revisions placing the proposed building about 200 feet closer to Old County
Road than in previous plans. The shift of the building location would allow
five athletic fields to be sited behind the new school, while still leaving
room for a practice field between the road and the school, Levi said.
Above: The shift of the building location would allow five athletic fields
to be sited behind the new school, while still leaving room for a practice
field between the road and the school, Levi said. His revised site plan showed two baseball
diamonds, a softball field, and separate areas for soccer and field hockey
teams to use between the new school and nearby Westport Elementary School.
The adjacent public library parking area would be unaffected by the proposed
construction, and the existing tennis courts would be relocated behind the
library in the latest version of the plans, Levi said. By moving the new building and athletic
fields closer to Old County Road, all construction work would stay within the
boundaries of the existing campus, and the elementary school would not be
affected in any way, the architect added. The biggest change in the floor plans is
the proposed shape of the auditorium, and the relocation of the media center
from the second story to the first floor, Levi said. Input from faculty and
staff also resulted in some minor tweaks to the layout of classrooms, science
labs, and teacher work spaces, he indicated.
Above: The biggest change in the floor plans is the proposed shape of the auditorium,
and the relocation of the media center from the second story to the first
floor, Levi said. The design subcommittee will continue to
work on refinements to the floor plans for review at the building committee’s
June meeting. The basic design still calls for a two-story H-shaped building,
with middle schoolers housed on the west side of the facility, and high
schoolers attending classes in the east wing; the shared media center,
cafeteria and auditorium would link the two academic wings, with a large
gymnasium located on the north side of the building. At the end of March, the building
committee voted to carry on with development of plans for a custom-designed
new combined junior/senior high school facility on the site of the closed
Westport Middle School after reviewing an optional model school design. There was also some discussion of
alternatives for the bidding and construction process at the May 31 meeting. The traditional design-bid-build process
has pre-qualified general contractors bid on the entire project, using
subcontractors of their choice for needed specialty work. A Construction
Manager at Risk (CMR-R) option allows for more
pre-construction collaboration and a shorter building completion schedule,
but usually adds three to four percent to project costs, said Richard Marks
of Daedalus Consulting. While the CM-R option is becoming more
common for large-scale projects, the associated management costs “would add
to the budget, and we’re all trying to keep the bottom line as low as we
can,” Marks noted. The biggest advantage to the CM-R
alternative is that it gives town officials “the ability to direct a lot of
construction dollars into the community” by requiring a percentage of the
subcontractor work to be done by local companies rather than out-of-town
firms, Levi suggested. On the other hand, the process increases the workload
for the project architects, with added costs for the pre-construction work,
he noted. Further discussions of the two options
will also be on the agenda for the next building committee meeting.
Subcommittee work on floor plans will also continue through the month of
June, and the building committee is beginning outreach efforts to inform the
community on the developing plans. A presentation on revised plans was
scheduled for the June 1 meeting of the school committee as well. Planning has been ongoing since a March
30th building committee vote on the merits of the local plan versus a “model
school” design used in Longmeadow, offered by the MSBA
as an alternative to locally-developed school plans. At the end of debate on
the two options, a 14-2 vote by the committee decided to stay with the local
plans. The majority opinion was that revisions
to the model school plan would eat up much of the projected $4 to $6 million
in savings promised by an additional five percent MSBA
reimbursement of construction costs, and a cap on architectural fees required
by model school guidelines. Most committee members felt that the
custom plans specifically tailored to meet Westport’s future educational
needs were the best option for the proposed new school.
29th WRWA River Day
Festival will feature Music, Kids’ Activities, Vendors and Exhibitors. EveryhingWestport.com Wednesday, August 23, 2017 Photos | EverythingWestport.com Westport, Massachusetts - The traditional Westport River Watershed
Alliance (WRWA) River Day Festival, a family
friendly event with food, music, kids’ activities and more will be held on
Saturday, June 10th at the Head of Westport. Following is the schedule of events for the day’s festivities, which
run from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.:
∙ Schedule of Events ∙
Fish T-shirt printing Face Painting Small Boat Building Stilts building Exhibits & Demonstrations, Crafts Mini-Farmers Market Food and drinks available for purchase 10:00 a.m. History Tour of Head of Westport with Historical Society
President Tony Connors starts at Bell School House 10:30 Live Raptor Show by Marla Isaac 11:30-noon Local guitarist & singer Maury May on stage with a set
of Bob Dylan songs Noon- River Day Poster Awards – recognition of artwork by Westport
Elementary and Macomber School students 12:15 The Gnomes on stage - see description of the Gnomes Band
below And a special
event: "A Day in the Life of the Sassafras Sisters” Period: 1850s ∙ Where: Their Homestead ∙ With: Joyce Rain Anderson, Kerri Helme, and Donna Edmonds Mitchell. “The Sassafras Sisters from the Wampanoag Peoples create an inside
view of their daily activities. They will be celebrating their traditional
Strawberry Ceremony where all are invited to join in. There will be more
storytelling throughout the day about the sacredness of Mother Earth, Father
Sky, and Sister Sea - to remind us that we are the stewards of the natural
world and encourage all to treat everything with sacredness. They will
exhibit and demonstrate their techniques of finger weaving, basket making,
beading and quill work as well as the making of their cornhusk dolls.” ∙ List of Vendors and Exhibitors ∙ Bristol County Beekeepers Association;
Buzzards Bay Action Committee; Buzzards Bay Coalition; Cycle
Composting Company; and Cluck &
Trowel Farm; Connect Africa Foundation;
Dharma Voyage; Eco RI
News; Friends of Westport Council on
Aging; Friends of the Westport
Library; Gemini Soaps; J&R Sales & Service; The Lloyd Center for the
Environment; Mass Audubon South Coast Sanctuaries; Nomquid
Farm Alpacas; RA Coastal Designs; Sarah Lavalley
Garden Design; SEMAP; Sharon Owens Baskets; Silk
Tree Farm; Skinny Dip Farm; Usborne Books & More; Viridian Green Energy; Weatherlow Farms; Westport Art Group; Westport Cultural
Council; Westport Education Foundation; Westport Fishermen’s Association;
Westport Historical Society; Westport Land Conservation Trust; Westport Save
Our Schools; Westport School Building Committee; and Westport River Watershed
Alliance.
The Gnomes will be on stage just after 12:00 noon. This popular
group from Providence is back again this year, with their dynamic folk-rock
treatment of original tunes and a wide-ranging repertoire that spans the
globe — Celtic, Scandinavian, Eastern European, Asian, African, Caribbean,
Klezmer, and Native American — bringing a sound that will touch both your
heart and your feet!
They combine their varied and extensive musical backgrounds into
arrangements that have been described as "exotic, fresh, and
unique." The band's members include some of Rhode Island's best known
musicians: Phil Edmonds (Irish whistle and button accordion); Cathy
Clasper-Torch (fiddle, keyboard, er-hu, vocals);
Mike Fischman (guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo,
vocals); Peter Breen (bass, vocals); and Matt Niebels
(percussion/drums). River Day takes
place at the Town Landing at the historic Head of Westport, at the
intersection of Drift Road and Old County Road. This event is free and open to
the public and runs from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. For ease of parking and traffic safety, a free shuttle service will be
provided by Whaling City Transit from the old Middle School parking lot on
Old County Road. It will make frequent trips to and from the Head throughout
the day. This year marks the 29th anniversary of River Day. For more information visit the WRWA web
page, or call Community Engagement Manager Steve Connors at
508.636.3016.
Little Compton Garden Club to host 2-day Flower Show in
September. Participating in this event
will be members of Zone I garden clubs from Maine, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, and regional and national officers of GCA. EverythingWestport,com Sunday, June 11, 2017 The Little Compton Garden Club will host “Where Stone Walls Meet the Sea” a Garden Club of America (GCA) Zone I Flower Show at the Little Compton Community
Center on Tuesday, September 19th from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Wednesday,
September 20th from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at 34 Commons, Little Compton,
Rhode Island. Admission will be free and open to the public. Participating in this event will be members of Zone I garden clubs
from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, and
regional and national officers of GCA as part of a
two-day event. The stated purpose of a Garden Club of America flower show is to set
standards of artistic and horticultural excellence; to broaden knowledge of
horticulture, floral design, conservation, photography and other related
areas; and to share the beauty of a show with fellow club members and with
the public. “The Little Compton Garden Club is delighted to host this Flower Show
and invite all to visit to experience the finest designs from Garden Club
members across northern New England,” says event co-chair Libby Moore. “The
theme ‘Where Stone Walls Meet the Sea’ celebrates the history of our town and
its many stone walls, some from the colonial era, that divide the farms and
woodlands that roll gently down to the sea," Moore said. Guided tours by Little Compton Garden Club members on Tuesday at 2:00
p.m. will explore the four categories of entries: Floral Design,
Horticulture, Conservation and Photography. “Hosted by volunteer members,
they will give an in-depth look at the exhibits,” says co-chair Widgie Aldrich.
Founded in 1924, the Little Compton Garden Club and its members
maintain the highest standards of excellence in conservation, civic projects
and horticulture. Community projects include the Angela Spence-Shaw Memorial
Garden behind the Wilbur & McMahon School and the herb garden at the
Little Compton Historical Society’s Wilbor House, as well as window boxes at
Town Hall, the Community Center and Brownell Library. For additional information visit the Little Compton Garden Club
website: http://www.littlecomptongardenclub.org/
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