Billerica's Howe School renovation targets mid-September opening for BATV headquarters

BILLERICA — August 18, 2022 — Billerica's renovated Howe School is on track for a mid-September 2022 opening as BATV's new home. The fifth episode of the town's "Howe's It Going" walkthrough series, filmed August 18, documented wide-ranging progress on the more-than-150-year-old building: a first-floor community room has received wainscoting and paint and will include a movable partition and BATV kitchen, a climate-controlled historic archive room has been carved out of a waterproofed basement that required excavation and structural shoring, and a main broadcast studio on the second floor features a double-layer soundproof wall system and green-screen wall with carpet tile already installed. Artifacts salvaged from the demolished Ditson School, including coat-hanger units fitted with small chalkboards, will be displayed in a first-floor nook. An unidentified town official leading the tour said, "You don't see that much in a 150-year-old building," referring to the dense fiber and conduit infrastructure now running throughout the structure.