KBagley

I don't know... I get random info funneled to me via email from various sources... I'm sure there will be more from PADS or Pawtucket Foundation soon as they are in the midst of it.... The key thing right now is to demonstrate support for eminent domain at the City Council meeting tonight and Jen gave some good advice regarding that in an earlier post above...

I'm now told the developer is in court trying to get Judge Fortunato's restraining order overturned...

It is formally determined eligible for listing on the National Register which does impart the same protections and federal restrictions under the National Historic Preservation Act. Demolition began again this AM in defiance of the Cease and Desist order and was halted by the Pawtucket Police and city solicitor, however a wall is now structurally unstable and in danger of falling on the tracks below. My boss has arranged an onsite interview with Channel 12 and is there currently...

A new Providence High School and a YMCA... haven't heard much about the Y building, but the HS is controversial because it is a brownfield site. The Stop and Shop is closing.

Does anyone know what they are doing around the Public Safety building with those concrete pads they have poured? It looks like they are instaling Bollards, but they poured smoth pads with no bolts or anyway to attach anything to them...?

Within a month of moving to my first apartment in Providence I bought a brand new Charbroil grill. Used it constantly all summer and when I had to move this past month I insisted on finding a place with a yard that could accomodate it and ended up in a great house 4 blocks from Wayland Square. I may be living in the city, but coming from rural Maine (and being one of those people that will never give up their car) I insist on finding the right combination of yard space, garage parking, basement storage, free laundry and nearby amenities in any place that I live... and people always say I get the best deals on apartments because I find the places with that combination of things. And I got electric included this time :-)

I have no personal knowledge of this project, but have emailed my contact to see what she says... will post it if/when I get an answer.

Yes there is a rat-proof Trash can project... The city calls it the Big Green Can and they have been buying and distributing them to certain neighborhoods. They did the Summit neighborhood about 6 weeks ago and we now have THREE of these monster trash cans at the 3-family house where I rent. Each living unit in the city gets a can, not each house, so it is understandable that it would take awhile for them to be fully purchased and distributed. And each one comes with a packet of information, in spanish and english, from the city about how to use it properly to alleviate the rat problem. What I dont understand is why Summit got them before Federal Hill.... I think we have more of a raccoon-type pest problem here... regardless, since we got the big green cans, i havent had to clean up any toppled trash barrels and ripped open bags with last weeks dinner strewn everywhere... Also, the cans have serial numbers on them and the city assigns them to a specific address. They stipulate in the literature packet that they are the property of the city and MUST remain at the address to which they were assigned.

www.networkri.org

No, the area near Smithfield Ave is actually a layover facility... in order for MBTA to run trains into RI, they have to have a place to park them off the main line when they are not in use, i.e. at night. They cant just keep them on the main line, as Amtrak trains run pretty much 24/7, and it would be redundant to drive them back up to wherever the nearest layover facility is in Mass. So DOT was required to build the layover facility before MBTA would be able to run more trains in RI. Gotta give DOT credit for getting this taken care of as fast as they did. The alternative station that I think Cotuit is mentioning is the area that is currently being used or proposed to be used by a trash hauling company as a transfer station and recylcing yard or some such thing... the City of Pawtucket doesnt want it located where it is, so I believe there is some lawsuit going on... I could be wrong.

What are you dying to know? You only get 3 wishes, make them count... j/k

Actually, the Pawtucket/Central Falls Station has never been formally listed in the National register. It is listed in the Historic Resources Survey book for Pawtucket as a "significant property" and has been "formally determined eligible for listing in the National Register" but nobody has actually taken the steps to complete the NR nomination. I will contradict myself a little bit by saying that it being "formally determined eligible" does actually give it the same protections that an actual listing would... so its all kind of redundant. Welcome to the nitty gritty of preservation. I have a contact in the Cultural Resources division of VHB who told me she would be happy to feed any information from the Engineering division on this project. All we have to do is ask...

I've been wondering the same thing... it's tucked into the grassy area between the highway and on-ramp. My guess is that is a new salt shed and equipment storage facility for the highway crew. If so, they could have picked a better location or at least will hopefully plant some shrubbery to screen it...