Council Appropriates $4.9 Million for Infrastructure Work

Town officials have been struggling with what to do with the center for well over two years and even longer with the old middle school on Pauline Street.

Tuesday night the majority of the town council voted to appropriate $4,931,500 for the purpose of financing the construction of the center’s sewer and drain system. A portion of those funds are $2.3 million that came to the town in the form of a MassWorks grant and the reminder from other town sources. The town has to use that grant by the end of the year or it will lose it back to the state. The entire project it estimated to be $12,167,500 million and take two years to complete.

There are several sources of funding for the remaining balance of the project.  and there would be some borrowing from the water and sewer rate also. If adopted, there will be $6.8 million borrowed from the sewer fund and $2,244,000 from the water fund. Water rate payers who already pay $19.90 per 100 cubic feet of usage could see a water rate increase of $1.27 per 100 cubic feet of usage. Ratepayers just got hit with a 17 percent increase in fiscal year 2018.

Councillors James Letterie, Peter Christopher and Mike Lucerto, recused themselves from the discussion and the vote because of business interests they have in the center.

Town Manager Austin Faison said there are a lot of buildings not updated to the times, facades and signage have not changed. It’s safe to say many are a throwback to the 1970s and 1980s

“The center is a great public space that is not being utilized properly,” he said. “This proposed work will be a below ground project.  The center area flooded on Tuesday, and as a result it floods around town we need to start acting upon those things.” The water and sewer system is failing as Faison wants to get the town to start working on.

The area underwent gas main and line replacement over a year ago, causing some disruption. Then there was a change in the traffic pattern in the center and the issue of parking and the impact on local businesses came to a head. Faison said he also wants to start a Town Manager’s Committee to work on the above ground portion of the center with the community, including a public planning process.

“There are developers waiting for us to start working in that area. Those developers are the way we get the above ground work done,” Faison said.

Just this week a developer was at site plan review meeting to develop the old Dollar Store on Somerset Avenue.

“With the limited amount of area we have in town we need to build up, one-story buildings won’t work,” Faison said. “Once we start setting the table of how we want Winthrop to look we can dictate the development around town.”

The next move for the town after the Center Business District work will be the old middle school building on Pauline Street.

“Right now the developer that has been looking at it is thinking of converting the existing building to multiple units of condominiums. We need a large development there because of the infrastructure costs for that project,” Faison said, or the old school could be torn down and rebuilt as individual housing.

Councilors Heather Engman and Nick LoConte voted against the appropriation. Councilors Phil Boncore, Linda Calla, Michael McDuffee, and President Ron Vecchia voted in favor.