Dellefratte Family Memorial Gets Go Ahead

A “tasteful” stone memorial to the Dellefratte family’s 175 years of service to Barrington’s public works department will rise soon at Chianese Field on the corner of Foote Street and Prince’s Hill Avenue.

The parks and recreation commission approved the granite memorial at its monthly meeting Thursday night, June 27. The board was given that authority by the Town Council at its June meeting.

Work on the memorial is expected to start in a couple of weeks and be completed by the end of July, said Michael “Razzy” Dellefratte, the patriarch of the family who worked 40 years in public works. 

The memorial will sit on land that was once owned by Dellefratte’s brother, Billy, who put in 37 years at public works. He sold the land to the town.

Dellefratte and several other family members approached the recreation commission a few months ago with the proposal to erect the memorial to let people know of the family’s 175 years of service to Barrington. The original plan, which Dellefratte dubbed “a Washington monument” at Thursday’s meeting, fell on deaf ears primarily because the family asked the town to kick in several thousand dollars to help pay for the memorial. 

The Town Council also asked the recreation board first to come up with appropriate guidelines for all memorials before it would reconsider the proposal.  The board did that and was then given the authority to select the final design after the memorial was scaled back and the family settled for picking up the entire cost.

Dellefratte said the family will get some help from the public works department to prepare the land. And, perhaps, to help move the massive stone from Barrington Lumber, where it sits on a wooden pallet, to the corner of Foote Street and Prince’s Hill Avenue.

But most of the work will be done by family members and family equipment, he said.

The granite stone is about 6 feet across at its widest point and 36 inches high. It weighs thousands of pounds. It will be dropped directly into the ground, not on a foundation. It will sit on the north side of the walking path with the engraving facing the street.

Other family members who worked for Barrington include Gus and Tony and Dellefratte’s father, Erasmo, who worked for 52 years for Barrington as a DPW superintendent and became known as “Mr. Public Works” in town. 

The recreation commission vote was not unanimous. Vice Chair Ed McKinley said: “The Town Council should make the decision. They’re ducking their authority.”

He voted against the motion on those grounds. The final vote for the memorial after months of consideration and deliberation was 6-1.