Fall River to re-bid old Davol and Silvia schools. What’s next for both
Firefighters put out blaze at Fall River’s Silvia School: See inside
The fire at Fall River’s abandoned and dilapidated Silvia School is out, and now investigators are trying to determine its cause. Take a peek inside.
- City Councilors voted to send the former Davol School up to bid and find the right buyer.
- The Council additionally voted to demolish the Frank M. Silvia School.
- A month after the fire that ravaged the Silvia School, asbestos concerns stall the demo.
- Insurance claims for the problem properties may allow the city to recoup some funds for Silvia’s damages, or navigate the Davol School sale easier.
FALL RIVER — The city has determined the fate of not one, but two dilapidated city-owned properties, with more vacant properties, and decisions, to come.
On Tuesday night, the Committee on Real Estate met to deliberate the future of the former Davol School at 112 Flint St. and the vacant — now fire-damaged — Frank M. Silvia School at 138 Hartwell St.
Insurance claims for the problem properties may allow the city to recoup some funds for Silvia’s damages, or navigate the Davol School sale easier.
Both schools will be going up for bid, but for separate reasons. The suspected presence of asbestos in both of the older structures may stall the process. The liability of unoccupied buildings, in light of recent events including the arrests of four juveniles who set fire to the Silvia School on March 1, sparked questions about insurance from City Councilor and Chairman of the Committee on Real Estate Bradford Kilby.
Davol School could have a new lease on life in the right buyer’s hands
Rebekah Pontes, the city’s purchasing agent, together with the city’s real estate attorneys, identified a request for proposals, rather than auctioning off the property, as the more feasible of the two ways of proceeding with the former Davol school. The typical matrix for vetting and approving proposals will be used.
Kilby maintained that the decrepit school that once housed nonprofit Gates of Hope food pantry is “in the middle of a neighborhood,” and “hopefully a viable project.”
According to Assistant Corporation Counsel Kenneth Fredette, the property will be appraised within the next 30 days, with April 17 as a rough estimate of when that will be complete. Then, advertising the property to bidders twice in the two weeks following the appraisal will take place.
“We are definitely progressing in the eventual sale of this property,” Fredette said.
No documents prove that the Davol school is free of asbestos
To date, there is no official documentation showing that any environmental study was performed. It is unknown what percentage of asbestos, if any, is present in the building.
The Flint Neighborhood Association, Fredette said, “did nothing in regard to determining what was in that building.” The issue will need to be explored, he maintained.
City Council Vice President Linda Pereira recalled attending a Flint neighborhood meeting where it was said that the association spent $3,500 on the removal and remediation of asbestos.
The building is boarded up, but neighbors may be parking in the yard
There is no parking fee authorized by the city, Fredette shared, and no accounting to go along with it; it was the Flint Neighborhood Association who imposed historic fees related to parking.
With residents continuing to park on the property, Kilby questioned if the building was insured. “We’re looking into that,” Fredette said.
The old Silvia School stands to be demolished a month after arson incident
Since the three-alarm blaze on the first of the month, the Silvia School has been a sore spot, and sight, in the city. During the meeting, councilors contended that the city may be able to claim insurance coverage but there were “no definitive numbers” to go along with the possibility of a rebate.
Appraisals will consider the school’s contamination, and asbestos concerns will be investigated in the next 30 days.
The city has long declared the need to “make use of that corner,” after a botched bidding process failed to sell the building in November 2024. Now, with 20 demolition vendors in queue, the bidding — for razing the school — is nearly set to begin.
Kilby: ‘Buy more insurance’ for blighted city-owned properties
The former Davol and Silvia schools were the focus of the March 25 meeting, but other properties like 158 Bedford St., the old police station, surfaced in talks regarding the need for the city to “buy more insurance,” said Kilby, to cover its properties, especially riskier ones in need of environmental remediation or demolition, or long-abandoned structures vulnerable to criminal activity.
Pontes and Fredette claimed they were going “above and beyond” to initialize the bidding processes for the Hartwell and Davol Street properties.
The former Silvia School was unanimously approved to go up for bid by the City Council during the full-body meeting later in the evening on March 25. The Davol School was also voted back up for bid, with City Councilor Andrew Raposo casting the single negative vote.
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