The town manager’s weekly newsletter went out Thursday, and buried on page nine is the item most Winthrop residents have been waiting a decade to read: the old junior high is down, the contract for the new Central Fire Station has been awarded, and construction starts October 1.
The fire station, finally
The project update in the newsletter reads like a punch list. Demolition of the former junior high school and auditorium: complete. Relocation of the stormwater line that ran under the site: under way, and done in a way the town says will save about $1 million against the original plan. Construction contract: awarded to G and R Construction of Hanover, the lowest responsible bidder of seven. Schedule: about 18 months from an October 1 start, which puts the doors opening in the spring of 2028. Budget: the town says it is running roughly $2 million under.
Seven bids is a healthy number for a municipal building in this market, and “under budget” before a shovel goes in is the easy part. The next newsletter that matters is the one that says the same thing in the spring after a winter of digging on a site that has had a school, a parking lot and a stormwater line on it.
This week’s meetings
Monday, September 14 is busy. The school department’s Building and Grounds subcommittee meets at 5:15 p.m. in the Harvey Hearing Room, followed at 6 by the full School Committee in the same room. The Affordable Housing Committee meets at 6 in the Gathering Room. The Public Health, Safety and Works Committee meets Wednesday, September 16 at 4 p.m., and the Finance Commission Thursday, September 17 at 6. Agendas post 48 hours ahead on the town site.
What is not on the list is anything about the townwide strategic plan the council started discussing in late August, or about the MBTA Communities zoning question that is costing the town $2.5 million a year in withheld state funds. Neither is dead. Neither is on a September agenda.
This weekend and next
Friday morning the Fire Department held its September 11 memorial at Central Fire Station on Pauline Street, the 25th anniversary. Sunday, if the rain holds off, the Cultural Council’s Music on the Landing runs 1 to 4 p.m. at the Town Landing, 707 Shirley Street, with three bands, free admission, and the Cinco de Mayo food truck. The rain location is the Deane Winthrop House, and given the flood watch on Suffolk County from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, check before you go.
Wednesday, September 16, the town marks Recovery Month with a candlelight procession leaving Town Hall at Metcalf Square at 6 p.m., down Pauline Street to the old middle school gym at 151 Pauline, where people in recovery will tell their own stories. It runs to about 8:30.
Further out: the Nashoba Valley ski program information night is Tuesday, September 15 at 6:30 at E.B. Newton. The Elks host an end-of-summer fundraiser September 19 at 1 p.m. at 191 Washington Avenue. The Senior Center’s indoor yard sale is Saturday, September 26, 10 to 1, at 35 Harvard Street. And Winthrop Cares’ barbecue for the families burned out of their homes in June is Sunday, September 27, 1 to 4 p.m., at the Pleasant Park Yacht Club.
Small print
The water department says some bills going out now are estimated; call 781-532-2603 if yours looks wrong. Pay-as-you-throw overflow bags are $15 for a roll of five. The transfer station stays open through December 5. The farmers market runs Sundays through September 27. And if you have not signed up for the town’s Everbridge alerts since it switched systems in January, the newsletter has the link again. That is the channel the town will use if Sunday’s rain does what the forecasters think it might.