Access Road To Be Studied, More

Selectmen have formed a committee to study whether an access road should be built through Bicentennial Park from Rockwood Road to the Freeman-Centennial School grounds.

The decision came during the selectmen’s meeting this past Monday night after a discussion that took almost an hour and 45 minutes.

The committee, which includes town and school officials and residents for an against the access road, is supposed to report back to selectmen in August.

About 25 people attended the selectmen’s meeting to talk about the access road, which stirs up passions on both sides.

At stake are three options: build a temporary access road for construction vehicles coming on and off site during construction of the new elementary school; build a permanent access road; or don’t built an access road of any kind.

If a permanent access road is built, town and school officials may have the option of restricting access to school buses and emergency vehicles.

The town’s public safety officials want the access road built to cut down on response time to the school grounds and provide an alternative route to get there in case of a traffic jam on Boardman Street.

“My one and only … concern is public safety for the kids and parents and teachers, employees, who access that school facility every day, whether it be athletics or academics, either way. So end of the day, if we can make a better solution to access that school facility, that’s what I’m in favor if,” Norfolk Police Chief Charles H. Stone Jr. said.

Stone said he is especially concerned about safety during the year and a half or so it takes for the new school to be built.

“End of the day, my concern is everybody gets through this project, we all live, we’re all happy with it, and we’re all building for the future,” Stone said.

Remo “Butch” Vito, the town’s public works director, said planning for the school site suggests the access road should be pursued at some point.

“We’re just looking at good access to the school, to the facility. It’s a recreational facility. It’s a school facility. … It just makes good sense for future traffic and future access to that facility to look at an access road,” Vito said. “… I just feel that we shouldn’t leave the town short, without that outlet. If it’s a money issue, then it’s a money issue. But it shouldn’t be taken out of the planning, of not ever having it. I mean, I think that’s not where you should go.”

At least some residents of Boardman Street also want the access road, hoping to alleviate some congestion on the heavily traveled thoroughfare.

Adam Mitchell, who lives on Boardman Street across from the school grounds, said a new access road may make it less dangerous on Boardman Street during construction of the new elementary school.

Mitchell said he has worked on comparable projects before, and that men working on them are often in a hurry to leave in the afternoon.

“They don’t leave projects slowly. They’re on the gas. It’s 3 o’clock, they want to get home,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell also said he wonders whether the old water main running underneath Boardman Street can withstand the stress of heavy construction trucks.

But residents who live on Ware Drive, Malcolm Street, and Geneva Avenue are wary of the access road, fearing it would lead to an increase in traffic in the neighborhood if it is connected to Geneva Avenue and that it would lead to increased flooding if new homes are built nearby because of the road.

Richard Morris, who lives on Malcolm Street, said that if trees are taken down to build a new access road and homes the water table will be raised, leading to even worse flooding than the neighborhood has experienced in the past.

“The location is just stupid to think about for the kind of road and use you’re planning,” Morris said.

Selectmen appear divided. There appears to be support on the board for building a temporary access road for construction vehicles, but it’s unclear whether the board will support a permanent access road.

Town officials have said recently that the Norfolk School Committee probably actually controls the land, known as Bicentennial Park, where the access road would built, but some observers say that’s a murky point. School Committee members spoke favorably about the access road proposal during a recent meeting, but the committee took no formal vote on it.

Even if town and school officials agree that building an access road of some kind is a good idea, it’s unclear where the money would come from. A temporary access road has been estimated to cost $110,000, though the school building committee chairman, Leo Bedard, said this week he thinks that estimate may be low, because a gravel road may not be strong enough to support the heavy construction trucks that would use the road. A permanent access road has been pegged at $350,000.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority, which is paying for about half the cost of building the new school and controls much of the way the project is built, is unlikely to approve using any portion of the $36.9 million appropriated for the school project on an access road, according to local officials.

The town doesn’t have funds available for building an access road, town officials say.

A creative financing method calls for selling potential house lots on the land to the town’s Affordable Housing Trust, using a portion of the money to build the access road and the rest for the elementary schools’ operating budget.

John Weddleton, a member of the Affordable Housing Trust and a developer, said the numbers work out, and the problems surrounding the school project construction suggest a new access road is necessary.

“You’re talking about thousands of yards of gravel coming in. This is going to be a nightmare,” Weddleton said.

The combination of enhanced safety and enhanced revenue interests School Committee chairman Shawn Dooley, who has expressed support for the access road.

“I’m trying to find a way to pay for the road, because I think it would be great if we could have it. I think it would be great for the town. If we ever had, God forsake us, a major situation like a Columbine or something like that, having a secondary major access out of the school would be very beneficial, obviously,” Dooley said during the selectmen’s meeting Monday night.

Selectman Rob Garrity, board chairman, who has expressed skepticism about the access road, pointed out that the access road that is supposed to accommodate fire trucks and perhaps even regular two-way vehicle traffic from new houses, would be significantly narrower than a typical new road these days.

“Bicentennial Park is 40 feet wide where it meets Rockwood Road. That’s it. So if we go to the absolute edge and get waivers from the Planning Board, which they won’t grant to a private citizen but maybe they’ll grant to us because we’ll smile and we’re the town, we can have a 40-foot-wide road there,” Garrity said.

Selectman Jim Lehan said he is “very concerned” about the safety of children and teachers during the school project.

But Lehan said he is against building new houses on the Bicentennial Park land because of flooding problems in that area. Without new house lots, it’s unclear where the money to build the access road would come from.

Selectman Jim Tomaszewski said he is worried about safety for children and construction workers during construction of the new school.

“Second, from a long-term point of view, I’m in favor of the access road. Whether it’s a private way or not a private way, we can decide that. But I think going having ability for public safety to get to the site is going to be important long-term,” Tomaszewski said.

Robert Bullock, the town’s building commissioner, said construction workers don’t have enough room on the school grounds to pile up dirt that they dig up to build the new school, which is why an estimated 50 tractor trailer loads of material are expected to go to the town’s Department of Public Works facility on Medway Branch Road. Almost 1,000 tractor trailer and cement trucks are expected to bring gravel and cement onto the school grounds, he said.

The immense traffic increase of heavy trucks suggests building the access road is a good idea, Bullock said.

“All that has to happen is one kid that’s going to get hurt, and we’re all going to regret not doing this access road, I think,” Bullock said.

But Bedard said that the construction entrance will be separated from the school entrance, and that there will be safety fences walling off the project area. Privacy screens will be erected to try to obscure the view of the project that students at Freeman-Centennial will have to try to minimize distractions, Bedard said.