Westbay eyes Wickes School as human service center

By John Howell
Posted 8/21/18

By JOHN HOWELL Westbay Community Action director Paul Salera is seeking to unite the services of the agency and has talked with Mayor Joseph Solomon about doing that at the closed Buttonwoods Community Center. Even better, says Salera, would be the John

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Westbay eyes Wickes School as human service center

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Westbay Community Action director Paul Salera is seeking to unite the services of the agency and has talked with Mayor Joseph Solomon about doing that at the closed Buttonwoods Community Center. Even better, says Salera, would be the John Wickes School that closed in June.

Mayor Joseph Solomon likes the concept of Wickes as a central location for human services. As for Buttonwoods, Solomon said he’s talked with Salera and can see the potential for long-term use by Westbay.

In an interview Monday, Solomon said he is assessing whether to move some city departments now housed in the former Greene School on Draper Avenue to Buttonwoods because of its central location and the fact that it is on a bus line.

The issue, he explained, is the long-term resolution of the Annex Building directly behind City Hall. A burst pipe forced evacuation of the Annex in January and the relocation to “temporary” offices at Greene.

Solomon said he is awaiting an engineering report as well as resolution of an insurance claim to determine whether it makes sense to renovate the Annex or tear it down and rebuild. Regardless of what course of action is taken, Solomon wants to move ahead with reopening Buttonwoods, especially for the senior groups that once met there.

Westbay rented space at Buttonwoods for its training programs until former Mayor Scott Avedisian closed it, citing estimated repair costs of $450,000 and proposing the property at the corner of West Shore Road and Buttonwoods Avenue be sold. At that time, Salera expressed an interest in either renting or buying the building but Avedisian met resistance from the City Council, especially Ward 7 Councilman Steve McAllister who wanted to save the center as a community resource. City offices including human services and senior center programs were relocated. Senior card clubs were given space at the Pilgrim Senior Center.

Salera said last week in an interview should the city lease Westbay to the center he would make space available for the card clubs. Additionally, he said the building would be made available as a polling location. He would relocate Department of Human Services and Westbay offices currently in the Buttonwoods Shopping Plaza that includes Ocean State Job Lot and the Work Out World (WOW) to the center. Also making the move would be the Westbay Marketplace.

Salera said he would rather be paying rent to the city than Stop & Shop, which owns the plaza. Solomon would like to see that, too.

As for repairs to Buttonwoods, Solomon said an individual who he doesn’t feel comfortable naming has made a “generous, generous gift” to fix the roof at no cost to the city. The building needs some additional work, but overall Solomon said the $450,000 estimate looks to be excessive.

“You might want to take a digit off that,” he said.

“I would like to work with Westbay,” said Solomon. He was interested in hearing more on how Westbay might re-purpose Wickes School once the property is turned over to the city.

Salera suggested the school not be limited to Westbay and that other agencies and nonprofits providing human services could be located in the building. He said he would consider relocating Westbay administrative offices as well as its child care services on Astral Street to the school.

“I’m not shutting the door on Paul [Salera],” said Solomon.

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