Town Manager Report for the week ending July 11, 2025
There was not a lot of activity for the week that ended on July 4, 2025 so I will incorporate a couple of things that happened last week in town as well.
On July 1st our Planning and Engineering departments met with representatives from East Greenwich and West Greenwich to discuss some of the joint concerns with all of the development within the Centre of New England property along with the intersection of New London Ave and Arnold Rd and the sewer infrastructure that all three communities share. It was agreed that we would collaborate for some grant funding opportunities in order to put together a strong application for this competitive process and maximize the opportunity to be awarded up to $300k. The project will be to study the traffic concerns and sewer infrastructure with all of the pending development both residential and commercial in the Centre of NE and New London Ave district.
The Town leadership met regarding some additional studies that will be taken on through our Safe Streets grant to look at 2 intersections in particular: Arnold Road at New London Ave along with Centre of New England Blvd and Hopkins Hill Rd. These are two vital intersections with all of the development planned in this area.
Director McGee and I had a virtual meeting with George Sfinarolakis from the RI Office of Energy Resources and his team on Wednesday July 9 to discuss energy efficiency options and strategies for our new HVAC units and lighting design at the Community Learning Center. We will be applying for some energy incentives.
Our team also met with the staff from the Pandemic Recovery Office to review the finances and progress of our Annex project. We are on budget at this time and continue to meet our expected timeline of completion for end of September, beginning of October.
On Thursday the Municipal Fire Commission had its last meeting to summarize all of the topics that will be presented to the Town Council at the July 22 meeting. We also reviewed what the estimated budget and tax implications would look like for both a 57 and 67-person municipal fire department.
The Town and School Department had a virtual meeting with Moody’s and our financial advisor, PFM, to review our application and bond status as we prepare to get final approval at RIHEBC for our $25m in school bonds which will be available in mid-August.