Preparations for New Westwood Library Begin Monday

While the New Westwood Library is still months away from breaking ground, preparations for the project will begin at the Colburn School starting Monday, August 30, the Westwood Board of Selectmen said Monday.

"If you're looking at the school, behind it will be cleared," said Board of Selectmen Chairman Nancy Hyde at a meeting Monday night. "It will lead to the preparation of the move of the Colburn School this fall."

The preparations will be carried out by the Westwood Department of Public Works, which will work with a private contractor to clear the area behind the Colburn School of bushes and trees.

"We will be removing the trees and the stumps where the Colburn School is going to be moved to temporarily while the library is being built, and also where the library will be built," Westwood DPW director Vicki Vickrey said in a phone call Tuesday afternoon. "We will be leaving a few trees in there until we absolutely have to move them for the library project (to begin)."

The actual move of the Colburn School won't take place until late fall. That portion of the project is expected to go out to bid sometime in September. 

"We have it staked out there right now," Vickrey said. "It's the property just east of the Colburn School. It's kind of a flag-shaped lot, and in the back, that's where the Colburn School will be moved temporarily."

The work will begin Monday and may extend into Tuesday, possibly even Wednesday.

"It should take a couple of days, and there will be signs out on High Street," Hyde said Monday night.