Tuesday, March 27, 2012
The three-year plan was presented Thursday evening to the Board of Selectmen.
Town officials laid out plans for the next three years of road improvements to Dedham streets that will invest about $6 million through fiscal year 2015. The Board of Selectmen approved the plan Thursday. "It has a pretty good spread throughout the town," said Jason Mammone, Dedham's resident engineer. "It includes a little reclamation, preventive maintenance, and routine maintenance." The road management plan reflects how the town would spend about $1.5 million in local funding and $500,000 in state funding. If either of those funding sources are changed, the management plan will change. For six years, town officials have used a computer program to generate roads due for maintenance based on balance of work and need, Mammone said. Under …
42.24667
-71.17349
Dedham Town Hall
26 Bryant St, Dedham, MA
/articles/dedham-plans-to-use-6m-on-roads-through-2015
421309
/locations/6668204
Friday, March 23, 2012
Dr. Mary Ann Tricarico, five weeks in, has eyes on a strategic plan.
You're only new in a job for so long. That's what Dedham Library director Dr. Mary Ann Tricarico is finding out as she has begun to navigate the waters of budget season and looks to create a team atmosphere amongst her staff. "I don't know where we are going to go with the strategic plan. I don't know what we are going to see the future of the library become, but I think we are in a very positive direction," Tricarico said. Tricarico, a veteran of public libraries in Peabody, Lincoln, Newton and Lynn, worked for the past 15 years in academia, before taking over as Dedham's director on Feb. 13. "Coming back to a public library, I'm smiling everyday," she told selectmen Thursday evening. Five weeks in, Tricarico soon plans to begin a …
42.24667
-71.17349
Dedham Town Hall
26 Bryant St, Dedham, MA
/articles/selectmen-excited-over-library-director-pick
421309
/locations/6646112
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Paul Reynolds joined the Board of Selectmen meeting Thursday from a hotel room in Scottsdale, Ariz.
For the first time, a Dedham Board of Selectmen meeting spread across 2,665 miles. "Live from Scottsdale, Arizona," selectman Paul Reynolds said to open Thursday's meeting. Thanks to a new policy approved by the Board of Selectmen last month, Reynolds joined the meeting using an online video conferencing program called Skype. "We do have a quorum present, we will allow Paul Reynolds to be able to participate in the meeting," board chairman Jim MacDonald said. "Paul’s votes and comments are apart of the official record." So instead of Reynolds sitting in Town Hall with his laptop or iPad, he sat on an Apple computer screen, tieless, with palm trees in the background. And while the other four selectmen flipped through the hard copy of the …
42.24667
-71.17349
Dedham Town Hall
26 Bryant St, Dedham, MA
/articles/paul-reynolds-the-skyping-selectman
421309
/locations/6443340
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Supporters will now try to form a non-profit group and sign a lease for the building with the town.
As expected, the Dedham Board of Selectmen unanimously accepted a plan to turn the current Avery Elementary School into a community and arts center, paving way for a non-profit organization to form to step up to the task of readying the school for its new use. The Avery Re-Use Committee spent nearly a year debating a proper use for the 1920s school, and recommended that it be used as studio, gallery and meeting space for artists and community groups. "It was a lot of work - a labor of work," said Avery Re-Use Committee chairman Joe Heisler. "Many [other ideas], while great, were not feasible." Heisler told selectmen Thursday that the project is "value added" and something that Dedham has not offered before, making it a unique challenge …
42.24667
-71.17349
Dedham Town Hall
26 Bryant St, Dedham, MA
/articles/dedham-selectmen-ok-avery-arts-center
421309
/locations/6915159
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Artists will help raise money for the new center with 20 painted rabbit sculptures.
The arts will be hopping this spring – all around Dedham. Modeled after nearly 300 successful public art projects around the country, the Dedham Public Art Project has been unveiled this month, which will result in 20 artist-painted fiberglass rabbit sculptures placed across town in high-visibility locations starting in spring 2012. Each 5-foot-high rabbit will be painted by a juried selection of local artists – and each sponsored by local businesses, individuals and organizations. At the conclusion of the public display over several months, the completed sculptures will be auctioned off to support the proposed Mother Brook Arts & Community Center being considered as a new use for the current Avery Elementary School. As part of the project…
42.248061
-71.17292
Dedham Community Theatre
580 High St, Dedham, MA
/articles/artful-bunnies-to-benefit-proposed-dedham-art-center
421029
/locations/6158579
42.24783
-71.15755
Avery Elementary School
123 High St, Dedham, MA
/articles/artful-bunnies-to-benefit-proposed-dedham-art-center
421301
/locations/6158580
Friday, January 6, 2012
The board will take time to evaluate the proposal.
There is plenty of work to be done to get the current Avery Elementary School transformed into a community and arts center - but that work won't begin just yet. The Dedham Board of Selectmen held off Thursday evening from voting on the recommendtaion given to them from the Avery Reuse Committee until they can study it more, chairman Jim MacDonald said. "It is a lot to digest," MacDonald said. "There is a lot in here. I agree with the premise [...] but I think that this is the beginning." The board and Avery Reuse chairman Joe Heisler acknowledged the vast amount of work in front of them, but MacDonald said he wanted the selectmen to make sure they understand how the Reuse Committee envisions the center coming together. "The last thing …
42.24783
-71.15755
Avery Elementary School
123 High St, Dedham, MA
/articles/selectmen-put-avery-art-center-vote-on-hold
421301
/locations/6133480
Thursday, December 8, 2011
The Avery Re-Use Committee will send its unanimous recommendation to the Board of Selectmen.
The learning at the 1920s version of the Avery School is not quite done. The Avery Re-Use Committee unanimously voted Tuesday to recommend that a non-profit organization run an arts and community center out of the soon-to-be vacant school on High Street. The group would rely on private funding and grant money to renovate and run the facility, committee chair Joe Heisler said in a phone interview. "We felt it could meet an unmet need in the town, and could be a financially viable entity, if it is organized correctly," Heisler said. The recommendation calls for making way for performance arts space, studios, youth and senior activities and meeting space for civic groups, Heisler said. The committee took roughly 12 "grueling" meetings to …
Thursday, November 17, 2011
The Avery Re-Use Committee will hold a 'business' meeting in early December to begin whittling down options.
Selectman Paul Reynolds took a step toward a campaign dream Tuesday evening as he presented an idea that would turn the current Avery Elementary School into a place for artists to create, display and learn. Artspace, a company that specializes in restoring old buildings for artistic use, told Reynolds that the Avery School holds potential, Reynolds said. "We see that other people have done it across the country, so we know it is possible, we know it is feasible," Reynolds said. The Avery Re-Use Committee, tasked with finding a pernament use for the current school has begun thinking about public/private partnerships after many town departments declined use of the facility. The committee is scheduled to make a recommendation to the Board of…
42.24783
-71.15755
Avery Elementary School
123 High St, Dedham, MA
/articles/selectman-reynolds-pitches-art-space-for-avery
421301
/locations/5969915
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The Avery Re-Use Committee will meet Tuesday to continue discussing feasible uses for the High Street building.
Dedham seniors have turned down the current Avery School as a site of a new senior center – and will look to land at the Endicott Estate as a future home. The Avery Re-Use Committee is attempting to find a suitor for the 1921 building that will become vacant in the spring, and the debate is continuing Tuesday night at 7 p.m. The committee has a deadline of the end of the year - set by Town Administrator William Keegan - to establish a plan for a permanent occupant. The Council on Aging is considering locations in Dedham for a new senior center, and was up for the current Avery School, but COA chair Leanne Jasset told Dedham Patch that the site would not work for the COA’s clients. “We just felt all the research we’ve done over the decades…
42.23952
-71.16474
The Endicott Estate
656 East St, Dedham, MA
/articles/dedham-seniors-pass-on-avery-suitor-still-needed
420917
/locations/5809050
42.24783
-71.15755
Avery Elementary School
123 High St, Dedham, MA
/articles/dedham-seniors-pass-on-avery-suitor-still-needed
421301
/locations/5809051
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Town Meeting members approved a zoning bylaw change that could allow 1000 Washington St. to be developed.
Dedham Town Meeting members approved a zoning bylaw change that could allow for a mixed-use development at 1000 Washington St., currently a long-abandoned gas station often called an eyesore at the gateway of Dedham. The warrant article, put forward by attorney and Town Meeting member Peter Zahka, would allow for subsidary apartments in the Research, Development and Office District (RDO) between the Dedham-Westwood border on Washington Street and Elm Street, and from the Rte. 128 on-ramp to Legacy Boulevard on Providence Highway. Zahka, who proposed a similar article at the May 2011 Town Meeting, amended his article to limit the number of apartments allowed under the new bylaw to 30. "One thousand Washington is one of those key gateways …
42.22894
-71.18597
1000 Washington St, Dedham, MA
/articles/eyesore-at-dedham-gateway-could-see-development
/locations/5762131
Eric Anonymous
9:07 pm on Tuesday, March 27, 2012
We live in a section of town near the Westwood border, and the roads here have not been done in over 30 yrs. Its pathetic. Aprently one of the neighbors complained so much they came up and fixed about a 75 foot section of the road. I just don't get it. I know our neighborhood does not have thru trafic as it is a deadend, but 30 yrs. Neighbors have called the DPW and were told "get in line". Nice … more ›