Council Again Tackles Development on Pleasant Street

By Sue Ellen Woodcock

The Town Council on Monday night discussed the issue of the former nursing home on Pleasant Street whose owners have applied for an SDOD (Special Development Overlay District) zoning status.  The change of zoning means that the owners can move forward with development that has yet to be determined.

The subject is expected to come up on August 2 with a joint public hearing with the Town Council and the Planning Board at the senior center on Harvard Street. The Planning Board will meet again on August 8 and the council will then meet on August 16.

A couple of weeks ago almost 250 people showed up to a hearing when they heard rumors the old nursing home was going to be turned into a methadone clinic. Anthony, Louie and Rita Roberto own the property. The family has tried to work through the SDOD process three times in 2011, 2015, and 2016. The SDOD process encourages the re-use of unused properties. More recently the SDOD zoning process was granted to The Arbors, which had been the site of old Winthrop Hospital, and the old Playmakers/church building on Hermon Street, which will become condos.

It may be the lazy hazy days of summer but the Town Council is not sitting back on the work that needs to be done in Town. Tuesday night the council touched upon several areas and gave updates on various issues before them.

Steve Calla, head of DPW, updated the council on the ongoing water main replacement project happening in the Cottage Hill area. He said it was a major construction of new water mains and it is coming to any end. He sympathized with the neighbors having to put up with dust and construction.

“New roads and sidewalks are to come,” he told the council.

In other business:

Town Manager James McKenna said that construction companies Gilbane and Skansa would be retained for the Miller Field project. The two companies, which worked on the new high school/middle school project, will be kept on as a “change order” for the school project. He said there would be several deliberations in the next few weeks.

McKenna added that the support and the confidence the town has given with the Miller Field project has humbled him.

“It was a big ask and now it’s time to deliver,” McKenna said.

He added that there would be an aggressive construction schedule for the Miller Field project. He said there are about 50 projects going on around Winthrop at the moment.

McKenna also announced that a request for proposal to work with the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the city of Quincy on adding Quincy to the Winthrop Ferry schedule. Quincy may be fit in during the off hours and if all goes well the service may begin in August.

“This would be a pilot project for now,” McKenna said. “The key will be Rowe’s Wharf because there are certain times or the day that the Winthrop Ferry will not be able to dock there.”

In other news, McKenna announced that the Town’s Health Department received a $30,000 grant from the Department of Public Health for work dealing with the opioid crisis.