All decked out for the year
Bennett School gets a spruce-up
By Anna L. Griffin Staff Reporter
LEOMINSTER— Bennett School definitely has the “Wow” factor going on.
Janice Palmacci, school secretary, describes the newly renovated school exterior this way: “When you turn the corner, it’s like wow.”
“It’s quite a difference, having all of this work done. It’s something the whole community will benefit from.”
The school recently underwent $55,000 worth of exterior work to help spruce up the grounds. Gone are the asphalt and a very large dead tree that used to greet some of the youngest pupils of the school district.
They have been replaced with brick pathways, granite steps, a lawn and several beds filled with perennials and flowering shrubs.
“It’s been a marked improvement,” said Helen Deranian, principal of Bennett, Priest and Lincoln schools. All three are centers for preschool and kindergarten programs. “We’re all so excited by these changes and perhaps the most wonderful thing about this is, it all came from the parents and from the community. They wanted this work to be done.”
The Bennett School Beautification Effort started in March 2005, when a group of parents approached Ms. Deranian about doing something to help improve the city’s oldest in-use school facility.
“I did have a child who attended school at Bennett,” said Karyn Doherty, a member of the beautification effort committee. “It just seemed like a way that we could help out, not just the school and the people who use the school but the whole Pleasant Street neighborhood.”
The group was fortunate to be able to enlist the services of COGdesign, a nonprofit organization that assists community groups in need of landscape design services. It works with professor John Furlong of the Landscape Institute of Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.
All of the recommendations by COGdesign were estimated to cost approximately $200,000. Committee members decided to break the project into three phases and when they reached the $55,000 mark — raised through grants, private donations and fundraisers — they decided to go ahead with Phase I.
“That phase really puts a new face on the school,” Ms. Doherty said. “We hope people will be pleased with what has been accomplished and maybe, just maybe, that will spur on a continuation for the other two phases.
“We owe so much to the members of the committee and to the work of Peter Dandini and Dandini Landscape,” she said. “He has proven himself to be a very good citizen of the community.”
Mr.. Dandini says the work he and the members of his crew did at the school means a great deal to him. “I have a lot of ties to the community.”
The school is situated in an area that is highly visible and by doing the work on the exterior of the building it will help the entire neighborhood, he said.
Mr.. Dandini also said he became involved with the project because of the T.J. Miller Memorial Basketball Courts, which adjoin the school property. He said Mr.. Miller was an important figure to many in the city.
Among those assisting in the project were members of the city’s Department of Public Works, who helped remove the dead tree, and a crew from Dandini Construction, including Nicholas Cormier, Alberto Cruz, Pat Crotty and David Rix, who did all of the “hardscaping” (the installation of pavers and granite steps).
The project received a major boost from a Community Development Block Grant for $24,000. Other major donors included Outback Restaurant, Wal-Mart, Shaw’s, Leominster Credit Union and the Leominster Police Association.
The Home Depot provided both painting supplies and a crew to paint the exterior of the portable classrooms. The school was power-washed by Paul Cassels of Central Mass. Powerwashing. J and R Parking Lot Striping also provided services for the renovations.
Quality Plant Growers, the Gardeners’ Spot and Central Mass. Garden Center all donated plants.
In addition to Ms. Deranian, Ms. Doherty and Mr.. Dandini, members of the Bennett School Beautification Effort Committee are Julie McDuffie, Sharon Mendes, Kathy Sargent and Wendy VanVoorhis, who are all parent members, and Judith Sumner, director of the city’s recreation department.
Ms. Deranian said Phase II of the project involves some play areas for the more than 200 children who attend Bennett School. These include an outdoor theater for the children.
“It’s something that we would like to continue with, to be able to see all phases of the project completed,” she said.
Those who would like information on the beautification effort can contact Ms. Doherty at (978) 840-6366.
Copyright Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp.
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