Looks like a pavilion bucks
Renovations make Lincoln Woods State Park even more of a summer destination
LINCOLN — After overcoming the delays of a hard New England winter at the outset, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM), its contractors and supporters on Friday opened what is sure to be a popular improvement to Lincoln Woods State Park, a new $5.5 million beach pavilion.
The project involved the complete removal of the old beach headquarters on Olney Pond and replacing that with a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient and passive lighting complex of three buildings clustered around a redesigned lakefront beach.
The federal Department of the Interior contributed $1.7 million to the project through its National Parks Land and Water Conservation Fund and the state $3.6 million through the R.I. Capital Plan Fund.
The design by Brewster Thornton Group Architects, constructed by Ahlborg Construction Corp., includes composite wood, post and beam, and stone masonry features in the buildings that give them a feel of the agricultural beginnings of Lincoln and the park’s boulder-strewn woods. Lincoln Woods is the oldest state park in the system with its lands between Breakneck Hill Road and Twin River Road acquired in 1909.
The improvements include a new beach headquarters building with offices for the lifeguards and beach supervisory staff, a new bathhouse with water and sewer connections to town services, and a new nature education center and meeting building where the opening ceremonies were held.
Noting the visitors showing up to look over the new construction despite Friday’s heavy morning rains, Nathaniel J. Ginsberg of Brewster
Thornton Group, one of the project’s architects, said it felt good to be looking back on work now completed.
“After doing all the work you have to do to get to construction, it is nice to take a step back and hear what someone else thinks about the project,” he said. “It is kind of rewarding to hear people speaking about your work in the long term,” he added.
Glenn R. Ahlborg, who worked with his brother Eric S. Ahlborg, on the construction side, noted that project got off to a slow start back when it broke ground in December of 2015 as the winter quickly came on hard and heavy with arrival of 2016.
After doing the initial site clearing, the project was practically put on hold until the warmer weather of a late spring.
“We really didn’t get construction started until spring of 2016,” he noted. And then there were the special considerations to address of setting up temporary facilities for the RIDEM so it could keep the beach open through the summer and safe for visitors.
The company installed a temporary headquarters for the park’s lifeguards and park staff and also temporary restroom and changing facilities nearby the work zone.
“So that was very challenging coordinating with the Parks Division and providing access to the temporary facilities,” Ahlborg said. The company installed fencing around all of its work sites and managed to keep working while park patrons made use of the beach facilities.
With the park set to open officially for the new season with Memorial Day weekend, all of the construction fencing has been removed and the new beach area landscaped with a new more open feel and wider viewing areas. The old outdoor shower kiosks that had been out on the patio in front of the pond are gone and new wide composite decking ramps lead down to the sand.
Before the crowd snipped the traditional opening ribbon on Friday, DEM Director Janet Coit hosted a speaking program that included Sen. Reed and his fellow congressional delegation members, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rep. James Langevin, and Rep. David Cicilline, and First Gentleman Andy Moffit, representing his wife, Gov. Gina Raimondo.
“I just want to say what a special place Lincoln Woods is,” Coit told the gathering after thanking all the contractors involved in the project.
“It is a place of history, it is a place of tradition, it is a place of tranquility and we have millions of Rhode Islanders who enjoy it,” she said. Coit noted how just earlier in the day a 92-year-old World War II vet, Walter from Cumberland, had stopped by to take a walk in the park, a routine he has been following since the 1940s.
“Families make memories here, children learn to swim here, and for many Rhode Islanders, this is their beach,” she said. Noting the activities available such as a concession for kayaking on the pond or the park’s horseback riding concession, Coit said the park is “truly a place accessible to all Rhode Islanders, and now with this set of pavilions it is going to be even a more incredible and inviting, environmentally friendly, healthy and welcoming place.”
Moffit said that he was “extremely proud and also grateful for Janet’s leader- ship and everyone’s leadership here,” when he addressed the gathering on the improvements.
The state’s federal delegation, he noted, had also been equally important to the improvements because the state’s assets not only benefit the towns or cities where they are located like Lincoln, but also the country as a whole. “So great buildings like this, great assets like this that we have across the state don’t happen unless you see the wonderful commitment of our federal delegation and I think they deserve a great round of applause,” Moffit said.
Moffit told how the Governor and their family make use of the state’s outdoor resources like its South County beaches and its bike paths while describing its natural assets as “the fabric of the quality of life in Rhode Island. We need to protect it, we need to invest in it, we need to market it. It is a big driver of our economy, it’s going to be a big driver in the improvement of our health as a state and as individuals,” he said.
Lincoln Woods, with its hiking paths, circular road system for biking, running, walking or even wintertime sports, provides great access to the outdoors, according to Moffit. “It is not far from so many urban areas, where people can come and bike, and cross country ski and fish, this is a park for four seasons,” he said.
The state’s residents also must remember that investments must be made in their state “so that Rhode Islanders and our kids are better off that we are,” he said.
The governor, he said, has promoted a goal that everyone in Rhode Island “should have an opportunity to make it in Rhode Island,” he said. “This is just another wonderful example of the way in which people are coming together and making it in Rhode Island,” he said.
Reed pointed to his peers in the Rhode Island delegation as working just as hard as him to help their state.
“Sen. Whitehouse, Congressman Langevin, Congressman Cicilline, we all work together, there is nothing that is done in Washington for Rhode Island that is done by one. It is done by all and I’m just delighted to be able to work with them,” he said.
Reed too, offered a personal look toward Rhode Island’s parks while noting a visit during which he had spoken to a state park employee. “And he summed it up very well. He said we are custodians for these places where people are able to create a memory,” Reed said.
“And anyone who grew up in Rhode Island can reflect back to the memories,” he said while noting Moffits’ description of the governor’s family visits to Sand Hill Cove.
“And those memories at Scarborough, those memories here at Lincoln Woods, are indelibly etched and are things that we fall back on and also are the moments that sustain us,” Reed said.
After cutting the red ribbon stretched across the beach ramp with a pair of scissors, Coit offered a quick wrap-up for the event. “All right, the beach is officially open for Memorial Day weekend and the summer,” she said.
Nehru King, the park’s beach manager, had strong praise for the improvements that his staff will be making use of through the summer.
“I think it is a magnificent achievement for the state of Rhode Island and something that was very much needed,” he said. “It will help draw people from other states to visit our beautiful state and that is what we are all about, letting people enjoy themselves with safety first,” he said.
Lincoln Town Administrator T. Joseph Almond was also impressed.
“It’s beautiful,’’ he said. “This is such a heavily used park, tens of thousands of people come here every year, and this is a big improvement over the pavilion that had been here since I started coming here as a kid,” Almond said.
The changes highlight the park as “a beautiful place,” he said, “and I think it adds to the great quality of life of our town that we are very lucky to have here,” Almond said.