Voters will decide this November whether to allow the state to borrow $177 million for higher education projects, roadwork, land conservation and repairs to an historic fort.
The statewide ballot includes three bond authorization requests. The first is for $61 million for a new chemistry building at the University of Rhode Island and $17 million for a renovated art center at Rhode Island College. The second is for $84.7 million for transportation infrastructure improvements.
The final question requests $10 million to purchase the former Rocky Point amusement park in Warwick, $3.2 million to avert a public sale of the former Shooters nightclub in Providence and $1.5 million for renovations to Fort Adams in Newport.
Collectively, supporters of the measures call them a chance to invest in Rhode Island when the state’s economy needs it most. According to URI political science professor Maureen Moakley, voters will likely buy the argument, despite an environment dominated by news of states and individuals cutting back to cope with tough economic times.
“The history of referenda in Rhode Island is voters, under all kinds of economic conditions, rarely reject one,” Moakley said. “There’s a real sense out there that in order to pull ourselves out of this recession we need to do some investing.”
URI officials say that investing starts with approving $61 million for a new Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences in South Kingstown to replace an antiquated facility built in 1953. URI Vice President for University Advancement Robert Beagle said a new building is critical to the advancement of some of the school’s pre-eminent programs, including pharmacy, nursing, forensics and biotechnology.
Chemistry as a whole touches 40 percent of the curriculum at the university and more than 6,000 students take chemistry courses each academic year. The current chemistry building, Pastore Hall, was built to serve just 800 students and its labs today can accommodate only 2,400 students a year.
The first question also includes $17 million for the renovation and possible expansion of the Art Center at Rhode Island College in Providence. Built initially as a student center in the 1950s, the building’s power system cannot support computers necessary for today’s graphic design and photography classes, forcing the college to host those classes elsewhere.
“We’re hard-pressed to find another room to put another class in,” art department Chairman Bill Martin said. About 2,000 students each academic year take art-department classes.
Moving on down the ballot, voters will find a question authorizing $80 million for repairs to the state’s roadways and bridges and $4.7 million for new or upgraded buses for the R.I. Public Transit Authority. The roadway money will provide a state match necessary to leverage about $160 million in federal money each year, said Robert Shawver, administrator of the Planning and Finance Division at the R.I. Department of Transportation.
The legislature has traditionally declined to use money from the general fund to match federal dollars and that leaves the DOT with few other options than to borrow, Shawver said.
The DOT relies on federal money to pay for virtually every project from road resurfacing to bridge work. Major projects on the drawing board include the replacement of the Providence Viaduct carrying Interstate 95 by Providence Place as well as the bridge carrying the highway over the Pawtucket River.
Voters will also find a request for a combined $14.7 million to purchase two properties bordering Narragansett Bay and to repair Fort Adams.
The Rocky Point land has sat largely barren since the amusement park went bankrupt in 1995 and various development plans fizzled out. Now is the time to buy, said John Howell, president of the Rocky Point Foundation, a group calling for the land’s preservation.
And Howell, who is publisher of the Warwick Beacon newspaper, said the park could become an economic driver if the state established function facilities, a boutique hotel, a restaurant or a research post for a college.
A magnet for tourism is also envisioned to replace Shooters at India Point. For months a group known as Head of the Bay has urged the state to retain control of the property it purchased as part of the Interstate 195 relocation project. The state could remake the property into a function space, public marina and ferry stop, the group says.
But the DOT, which owns the property, says its first priority is to recoup the property’s purchase price, under an agreement with the federal government, which paid for most of the highway project. The ballot question would provide the DOT $3.2 million, which would keep the property in state hands. The money would go to general road improvements.
Down at the other end of Narragansett Bay, the Fort Adams Trust says $1.5 million in improvements to the state-owned, 19th-century fort could boost tourism. Trust Executive Director Eric Hertfelder said the money would be used to repair inside walls that border the parade grounds. That would allow the trust to open the 6.5 acres of grounds to self-guided tours for the first time.
“It is tough economic times, but certainly in the case of Fort Adams, it’s an incredible asset the state has which is currently underutilized due to the needed repairs,” he said. •
