Council to vote on issue Tuesday

By Joseph Domelowicz Jr.

As expected, Council President Thomas Reilly recommended to the full council on Wednesday, that New Hampshire-based developer EquiVise be designated as the preferred developer of the Dalrymple School.

In making the recommendation, Reilly pointed to the obvious financial benefits of choosing the bidder who had bid the most money for the property, but also alluded to other benefots that could be accrued to the town by working with EquiVise.

“I have been impressed with the diligence in which EquiVise responded by providing alternative designs,” Reilly told the Council. “I am convinced that EquiVise will be capable of pulling together a development proposal that would work. At this point, it would be unreasonable to expect EquiVise to expend any more resources without a commitment from the town. I believe this action should give EquiVise reasonable assurance that we are working with them in good faith.”

Reilly also noted that he had spoken with representatives from each of the qualified bidders, EquiVise and the East Boston Community Development Corporation, and had observed the joint deliberations of the Capital Assets Subcommittee  and Dalrymple Reuse Committee before making a decision about which proposal to support.

Furthermore, Reilly indicated that in offering its alternatives, EquiVise had backed away from its earlier proposal, which would have required a variance from the overlay district zoning requirements.  The more recent proposals would not need any such variance and have also addressed community concerns that were raised during the process, said Reilly.

“As for the economics of the proposal, the differential in sale price between the EquiVise ($2,050,000) and EBCDC ($1,750,000) is substantial,” he said. “The difference in annual tax yield is especially significant. The EquiVise development will produce an annual tax yield of $120,000, which is more than double that of EBCDC.”

Reilly then went on to explain the indirect economic benefits available to the town, with the acceptance of the EquiVise bid.

“The development will capture the attention of middle income and upper income buyers,” said Reilly. “This is an opportunity for the town and the neighborhood as the area is rich with high quality housing, close to the soon to be renovated Winthrop beach and should spur some residual economic activity to the area.”

According to Reilly, Winthrop’s economic household breakdown, as identified in the town’s 2004 Community Development Plan includes 18 percent of homes in the Upper Income category (over $98,251 and above per year),  36 percent in the Middle Income category ($50,201 to $98, 250), 19 percent in the Moderate Income category ($37,251 to $50,200) and the remaining 27 percent in the Low Income category.

“If my assumption about residual economic development in the area is true, then the financial return to the town is even greater,” said Reilly. “By attracting higher income residents it seems reasonable to expect benefits for the town’s struggling retail sector. . . attracting new households in the middle to upper income level will spur economic development in the area.”

In an aside from his official recommendation, Reilly also attempted to clear up some misinformation in the community, by telling Councilors that waiting lists at the Winthrop Housing Authority  are about four months, not a year, as has been reported in the community through other sources.

Proponents of the EBCDC proposal have pointed to overly long waiting lists at the Winthrop Housing  as a reason for supporting the EBCDC’s proposal to create senior housing within the existing Dalrymple building.

By Joseph Domelowicz Jr.

Dalrymple recommendation
Council President Thomas Reilly earlier this week informed the council that he intends to make a recommendation at tonight’s meeting that Equivise be designated as the developer for the Dalrymple site. He also told councilors that the New Hampshire developer, who has proposed demolition of the old Dalrymple School and the construction of a new 36-unit condominium building on the site, has already made some changes to the initial construction proposal, which are expected to make the development more palatable to some in town.

By John Lynds

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the 9,300-foot centerfield taxiway for Logan Airport that many East Boston and Winthrop residents and elected officials argue would have severe environmental consequences for both communities.
In June 2006, the FAA dismissed alternatives to the proposed centerfield taxiway put forth by Eastie and Winthrop residents and concluded that the alternatives wouldn’t significantly reduce aircraft noise or air pollution in the neighborhoods.
Furthermore, the FAA reported the taxiway would add flexibility for taxiing aircraft and reduce congestion that sometimes leads to runway incursions.
The 16 alternatives proposed by opponents of the taxiway project aimed to ease noise and pollution concerns, but the FAA found these alternatives to have no “significant benefits” for East Boston and Winthrop.
The FAA was required by Superior Court Judge Margot Botsford to meet with a six-member committee composed of residents from the two communities to discuss realistic alternatives to the taxiway that could potentially minimize environmental impacts.
While the FAA held several meetings with this committee, its members argued that the meetings were nothing more than a kangaroo court, and that the FAA had no intention of entertaining the committee’s alternatives to the centerfield taxiway.
Some on the committee, including East Boston resident Ronald Hardaway, said the original consultant hired by the FAA to look into taxiway alternatives was abruptly fired after his findings started to lean in favor of East Boston and Winthrop residents.
“A second consultant was hired, and when its findings favored the centerfield taxiway, that was the consultant the FAA listened to,” said Hardaway at a community meeting last year.
Certain sections of Bayswater Street in East Boston and streets abutting the waterline facing the airport in Winthrop – the area known locally as the Maze – would suffer directly from the taxiway’s function as a replacement for much of Taxiway November’s traffic because it would relocate taxiing aircraft 1,000 feet closer to residential neighborhoods.
While the FAA insists the centerfield taxiway would reduce runway incursions, technology exists to reduce the number of runway incursions and is currently being used at Dallas-Forth Worth Airport with success. Most runway incursions are caused by a lack of situational awareness by pilots on the ground, and Massport and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) both said a centerfield taxiway would significantly reduce runway incursions and make Logan safer.
At Dallas/Forth Worth, airport officials opted to be on the cutting edge of runway technology and began using a new FAA program called Runway Status Lights (RWSL) to reduce incursions at its airfield. Coincidently, a similar program was implemented at Logan 10 years ago but was abruptly abandoned because of glitches in the primitive precursor to the RWSL program.
The RWSL system is a radar-based safety system intended to improve on-airfield situation awareness by providing pilots a visual advisory of runway status. The system consists of a series of stop and go lights on the airport surface that indicate to pilots whether it is safe or unsafe to enter or cross a runway or to begin or hold takeoff. The RWSL system, whose prototype has been undergoing field tests at Dallas-Forth Worth with tremendous success, controls the lights according to target position, status, and logic information derived from the airport movement area safety system. The RWSL are intended as an independent backup to controllers’ assessments and instructions.
“At Logan, the technology was still primitive, and I assume that’s why they stopped using it,” said Dallas-Fort Worth spokesman David Magna. “At Dallas-Fort Worth, we’d like to eliminate runway crossings altogether, but the RWSL system makes pilots aware that another aircraft is taxiing across a runway or in its take-off roll.”
The RWSL received national attention when Texas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson urged the House and Senate to begin funding RWSL program.
Johnson said safety advocates, pilots, and air traffic controllers have deemed the technology essential in reducing runway incursions at the nation’s 35 busiest airports, including Logan.

By Joseph Domelowicz Jr.

Stymied for more than a year and a half, by a halting appeals process, the owners of the former Winthrop Hospital building this week appeared before the Planning Board and asked that their property be included in the Special Development Overlay District, that was initially created to spur redevelopment at the Dalrymple School, but was left open to consider the inclusion of other deteriorating or obsolete buildings around town.
After almost two hours of presentations, questions and wrangling between groups on both sides of the issue, the Planning Board agreed to continue the hearing to its next regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the Joseph Harvey Hearing Room.
If the Planning Board does vote to include the hospital site in the SDOD, the full Town Concil would then have to approve that recommendation by a two-thirds majority and then the owners of the building, Winthrop Cove Realty Trust, would still have to go though an exhaustive public permitting process. That process would include site plan review. However, the more liberal restrictions of the SDOD could potentially allow for the creation of the 78 residential units the developer has said it would seek in the SDOD.
Attorney James Cipoletta, representing the developers, told the Planning Board that WCRT has pledged not to expand the existing building in any way, if the property is included in the SDOD and also told the board that the latest proposal provides for ample parking under the less restrictive SDOD.
Meanwhile, William DiMento, the attorney representing the Lincoln Street neighborhood Association, which has opposed the developers plans for the building from day one, told the Planning Board that he was concerned that the SDOD could be usd by anyone who wishes to re-develop their property into condominiums, without any regard for the underlying zoning of the land.
In 2004, the Zoning Board of Appeals issued a decision to allow the creation of 69 condominium units within the building, based on its estimate of the maximum allowable parking on the property. However, both sides appealed the decision to Land Court and now decision has been rendered as yet.
Attorney Cipoletta told the Planning Board that the discovery portion of those cases has been completed and the sides are now at the point where they’re ready to ask for a trial date. However, he told the board that the developers would drop their appeal, if the board votes to include the property in the SDOD.

By Joseph Domelowicz Jr.
Winthrop Superintendent of Schools Steve Jenkins announced today that he has offered the position of Principal at the William Gorman-Fort Banks School to Melrose Title I Director Ilene Pearson and that Pearson had verbally agreed to accept the job.
“She’ll officially start on July 1, 2007, but she will come aboard for a few transition days, shadow (retiring Principal) Tom Holmen and get a feel for the school, the students and the teachers,” said Jenkins. “The plan is to conduct some type of meet the new principal event. but I’m not sure right now when that will be — wheter it will be in the spring or in the summer.”
Jenkins said that the decision to offer the job to Pearson was a difficult one, but pointed to site visits to Pearson’s school in Melrose as a determining factor in the decision.
“The site visit team was very impressed with their visit to the school, we got to meet with the mayor, the superintendent, other elementary principals, and past and current parents and teachers,” said Jenkins. “I wouldn’t say that we all agreed one hundred percent, but the majority feeling (of the site visit team) was that she was an excellent candidate.”
Pearson, is originally from South Florida, and graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in early childhood education and later attended Salem State College, where she earned her masters degree in early childhood education also.
She has lived and worked in Melrose for the last eight years, beginning as a Title I reading specialist, but over her eight years in Melrose she has been called upon to build and expand the reading program and now oversees an early childhood center that is housed within the old Ripley School in Melrose and serves more than 130 students.
Jenkins also noted that Pearson’s experience and education in Early Childhood Education was another strong motivating factor in hiring her.
Pearson could sign a contract with the school district as early as this week.
Jenkins will make the official announcement of the hiring at Thursday’s School Committee meeting.

Winthrop Town Manager Rick White has declared a state of emergecy in the town of Winthrop, due to the excessive and repeated high tides and flooding that have been caused by a persistent Nor’easter, which has pummeled the town and the regional coastline for the past several days.
According to a statement released by White on Wednesday morning, the town’s emergency personnel, many of whom have bene working around the clock since the storm landed in Winthrop, were sent home for rest today, but will be called back in for tonight’s predicted extreme high tide.
Many parts of the town have already flooded and Winthrop Fire Chief Joseph “Larry” Powers had said earlier in the day that an emergency shelter may be set up for displaced residents at the Point Shirley Association Hall, should the need arise.
White said that the state of emergency would remain in effect, until the storm abates and the waters recede.

Tuesday evening, Senate candidate Anthony Petruccelli held a coffee hour for about 35 Winthrop residents at the River Road home of well known and highly respected Winthrop resident Nonnie Hayes.

It was a meet and greet type of time for Anthony Petruccelli, who has been making the rounds in Winthrop. Among those who were in attendance were: Councillor Richard Gill, everyone’s favorite, former Selectwoman and town clerk Marie Turner and former Winthrop State Representative Ralph Sirianni.

A fund raiser for Petruccelli is being held this evening at the Winthrop Country Club.

The Winthrop causeway, leading from Revere into Winthrop remained closed this morning, with debris, rocks and seaweed covering the roadway following another night of heavy surf.

By Joseph Domelowicz Jr.

Winthrop Town Manager Rick White said Tuesday that based on the flooding which occurred during the noon high tide in parts of Winthrop, extra precautions will be taken with regard to providing for the public safety, especially on Point Shirley.
“Due to the fact that tonight’s tide is expected to be somewhat higher, we will be bringing in extra personnel and stationing an engine company at Point Shirley from 10 pm to 2 am.,” said White in a statement late Tuesdya afternoon. “Additionally, we have made arrangements for an extra ambulance to be down there at the same time. DPW and the PD have indicated they will also have equipment and personnel down there. We will be shutting Shirley St. down at Washington Ave. at around 11 pm due to the flooding.”
White also said that the town would be notifying Point Shirley area residents, and others affected by the storm, of the plans through the use of reverse 911 calls to homes.

Winthrop dealing with continued flooding threat

By Joseph Domelowicz Jr.

By Tuesday morning of this week, Town Manager Rick White and the town’s emergency response team had been closely monitoring storm activity in Winthrop for more than 48 hours, and with forecasts calling for more rain, high winds and high tides over the following two days, it remained likely that town emergency workers would remain at their posts stationed around Winthrop for at least the next few days.
“I think that we’re very worried about the high tide (Tuesday night) and less worried, but still concerned about the tide on (Tuesday) afternoon,” said White Tuesday morning. “The plan is to close access to Point Shirley beginning at about 11 a.m. on Tuesday and keep it closed through the worst of the high tide. We’re worried about rocks and debris and of course the water.”
White said that weather forecasts from the National Weather Service called for continued rain and high tides in Winthrop through Wednesday and possibly into Thursday. However, the highest tides were expected on Tuesday, meaning that town workers would be on hand to help those who needed help throughout the two high tides on Tuesday and Tuesday night.