Durfee High School prepared Fall River students for life heraldnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heraldnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Michael Napert
Michael Napert lives in Fall River.
Here we are, just about to enter a new election cycle, and we have some very important decisions to make.
On the one hand, we have a respectable incumbent in Mayor Paul Coogan, only because he hasn’t really embarrassed the city too badly (yet). His respectability however, is very quickly being diminished by his ineffectiveness in dealing with Superintendent Matt Malone. The fact that he’s unable to act in his capacity as chair of the School Committee, because the Massachusetts Ethics Commission gave him a free pass, is both a blessing (to him) and a source of great consternation to many of us.
Silvia garnered attention last week when a lengthy and strongly worded letter he submitted to a local independent media outlet was posted on its Facebook page.
In his letter, Silvia referred to the Durfee High building as being the most poorly constructed structure he’s seen during his 51 years of working in the construction industry.
The online letter led to a rebuttal in the form of a five-page letter sent to Mayor Paul Coogan by Boston-based company LeftField, which is acting as owner’s project manager (OPM) on behalf of Suffolk Construction.
In his letter, James Rogers, principal of LeftField, attributes most of the delays at the Durfee High project to what he says is the unsatisfactory performance by Silvia’s DDS Industries, which has a $26 million contract to install the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.
FALL RIVER Mayor Paul Coogan says he doesn’t understand why the owner of a local HVAC company has publicly lambasted the general contractor in charge of the $263 million B.M.C. Durfee High School construction project.
“He’s never come to me to discuss it,” Coogan said, referring to accusations of incompetency lodged against Boston-based Suffolk Construction Company by Dwight. D. Silvia, owner and president of D.D.S. Industries Inc.
The mayor, in a statement early Wednesday evening, said that construction-related problems that have arisen at the site and in the building have been “promptly addressed” since ground was broken in late 2018.
FALL RIVER The main course being served up in the cafeteria of Building G at Bristol Community College on Wednesday was a Moderna shot in the arm.
The kickoff of the COVID-19 regional vaccine site at the Elsbree Street campus began at 9 a.m., according to Fall River Fire Department EMS Lt. Nick Silvia.
Silvia said nine fellow EMT paramedics were assigned throughout the day to check in each eligible recipient, administer the free vaccine and then monitor individuals for fifteen minutes for any sign of an adverse reaction.
Mayor Paul Coogan held a press conference two weeks ago to announce that the campus had been selected as a general vaccination site for all state residents.