Fall River Publishes Year-Two Federal Community Development Action Plan
DATELINE: FALL RIVER
Ongoing improvements along the Route 79/Davol Street corridor continue to reshape traffic patterns in Fall River's downtown waterfront district, while the Fall River Public Library has expanded its museum pass offerings and made more than a half-century of the city's historic newspaper available online.
TOWN HALL
The city's multi-phase Route 79/Davol Street Corridor Improvement project remains active through the summer. City advisories have detailed a final traffic configuration of Davol Street northbound between Turner Street and President Avenue, with a follow-up notice flagging the reopening of Davol Street northbound to Turner Street alongside a new southbound traffic shift. Drivers navigating the corridor should continue to expect lane changes and reconfigured travel paths as the project advances.
A separate project on Columbia Street, from Broadway to Milliken Boulevard, keeps that stretch as a temporary one-way eastbound roadway, a change that took effect this spring.
The city has also published its 2026-2027 Annual Action Plan summary, the second year of Fall River's five-year consolidated plan, outlining proposed community development and housing investments drawn from federal program funding. The document is posted on the city website for public review.
With July heat underway, the city is keeping a heat safety advisory prominent on its homepage, urging residents to stay hydrated, check on elderly neighbors, and identify nearby air-conditioned spaces during elevated-temperature periods.
COMMUNITY & ARTS
The Fall River Public Library has added two new venues to its free and reduced-rate museum pass collection: the Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown, Rhode Island, and the House of the Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts. Cardholders can browse the full lineup of aquariums, historic sites, parks, and zoos and reserve passes online through the library's website.
The library has also launched online access to the Fall River Herald News digital archive, covering 1926 through 1979, as part of a growing local history collection that already includes historical maps, yearbooks, and city directories. Access is free for library cardholders.
The library is now operating on its summer schedule through Labor Day: Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Saturdays.
COMING UP
The Fall River Public Library is open this week on summer hours — Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Saturdays. The newly added Norman Bird Sanctuary and House of the Seven Gables museum passes, along with the full pass catalog, can be reserved on the library's website.