Worcester, Massachusetts — It’s all about out with the old, in with the new all this week at the site of the old Doherty Memorial High School.
With a revved-up fleet of hydraulic excavators, loaders, bulldozers and Bobcats, demolition is in full swing at the high school building that served the neighborhood for 58 years. The razing of the old school began Friday and continued into the weekend. Demolition hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. this week, according to a spokesman for the Worcester Public Schools.
On-site excavators are equipped with shears, hoe rams, buckets and grapples for picking up the steel, while loaders are pushing material into piles for ease of putting into trucks.
Demolition is expected to end on Aug. 7.
The new Doherty, next door, opens in the fall.
While the main office and façade with the “Doherty Memorial High School” lettering (and the “Congratulations! SENIORS" banner) were still standing as of noon Monday, piles of twisted metal consisting of discarded coat racks, cabinets, school desks and chairs, as well as piles of wood, cardboard and ceiling tiles, were blocking first-floor windows.
In the schoolyard, there were two piles of tree roots behind Jersey barriers facing the street.
Working at the steady pace, the old school is being reduced to a pile of industrial rubble, as the new, $316 million Doherty Memorial High School sits idly by. Construction of the new school started in 2021 and it’s slated to open for the 2024-25 year.
All material will be separated prior to leaving the site. Brick/block and concrete are sent to facilities that will crush this material to be repurposed usually as gravel burrow, while metal from steel beams, rebar, to metal decking is separated and will also be recycled. The rest that is considered “trash” (including wood, sheetrock, insulation and rubber roofing) will be disposed of properly to landfills.
As for souvenirs, facilities has taken signs (plastic & wooden), lockers, scoreboards, a
Homeowner fights off alleged burglar with frying pan:
Homeowner fights off alleged burglar with frying pan: ‘My wife’s not happy about the decision I made’
Home security video captured a homeowner chasing away an alleged burglar with responding officers took the suspect into custody and then to the hospital to be checked out. Charges are pending.
No one was seriously hurt.
Homeowner Jason W. grabbed the first thing that came to mind when someone broke in: a frying pan.
Williams said it all started Thursday afternoon when he was on his way home from work.
Just minutes from home, Williams got an alert from his alarm system that someone had broken in.
“Came in the house, you know, I looked if there was an available weapon, there was a frying pan laying there,” Williams said. “So, I grabbed the frying pan, and at the same time the burglar came the down the stairs.”
“At this point it was kinda fight or flight, and I would rather do the fighting,” he said.
Officers eventually took the suspect down across the street.
Responding officers 👮♂️ took the suspect into custody and then to the hospital to be checked out.
Charges are pending.
No one was seriously hurt.
“This could have had a different ending, and I’m glad it had a good one. My wife’s not happy about the decision I made … probably wouldn’t do it again, but it is what it is,” Williams said.
