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DPW outlines $23 million-plus priorities and stalled projects in Burrillville capital plan
Summary
DPW Director Jeffrey/ Jeremy McCormick presented the FY26 capital improvement plan and longer-range projects including Harrisville Dam repairs, field complex work, skate park design, water-line extensions, and various bridge and sewer efforts; some grant funds are secured while other grants remain pending.
Burrillville — Jeffrey (Jeremy) McCormick, director of public works and engineering, presented the proposed capital improvement projects and progress updates at the council’s March 26 meeting, describing completed, under-construction and proposed work that the town is budgeting or pursuing grant funding to complete.
McCormick ran through about 30 slides that covered village street work, sidewalk installations, multiple village bridge and boardwalk rehabs, and detailed the long-running Harrisville Dam repair — a project that has grown in estimated cost from roughly $1.8 million to about $3.4 million as new work and regulatory requirements were identified. He said the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is requiring a low-level orifice and sheet-pile cutoff wall to reduce seepage and allow the lake to be lowered for storm events.
Other highlighted projects included construction at the new athletic complex (grandstands, press box and a future restroom and accessible seating), a planned field house foundation (with a $1.1 million grant application pending for the remainder), a skate-park design and $500,000 in grant funding, a municipal fuel depot at the DPW site to provide redundancy, and multiple road and drainage reconstructions. McCormick said the Masonville water project — adding water and fire protection to Masonville — carries a preliminary estimate of about $23 million and that exploratory wells on the Columbus Club property showed promise.
Several projects have funding secured or partially secured: McCormick said the town had $500,000 for the athletic complex site from a state office, $460,000 for a road project in hand, and other grants awarded but not yet paid or that require additional administrative work to access. He warned the council that sewer-treatment capacity and future upgrades will be expensive and that larger projects may rely on loans that would affect town credit.
Councilors asked for timelines on the Harrisville Dam permitting and whether pipelines under bridges could be aligned with dam work; McCormick said he expected DEM signoff within about a month and that engineers were coordinating several options for pipe routing. No votes were required for the presentation; councilors were informed and directed to follow up during the capital-program adoption process.
