Last week, the Hingham Select Board received a quarterly update on three major building projects in the town and issued proclamations recognizing Pride Month and the Juneteenth Holiday.
The quarterly capital project updates to the Select Board included the construction status of the two well-underway projects: the new Foster Elementary School and the new Public Safety Facility. The Select Board also received an update on the site feasibility for the proposed new Hingham Center for Active Living, formerly the senior center.
New Foster School Project update
This summer will be exceedingly busy in the ongoing construction of the new Foster Elementary School. Students will leave the building on Friday June 14th. Teachers’ last day in the building will be Monday, June 17th. Without wasting any time, demolition of the school’s south parking lot and salvage of the existing temporary playground will begin on Tuesday, June 18th.
The original plans were for the project to be completed by the start of the 2024/2025 School Year this September. That has been pushed back a couple of months due to residual COVID pandemic supply chain and labor shortage issues. Students and teachers will return temporarily to the old campus on September 4 with substantial completion of the new campus expected October/November, and first day in the new campus forecasted for late fall or early winter.
The total project budget remains the same at $113,335,749.
New Public Safety Facility Project update
Construction began on the Lincoln Street (Rte. 3A) facility in May 2023 and is expected to be finished in Spring 2025. The new facility will integrate the Police Station and North Fire Station into a singular, modern, sustainable, state-of-the-art hub for Hingham's first responders, spanning three stories and 49,000 square feet. The facility will house a 128-vehicle parking lot, which includes a 75-car garage and a 53-car outdoor lot. It is architecturally inspired by Hingham Shipyard's industrial legacy.
The framing and sheathing of the façade are 75% complete.
The total project budget, issued by the Town of Hingham, is set at $50,135,380.
Center for Active Living Update
Key considerations for the location of a new Center for Active Living rest on three main points: an adequate building area, with adequate parking, and its environmental impact.
A feasibility study of the new center’s needs has identified the need for a facility of between 20,000 – 28,000 square feet, 185-200 parking spots, and a 10,000 square foot outdoor program area.
With that in consideration, the most feasible location may be available space in one of four parcels in the Bare Cove Park area near the Hingham Department of Public Works Facility and the Light Plant. An expansion of the current center’s location at Hingham Town Hall is also being considered.
Pride Month and Juneteenth Proclamation
The Select Board’s Pride Month proclamation builds on the recognition across the Commonwealth and the country of June as Pride Month and celebrates the accomplishments of the LGBTQ+ community towards securing important rights and freedoms, often through struggle and adversity.
It was on June 28, 1969, that the Stonewall Riots, an event that gave rise to the beginning of the Gay Rights Movement in the United States, occurred.
Recognition of Juneteenth as a Federal holiday came in 2023. Juneteenth celebrates the day when word of the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery in America arrived in the farthest reaches of the Confederacy with the arrival of Union troops in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, two months after General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House and two and a half years after issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Hingham proclamation for Juneteenth is offered as an "opportunity to recommit ourselves to the goal of creating a more equal and just society, an effort that continues today.”
Photo: Inside the new Hingham Public Safety Facility, looking out at the Shipyard.
Photo: Construction on the new Foster Elementary School