State finishes $1.9M bathhouse

NARRAGANSETT – State officials Monday cut the ribbon to a $1.9 million bathhouse at Salty Brine State Beach.
The two-story Narragansett bathhouse includes restrooms, showers, a snack bar, a lifeguard station and storage space. Handicapped-accessible decks on the upper level provide views of Block Island Sound and the entrance to Point Judith Pond. The R.I. Department of Environmental Management will administer the bathhouse.
The project also includes a wind turbine and solar panels. The solar panels will heat hot water while the wind turbine will provide electricity. State officials say the turbine is the first of its kind at a state property.
The new 2,478-square-foot facility replaced an existing bathhouse constructed in the 1950s. The state obtained the property between 1954 and 1956 and rechristened it in 1990 as Salty Brine State Beach after well-known radio personality Walter L. “Salty” Brine, according to the Narragansett Chamber of Commerce. The beach sits at the end of the Port of Galilee, which is home to Rhode Island’s fishing fleet and the primary ferry service to Block Island.
Funding for the $1.9 million project included $900,000 from Rhode Island capital funds, $100,000 from the Governor’s Commission on Disabilities, and $900,000 from the National Park Service Land and Water Conservation Fund. The R.I. Economic Development Corporation, through its renewable energy fund, provided a $32,175 grant for funding construction of the wind turbine.