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The Walk For Kyle event is an annual walk-a-thon held every year in honor of our stillborn son, Kyle. Kyle, who is survived by his twin brother Jeffrey Jr., is estimated to have passed approximately 3 days prior to delivery. My wife and I struggled for almost 6 years to have children including 4 IVF cycles. The 4th cycle is where we became pregnant. Throughout the pregnancy there was no sign of complications and we expected to bring two healthy boys into to the world. While our walk will never bring Kyle back, we use it a tool to promote Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness and donate the proceeds to Sturdy Memorial Hospital's perinatel bereavement program. The walk is held every October since October is designated as the official month to recognize Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness as declared by former President Ronald Reagan in 1988. This year's walk is October 11, 2008 with registration starting at 9am and the walk starting at 10am. The walk takes place in Slater Memorial Park in Pawtucket and is a 4 mile walk along there bike trail. |
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| Grebien campaign kickoff attracts more than 200 supporters |
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PAWTUCKET -- In a campaign kickoff event before a crowd of more than 200 enthusiastic supporters at the Portuguese Social Club, mayoral candidate Don Grebien cited his experience, private business sector background, “passion” to tackle the challenges facing the city and the need for “a change in leadership” and “new vision” for Pawtucket. ‘We can not afford to continue going in the same direction for another two years,” Grebien, a veteran City Council member and registered Democrat who is running as an independent on the Nov. 4 ballot, told the standing-room audience at Monday’s (July 28) event. “I envision a city that is vibrant -- that has energy -- that delivers more than the tired, old practices of the past,” Grebien said. “We stand today at a crossroads for our great city. We can choose to sit back and let a faltering economy, an aging infrastructure and lack of leadership push us into oblivion, or we can inject new energy, new enthusiasm and a new, bolder direction to restore the pride in our great city. It’s not about small steps, it’s about giant steps to change our city,” Grebien said. “As an elected official I have led the fight to reduce spending, to stop taking your hard earned money with our annual property tax increases. Also, working as a private-sector businessman, I have seen the realities of what it takes to run a successful enterprise. Today we are all doing more with less.” |
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Mayoral candidate Don Grebien speaks at Monday's (July 28) campaign kickoff event before more than 200 supporters gathered at the Portuguese Social Club, School Street. |
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Grebien said when city positions become vacant, “a job analysis should be taken instead of rushing to fill it with a ‘friend’. This is the hard reality in the private sector and it must become the hard reality of the public sector.” The candidate also said he had “the energy, the enthusiasm and the passion” required to be the city’s mayor. “The Mayor of Pawtucket has to be a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week job,” he said. “I have the desire, the will and the abilities to be your mayor -- 24/7.” Grebien called the $5.1 million deficit built into the new city budget “unacceptable.” “Our budget has risen above the cost of living increases over the past decade without any meaningful increase to our most important resource, the education of our children,” he said. “I have a vision for the future. We need to revive our downtown. We need to develop our waterfront.We need to make our schools vibrant centers of learning and we need to make our streets safer and our seniors protected,” he said. “It’s time for a change in leadership. It’s time for a new vision. It’s time to put the pride back in Pawtucket,” concluded Grebien, who was joined onstage by his wife, Laureen (LeBlanc), and their two children, Alexa, 9, and Connor, 7. In introducing Grebien, Fairlawn Little League President Tammy Ward noted Grebien had quietly sponsored a team in a city league .“I witnessed first-hand Don reaching out to help. Whether it is children in their formative years or seniors in their golden years, we can rest assured that Don Grebien personally cares for them,” said Ward, and if elected “will put people first and politics |
Don Grebien, running as an "independent Democrat" for mayor,addresses supporters at campaign kickoff event as his wife, Laureen, daughter Alexa and son Connor (hidden behind dais) look on. |
second. We need elected leaders who care about the people. Don Grebien is that leader.” Former three-term Mayor Robert Metivier, who was introduced to the crowd by emcee and former City Councilor David Clemente, said new leadership was needed as the city wrestles with state and federal budget cuts while trying to maintain quality services and protect the taxpayer. “The job of Mayor requires energy and passion. It requires innovative thinking. It requires someone willing to buck conventional wisdom,” said Metivier, who is taking an active role in Grebien’s campaign. “It is time for change. I’ve known Don Grebien for many years and he represents the change we need. He has the energy, the passion, the smarts and the guts to move our city forward,” said Metivier. “We can no longer sit by and watch our city deteriorate. |
We need a fighter -- we need someone who will change the way we govern in Pawtucket. It’s time for Don Grebien to be mayor,” Metivier said. Grebien, a lifelong city resident employed as supply chain manager at American Insulated Wire, a subsidiary of the privately held Leviton Co., and his family live at 101 Vine St. in the Darlington neighborhood and formerly lived in the Fairlawn and Woodlawn sections. A former council president, he is an at-large councilor who has served since 1998. He is a parishioner/lector of St. Teresa’s Church, a member of the Delany/St. Teresa’s Council 57, Knights of Columbus, Preservation Society of Pawtucket, Winter Wonderland Committee, Lefoyer Club, Pawtucket Fireworks Committee, Pawtucket Riverfront Commission, Pawtucket Neighborhood Alliance, and a sponsor of a Pawtucket Youth Soccer team and a T-ball team in the Darlington American Little League. The campaign, whose slogan is “It’s Time...Pawtucket,” announced that it has set up a Web site at www.grebien08.com and an e-mail address at grebien08@cox.net. For further Press Relations information contact: Doug Hadden, 4osage@cox.net; 401-316-9139 |
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A public hearing will be held Thursday, July 31, at 7 p.m. at the Smithfield Senior Center to discuss RIPTA’s plan to shorten the Route 9 bus route, eliminating the portion of the bus run beyond Greenville to Eleanor Slater Hospital’s Zambarano Unit in Burrillville. The Senior Center is located at 1 William J. Hawkins Jr. Trail, Smithfield.
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By Dawn P Goff As soon as the tents started going up, people began to arrive. The open house held something for the whole family. For the kids, the Radio Disney AM550, AM1250 crew set up with music and contests. Correct answers to trivia questions were rewarded with Disney prizes, including items from the every popular Hannah Montana TV show. There was even a lesson on how to dance the Cha Cha Slide. I think I saw a few adults “helping” the kids. Set up next to Disney was the Navigant Raffle Table. Here Navigant employees Paula Youssef, Dale Tregaskis and Sasha Som handed out free raffle tickets and Navigant reusable bags containing a Navigant ice cream scoop and a Navigant coffee mug.The raffle prizes, a gas grill, a Nintendo WII and a big screen TV along with several gift certificates to local area stores and restaurants were to be given out at the close of the event.
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At 1:00 PM Paw Sox pitcher Justin Masterson began handing out autographed baseballs. It is rumored that he will soon be called up to the Red Sox. Who knows what the ball could be worth sometime in the future?
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Story and photos In myth and legend, mermaids are creatures associated with the sea, where they live in grottos far below the waves or rest on islands, there to lure unsuspecting sailors to their fate. Odysseus could not resist the sirens’ call, saved only by being lashed to the mast while the wax in the ears of his crews spared them from his cries for release. Or so Homer wrote. There is The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen harbor, a bronze statue commissioned by the founder of Carlsburg Breweries from his fascination with the Hans Christian Andersen story, later known to millions by the Disney adaptation with its happier ending. Or Darryl Hannah |
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swimming near the Statue of Liberty and saving the life of Tom Hanks in the 1984 film “Splash,” another modern mermaid fairy tale. But a mermaid in Pawtucket? Right downtown on Main Street? Maybe in your busy drive-bys you may not have noticed, but next time you pass by the fountain in the plaza outside Sovereign Bank, take a closer look. There amidst the cascading water is a small figure with the face and torso of a female and the lower gills and tail of a fish. No one has dubbed her with a name yet, but since May the statue has added a touch of art to an urban plaza better known for its sterility, flanked by two brick buildings and sitting below a stairway to a parking lot. Actually the plaza, according to a bronze plaque below the fountain, is officially the Lawrence A. McCarthy Mall, named for the man who served as mayor from 1951-1953 and again from 1954-1966. The plaque notes the dedication on Oct. 9, 1980 was granted by the City Council and the late Dennis Lynch when he was mayor. |
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LINDA DEWING, a sculptor who with a partner recently launched Places & Spaces Realty downtown on Main Street, can look out her window and see her mermaid sculpture that the city recently installed at the plaza fountain outside the entrance to Sovereign Bank. |
But the mermaid is new, installed in May by a city public works crew after the approximately 3-foot statue was donated by its sculptor, Linda Dewing, who with a partner recently opened the Places & Spaces Realty office next door. “It’s a sculpture I made about 20 years ago,” said Dewing. The mermaid’s relocation came after it was “living on my balcony at Riverfront Lofts. We put her out here and we thought it would be kind of fun.” The statue also inspired DPW chief Jack Carney to fix the fountain, whose motor had broken, and mermaid and flowing water have been a happy combination ever since. “She’s bronze. She was cast at the Paul King Foundry,” the internationally known foundry run by Paul Cavanagh in Johnston, Dewing related. But her real “birth” was in New Hampshire. That’s where Dewing spent a year as an artist in residence at the Saint-Gaudens estate, an art colony in Cornish. “I was just intrigued by the idea of a mermaid. What constitutes a mermaid? Is there a young mermaid? Do mermaids reproduce or not? Where does the tail come from?” Artists’ takes on the mythical creature vary widely, Dewing noted, leaving her freedom for invention. Her creation now on Main Street has a slight frame, flowing hair, upswept tail and a graceful, undulating posture not unlike a dolphin making its way through the waves. From her window at Places & Spaces, Dewing has an uncommonly, for an artist, direct view of how the public enjoys her work. And if the coins now increasingly being tossed into the fountain are any indication, the mermaid is already a hit. |
Story and photo By DOUG HADDEN / Executive Editor He has yet to officially begin his new job as executive director of the Pawtucket Foundation but Thomas A. Mann Jr. is losing no time in making his getting-to-know-you rounds in the community. Wednesday afternoon, he met the board members of the private, nonprofit foundation, comprised of business owners and community leaders who advocate for economic development in the city. Wednesday night, accompanied by Daniel Sullivan, foundation co-founder and CEO of Collette Travel, Mann received a warm welcome in introducing himself to City Council members at their relocated meeting at the School Administration Building, in the former Registry facility at 286 Main St. The 32-year-old Mann, whose official duties begin Monday, will have big shoes to fill: He is succeeding Richard Davis, the foundation’s first director, who after seven years here left in April to become president of the Downtown Development District in 250,000-population Fort Wayne, Indiana, a group with a similar mission to the foundation. Like Davis, a native of Ohio, Mann does not hail from Rhode Island -- he’s a Mississippi native -- though he brings a decidedly local twist. “My wife, Ewa Dzwierzynski, grew up in Pawtucket,” Mann told All Pawtucket All The Time prior to the council session. “She and her family lived here for more than 20 years.” Mann earned a bachelor degree in architecture at Mississippi State where he graduated in 1999, where according to his online LinkedIn profile he also played trumpet in the Famous Maroon Marching Band, earned entry into the National Architecture Honor Society and completed Air Force ROTC training. |
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TOM MANN brings an urban planning background and Air Force military training to his task as the new executive director of the Pawtucket Foundation. |
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“I did eight years in the Air Force,” said Mann, who served as a maintenance engineering chief his last two years and left as a captain. “I’ve been all over the world.” Mann went on to earn a master’s degree in city and regional planning, urban planning, matriculating from 2005-2008 at Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, where he was also an assistant professor of aerospace studies in the Air Force ROTC program. Courses he taught there included “The Evolution of Air and Space Power” and “Vietnam to the Global War on Terrorism.” But urban planning and community design issues have always held a fascination for Mann, and he also worked part time from August 2007 to May of this year for A. Nelessen Associates, Belle Mead, N.J. until spotting the Pawtucket Foundation director job posting online. “I was looking for new urbanist type jobs,” and was struck by the opportunity in Pawtucket to combine “urban design and economic development,” Mann said, “bringing life back to urban communities.” Mann pointed to Pawtucket’s “great potential” and “historic character and charm” as other built-in assets. “There’s just so much opportunity here that brought me here,” he said. His first official day on the job will be Monday. For now, Mann said he and his wife are living in Narragansett but expect to be looking for loft-type living space in Pawtucket. |
By DOUG HADDEN Executive Editor With two candidates dropping out by the signatures deadline, the mayoral battle has shaken out as a November contest between Mayor James E. Doyle and Councilor-at-large Donald Grebien, who is running as an independent. The head-to-head race shaped up as Rick Gibson, of 248 Central Ave., a Democrat running for the first time when he took out nomination papers last month, and Douglas Tunstall Jr., of 40 ½ Bullock St., a Republican who was trounced by Doyle in the mayoral final two years ago, both failed to return any signed nomination papers by the Friday (July 11) deadline. Also not returning signatures after taking out papers was announced independent Kenneth Bowdish, 231 Benjamin St., who like Grebien would have been only on the November ballot. Grebien, 40, of 101 Vine St., is like Doyle a registered Democrat. But he is running as an independent, which election rules allow, according to Ken McGill, the city’s registrar of voters. That move means he will avoid having to face Doyle, 69, of 322 Pullen Ave., on Sept. 9 when the party primaries are held, and where a longtime incumbent like Doyle, first elected mayor in 1998 after more than two decades on the City Council, would be seen as having at least an organizational edge in his party’s primary. This past spring, Grebien was critical of an administration budget he said did not cut costs deeply enough, while Doyle labeled Grebien as irresponsible for calling for 10 percent cuts across the board. Even their signature gathering has already proved competitive: With 200 valid voter signatures required to run for mayor, Doyle’s forces gathered 350 while Grebien turned in 351. In other contests, seven candidates -- five Democrats, an independent and a Republican -- qualified for the ballot for the three council-at-large seats, which also require 200 voter signatures because they are citywide offices. Two incumbent slots are being vacated, with Grebien opting for his mayoral run and Robert Carr resigning last month after moving to Cumberland, leaving Thomas Hodge the only at-large incumbent councilor.
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Michael W. Newman, of 218 Baxter St., submitted 240 signatures, and Joel Tirrell, of 249 Taft St., a Republican, submitted 225, which like all other voter signatures submitted by candidates are subject to final verification by the Secretary of State’s office this week. They will square off against the Democratic primary winners in November.
Council incumbents David Moran, of 127 Revere St. in Dist. 1 (72 signatures submitted), Paul Wildenhain, of 31 Hanover Ave., in Dist. 2 (76), Henry Kinch Jr., of 58 Wilton Ave., in Dist. 3 (68), and John Barry, of 118 Division St., in Dist. 4 (68), all Democrats, are all running unopposed. All six Democratic district incumbents have received their party’s endorsement.
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By DOUG HADDEN With large spaces readily divided into rectangles, mill rehab projects for housing or commercial uses always seemed to offer a straight-forward appeal to developers. But with the state cutting back on its historic tax credits program and the steep slide in housing, it’s variety, imagination and the marketing magic of mixed uses that may become the first built-ins on the wish list for new mill makeovers. Case in point: The proposed redo of the former Paramount Cards complex, in what was once the massive Coats & Clark mill on Pine Street, dating to 1868 and for many decades the home of Conant Thread. Paramount Cards blamed rising costs and global competition when it laid off 270 manufacturing employees and moved that work to its lower cost facilities in Ontario, Canada in 2005. Then in July 2006 Paramount, headed by president and CEO Hamilton Davison and the nation’s No. 2 greeting card maker, filed for the state equivalent of bankruptcy, idling 126 managers in Pawtucket, 550 employees in Canada and scores of related workers. The receivership liquidation process saw the sale that August of inventory, some equipment and intellectual property and other rights for $8 million to the perennial No. 1 greeting card maker, Hallmark Cards Inc. In February 2007 an auction was held of the remaining manufacturing and other equipment and furnishings at the 400 Pine St. complex, which stretches into Central Falls. Later last year, Lance Robbins, the Los Angeles-based lawyer and developer whose Urban Smart Growth group remade the former Hope Webbing Co. in Woodlawn into Hope Artiste Village, headed a group of investors that bought the Paramount property out of receivership.Since then, the big remaining question has been the future use of the towering brick mill structures. The first list of clues to that answer were contained in a letter to the City Council by an attorney for the three entities in the new Robbins-led group: 7th Street Associates, M&L Financial Co., and Brick Investment Corp. Michael Horan wrote that his clients were seeking a new zoning ordinance that would allow them such facilities and uses as residential, including artist live-work space; government agency offices; houses of worship; daycare and preschool; vocational, trade, auto and mechanical instruction; “institutional and service organizations”; outdoor recreation; nonprofit community centers or parks; veterinary services and an animal hospital; and “wholesale trade” within an enclosed structure. Horan noted that Central Falls has already enacted a new zoning ordinance with new “overlay” zoning districts, including for redevelopment of mill buildings. Horan wrote that, “The new owners are in the process of developing and marketing this property with many proposed mixed uses that are not covered by any existing zoning district under the existing City of Pawtucket Zoning Ordinance.” But they soon could be. The Paramount redevelopers have already gotten a determination by the city Planning Commission that the zoning changes they want are consistent with the city’s “Comprehensive Plan,” the legally enforceable master blueprint that guides city development. |
In a May 28 letter to the council, city Planning Director Michael Cassidy said the Planning Commission at its meeting May 20 determined the proposal fit the goals of the plan, but also recommended it be reviewed by the city Historic District Commission. The proposal by Robbins’ group got in under the wire of the freeze on the state historic tax credits program just imposed by the legislature, though it will come under new rules that require shelling out more capital up front. “However,” Cassidy noted in his letter, “The future of this (tax credits) program is uncertain and the Planning Commission recommended instituting a local review by the Historic District Commission to ensure that all mill rehabilitation is done respectfully. This review would not be conducted in addition to review at the State level, but would take the place of the State review for projects which do not, or can not, take advantage of the Historic Tax Credits,” Cassidy wrote. As All Pawtucket All The Time went to press, the zoning revisions were to be reviewed Wednesday night by the council Ordinance Committee, chaired by Councilor Thomas Hodge, which will consider possible revisions and decide whether the proposed changes are forwarded to the full council for action. At its Hope Artist Village project at 1005 Main St., Urban Smart Growth will spend in the roughly $20 million-plus range to ultimately include three restaurants, office and commercial spaces, artist live-work space and more than 150 residential apartments in the more than 300,000 square foot complex. The economic scale of the Paramount project, which includes structures at 400, 420 and 430 Pine St., 280 Rand St. and Congress Street, remains to be seen though in square footage it is even larger than the Main Street project. |
Theatre By The Sea owner and producer Bill Hanney, Producing Artistic Director Amiee Turner and Managing Producer Joel Kipper are proud to announce the opening of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s seven-time Tony Award-winning blockbuster, Evita. This stirring musical is based on the life of Eva (Duarte) Peron – actress, mistress and eventual wife to Argentine dictator Juan Peron. As the controversial first lady, Evita becomes the protector of Argentina's poor and downtrodden opening a cornucopia of social assistance organizations. The eclectic musical score by Andrew Lloyd Webber (Phantom of the Opera) and Tim Rice (Lion King) mixes jazz, Latin and rock influences into a modern opera that soars with such tunes as “On This Night of a Thousand Stars,” “Another Suitcase in Another Hall,” and the internationally acclaimed hit “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.” A sweeping theatrical experience as complex as the woman herself. Producing Artistic Director Amiee Turner, who directed this season’s highly acclaimed production of George M!, will direct and choreograph with Aaron McAllister continuing as music director. New York performers Anne Brummel, Martin Sola and Kenneth Linsley, portray Eva, Che and Peron respectively, with Timothy Reid of Providence, RI and Perri Lauren of New Jersey in the roles of Magaldi and Peron’s Mistress. Local performers include Jonathan Cooper of East Greenwich, RI, Kimberly Kalunian of Warwick, RI, Scott Kitajima of Cranston, RI, Emily Luther of Woonsocket, RI, Kevin P. Martin of Cumberland, RI, Rebekah Philip of Rehoboth, MA, and Grace Romanello of Wakefield, RI. Audiences are invited to enhance their theatre experience by dining in the casual, contemporary and creative atmosphere of the all new Bistro by the Sea, just a short stroll down the arbor walk adjacent to the theatre. Following select performances on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, theatergoers can enjoy fun, food and drinks at the popular Late Night Cabaret. Reservations are strongly recommended for dinner and the cabaret and can be made by calling (401) 789-3030. |
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Evita will be presented from July 16 – August 3, with preview performances on July 16 and 17 and opening night scheduled for July 18. Performances are scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings at 8:00 pm, Thursdays at 2:00 pm, Saturdays at 4:30 & 8:30 pm, and Sunday evenings at 5:00 pm, with special performance times on Sunday, July 20 at 3:00 & 8:00 pm. The theatre is located at 364 Cards Pond Road, Matunuck, RI. Tickets for preview performances, Wednesday, July 16 and Thursday, July 17 are $35 and $39-$49 for all other performances. Discount rates are available for groups of 20 or more by calling (401) 782-3800 x18. $15 Student rush tickets will be available on a limited basis one hour prior to curtain on the day of the performance with a valid student ID. Tickets are on sale at the box office Monday - Saturday from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm, online 24-hours-a-day at www.theatrebythesea.com and via telephone during normal box office hours by calling (401) 782-TKTS (8587). The box office will also be open one hour prior to every performance and at 12 noon on Sunday. Located on Rhode Island’s South Shore, Theatre By The Sea celebrates 75 years of summer theatre at its best! |
PRODUCTION: Evita DATES: July 16 – August 3 WHERE: Theatre By The Sea |
PERFORMANCE TIMES: Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday and Friday evenings at 8:00 pm RESERVATIONS: (401) 782-TKTS (8587) |
TICKET PRICES: Previews - $35 Group Discounts Available (401-782-3800 x18) |
Story and photo From riding the city’s “health van,” helping navigate the pitfalls of Medicare Part D or fighting the good bureaucratic fight in an era of shrinking resources, for more than two decades Joan Crawley has been on the battle lines when it comes helping seniors. Now the longtime director of the Mathieu Senior Center says it’s time to pass the baton. “I’m leaving,” Crawley acknowledged in an interview last month. “Aug. 8 is my last day. It will be 23 years in October. It’s my age and I’ve been here long enough,” she said. “It’s just time.” Few would take the energetic, dynamic, trim, sharply-alert Crawley’s “age” as 69. And don’t expect her to just fade away. “I’m going to be doing other things. I’m going to be able to pick and choose what I want to do,” with one goal to take on volunteer guardianships for seniors through R.I. Meals on Wheels. “I’ve got 14 grandkids,” in Cumberland, Pawtucket and New York, noted Crawley, the wife of retired former Doyle administrative director Frank Crawley. “We already do a lot of things together and we’ll look forward to doing more.” Crawley has been preparing for the transition at the Mathieu Center by mentoring her top assistant, Mary Lou Moran, who on June 9 was approved by city officials to succeed her as director, a job that pays in the upper-$50,000s range. |
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JOAN CRAWLEY, director of the Mathieu Senior Center since 1991, will be leaving Aug. 8 after 23 years working in elderly services for the city |
“She’ll do a great job. She’s a great person,” Crawley praised Moran, with whom she has worked closely for several years. “I’ve been mentoring her for the last year so I’m really happy she’s going to get the position.” It was in 1991 that Crawley came to head the agency, which provides seniors daily meals, van transportation, medical help, activities from line dancing to field trips, and advocates for their needs at the local, state and federal levels. After starting with the health van in 1985, Crawley also served as coordinator of city elderly services before becoming Mathieu director. “It goes by so fast. The time has just flown. It was a hard decision to make. There’s never been a day where I didn’t want to come to work. You can really make a difference in people’s lives. You get more than you give. It’s very heartwarming,” she said. |
When I first came here, it was me and a part time secretary. So I’ve been able to grow the senior center,” adding activities and programs. “And the biggest accomplishment is where we are today,” including the center’s recent five-year re-accreditation by the National Council on Aging through the National Institute for Senior Centers. Among personal highlights, Crawley cited her 1995 selection, nominated by Gov. Bruce Sundlun, as a delegate to the White House Council on Aging. In 2005 she reprised that role when selected by Congressman Patrick Kennedy, and she was also his guest for the 2004 State of the Union address by President Bush. She also partnered the senior center with the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy. In 2006, the R.I. Pharmacy Association granted her an award for her work with helping seniors implement the new Medicare Part D coverage. She smiled that the award was the last thing she expected “because I was so vocal and critical and trying to assist clients” throughout the Part D implementation. But that example of “persistence rewarded” could also be a motto for Crawley’s life. After finishing as a CPN from Our Lady of Fatima Nursing School, for several years she was a stay-at-home mom while raising her five children. But getting a four-year degree remained an important goal, and in 2002 -- even while in the midst of the Mathieu Center’s first national accreditation process -- Crawley was awarded a bachelor of general studies degree from the Feinstein College of Continuing Education at Providence College. “I graduated summa cum laude, which I was proud of,” she said. “That’s part of that Type A personality I have,” she laughed. “If I was going to do it, I had to put everything into it.” |
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ADVOCACY ROLE. Retiring Mathieu Senior Center Director Joan Crawley confers with state Sen. Dan Issa during May rally at the Statehouse by seniors protesting budget cuts of their services. |
Crawley said a lot of the senior center’s work in the community goes unnoticed by the general public, such as working with the police department as an advocate for seniors needing services for problems such as elderly abuse or self-neglect, or with fire and rescue personnel who alert her to elderly people they find in need, such as having their home foreclosed on and nowhere to turn. She has also been called in by Housing and Code Enforcement officials for pet hoarding situations, which often indicate other problems. “A large part of what we do is in the community and I don’t think people realize that,” she said. Lately Crawley’s administative tasks have focused more on ways to make up for state budget cuts including elimination of the center’s shared community information specialist, an outreach worker linking seniors with needed services that she said is vital. Her temporary fix is to have that person straddle two jobs while seeking more funding. “The over-85 group is the fastest growing group of people we have. We’re the focal point for all the senior service programs at the local, state and federal levels,” Crawley said. “Everything is different for every particular person,” with more than 6,000 people serviced last year. “The thing that’s most disturbing to me is now they are de-institutionalizing the nursing homes when all the community-based programs to support them are being cut,” she said. An increase in the cost to use the RIDE van, Crawley pointed out, can affect seniors’ ability to access adult day care, nutrition centers, and medical appointments from checkups to dialysis and cancer treatments. “It’s not like they’re taking you out for a joy ride. Those are critical services,” Crawley said with her typical passion. “It’s just so disturbing. These people that require those services are just going to be so at risk. It’s just a really sad thing.” Crawley said while there may be a good number of seniors who don’t require such intensity of services, “those aren’t the people we deal with, who can afford to pay for these things. Those are not the people I’m seeing. They’re digging into those savings to make ends meet every month. It’s very disheartening and everybody you talk to is feeling the same way. “These are our poor people, our old people, our children. Don’t we have some kind of obligation to these people?” Crawley’s family obligations, stemming from five grown children and the 14 grandchildren, will remain a constant focus, including their annual month-long summer beach house get-together. Also on the family agenda will be a three-week trip to the Canadian Rockies. “That’s what it’s all about, friends and family,” she said. She and her husband are the parents of Kevin Crawley, a Pawtucket police officer; Michael Crawley, a retired Pawtucket firefighter; Marybeth Malley, a former physical education teacher now an at-home mom; Christopher Crawley, who works in the city recreation department; and Erin Cirello, a teacher in Providence. The 14 grandchildren range from 14 months to age 18. “I have a lot of friends and a wonderful family. I’m sure I won’t be at a loss for a minute,” she said. “I have a lot of faith. And I feel our lives are planned for us. You just have to be listening and I hope I’m listening. I’m not looking for another career of work. I just need something I can get my teeth into. I know I’ll enjoy it because I won’t do it if I don’t,” she said. |
Review By: DOUG HADDEN George M. Cohan’s journey from his humble birth to a vaudeville family in Providence in 1878 to “The Man Who Owns Broadway” is the stuff not only of show biz but American legend. To this day, the lad who started out as a five-year-old hoofer before making his mark as a song writer, producer, director and general theater wunderkind is the only actor ever to get a statue on Broadway. In George M!, the 1968 Broadway musical hit (with Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters) now at Theatre By The Sea in Matunuck, Cohan’s tale gets a rapid-fire musical staging that is big on energy (thanks to Joel Kipper in the title role), gorgeous costumes, creative sets and a feeling for that Cohan favorite (and arguably onstage musical invention), the average person as triumphant underdog and upstart. Before the inevitable fall, that is. What the show could use a bit more of -- or perhaps we should say a bit less -- is a Cohan a bit more nuanced and not quite so sharp at the edges of his overweening ambition, at least as Kipper plays it, so that we get a character a bit more in tune with landmark songs such as “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” whose lyrics are proudly patriotic but never strident, and “Give My Regards To Broadway,” still an anthem of what it means to aspire to the bright lights even when that grasp may be slipping. Kipper’s challenge is to put over lines like, “I’m Georgie and I think I’m great and if that makes me a punk (so be it),” without getting us to resent Cohan’s ambition more than we admire his pluck, a task Kipper (who is also TBTS managing producer) seemed to warm to in the better-paced second half of the show last Friday (June 20) on press opening night. Though Cohan sang that he was “Born on the Fourth of July,” he was actually born July 3 (hey, that’s show biz) and as one of The Four Cohans beat the bushes of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and the like until brazenly working for free in New York to get nearer-to-Broadway notices. His first original show, The Governor’s Son, flops but the family picks up a fifth Cohan when George marries singer Ethel Levey, then with a version of Irish chutzpah he opens his next show, “Little Johnny Jones,” with the immediate smash hit song “Give My Regards to Broadway.” And a born star rockets to fame and fortune. George M! is shot through with almost three dozen songs, many of them memorable and just as accessibly hummable as the first time you heard them, including “Mary,” “Harrigan,” and “Over There,” which with “You’re a Grand Old Flag” helped Cohan earn a Congressional Gold Medal of Honor presented by President Franklin Roosevelt. Cohan’s staying power -- the man produced scores of shows, wrote more than 500 songs, and is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame -- began to wane with the advent of talkies, by which time he had virtually invented a version of dance-heavy musical stage comedy that had already collided with the advent of the actors’ union, which he opposed as limiting his onstage options while also sending along $100,000 to support actors. |
Along the way we see his family leave the act in one way or another, his first wife walk out on him and his style fall into an eclipse that saw him semi-retired until offered a stage role in 1937 where he has to learn that stage-strutting “cane bits” just don’t play anymore. Dropping the cane crutch, Cohan realizes all over again that getting onstage is more important than how you get there. As Cohan, Kipper is onstage virtually every moment of the show in a performance that actually seemed to find him in better voice as the evening went on. As Cohan’s father Jerry, Bob Freschi strikes a nice balance between his own diehard show biz aspirations and being a family man with a precocious son. As his wife Nellie, Jane LaBanz is suitably supportive and Kristen Quartarone (a Rhode Island College grad) as George’s sister is in fine voice. Morgan Rose convinces us of the sincerity of Cohan’s first wife Ethel, and Molly Marie Walsh gives us a stalwart second wife as Agnes (“Miss Worcester, Mass.,” as Cohan meets her). Not to be overlooked is Talia Barzilay in a scene-stealing turn as the Cohans’ Cedar Rapids landlady. Also not to be overlooked is the fine work of the TBTS Orchestra under music director Aaron McAllister, with the single staging caveat that the opening medley could have used some visuals to go along with it. Michael Susko’s choreography brings us a bygone era, costume designer Jeff Shearer sometimes stunningly decorates it, and scenic designer Ray Recht provides some remarkable backdrops of early 20th century New York City. Aimee Turner, TBTS producing artistic director and director for this show, might think about a trim here and there and the overall production, while solid, on opening night was not as crisp as TBTS’s outstanding “Ain’t Misbehavin” season opener, admittedly a high bar to hit. Perhaps America’s patriotic mood right now is weary from fighting two post-911 wars, but if you can’t enjoy this “George M!” particularly around the Fourth of July, maybe your red, white and blue needs a recharge no mere musical can remedy anyway. Go for the energy, the dancing and the music, and you won’t be disappointed. George M!, at Theatre By The Sea, 364 Card’s Pond Road, Matunuck, through July 12. For tickets and information call 782-TKTS (8587). |
Story and photosBy: DOUG HADDEN If good fences make good neighbors, then how do you help make a good neighborhood? That was the question a host of community groups led by the Pawtucket Citizens Development Corp. took on as they confronted a once blighted, trash-strewn lot at the corner of Barton and Broad streets. And the short answer is: With a lot of help from your friends. The lot got cleaned up, even as the 14-unit Callaghan Gardens affordable housing complex sprung up next door. Child-friendly equipment turned the vacant lot into a playground, first of its kind in the area. Then, like a modern day Tom Sawyer, PCDC enlisted some help from its friends to transform the lot’s picketed white border fence into a color-rich mural based on youngsters’ drawings. |
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LEFTY TECHNIQUE. Gail Hulbert, marketing director for the Gamm Theatre, shows she can also wield a paintbrush |
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Brent Bachelder, a freelance Providence artist and art teacher who oversaw such local mural projects as Payne Park, Lynch Arena and the John Street Playground, gathered dozens of neighborhood children’s black-and-white line drawings then projected them as line art on the six-foot-high fence, which stretches for 128 feet at the back of the tot lot. Last Thursday (June 19), members of the Pawtucket Foundation, pitching in for the fifth annual day of community-wide fixups known as Pawtucket Proud Day, along with local kids dipped their brushes into a brightly-colored palette of cans of latex house paint and got to work. The result is something as enjoyable to look at as it is fun to play in, for kids of all ages. Bachelder, who holds fine arts degrees from both Rhode Island School of Design and Rhode Island College, said the color choices were pretty much up to each brush-wielder, “except the sky had to be blue and the grass had to be green,” while emphasizing colors pertinent to the overall themes of children’s activities, sports and nature. A few revisions were still to be made -- “there’s a couple people missing, they just kept doing the sky and next thing they knew the people were (painted over),” |
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Bob Billiington, who heads the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, and Shawn Whitfield, 6, who will enter first grade at Nathanael Greene Elementary, cooperate on a section of mural. |
Bachelder smiled. But he said his experience with such murals, including one on Wickenden Street in Providence, is that the neighborhood respects them and if well maintained they are not vandalized or tagged with graffiti. Plus, the colors should remain vivid. “Sherwin Williams donated the primer. That’s what’s going to make it last,” he said.
Shandi Brown of PCDC said the child artists, including the eight who helped with the fence painting, were recruited from the Barton Street Neighborhood |
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Cunningham Elementary School, treks through paintcans looking for the right color |
Artist Brent Bachelder, coordinator of the mural project, used children's line drawings to project images on the fence |
Association’s new after-school and summer program that she oversees in a building at 17 Hawes St., aided by fellow AmericaCorps volunteer Cynthia Pytel. Field trips, Blackstone Valley Tourism Council riverboat tours and family events are all part of the curriculum. “This is the first playground in the neighborhood. Before this, we didn’t have any open space to hang out,” noted Brown, who is in a social work degree program at RIC. “This is also service learning -- they’re beautifying the neighborhood at a young age.” Colleen Daley Ndoye, PCDC revitalization coordinator, said what the volunteers wrapped up in a day was the culmination of a long process. “It took almost four years from the idea to the actual completion,” she said. She said United Way donated $25,000 for the tot lot design by landscape architects Diane Soule & Associates, Smithfield, which included meetings to get neighbors’ input, $3,000 from the Pawtucket Foundation for flowers in barrels and $75,000 in federal block grants contributed by the city. Even the Police Department chipped in with some advice, offering that the smaller space was better suited to something appropriate for younger children that wouldn’t become a hangout for older youths. “The project as a whole,” said Ndoye, “is a community safety project.” PCDC, a nonprofit community development corporation established in 1990, is selling bricks to raise $10,000 to maintain the tot lot and run programs, with Congressman Patrick Kennedy and local businesses among the 30 sponsors already signed up, according to Ndoye. The inscribed bricks are $100 per an individual, $500 for small businesses and $1,000 for major corporate donors. (Call Ndoye at 726-1173 for details.) As the final brushstrokes were going on the fence, George Street resident Luis Barros was being guided in for a look by his four-year-old niece Tamia. “It’s good, it’s good for the community,” and to keep children off the streets, said Barros, a father of two. Instead of their usual treks to Slater Park, “now I don’t have to go that far.” Tamia was also asked for her take. The shy youngster’s reply was barely audible but right on target: “Good. I like it,” she said. The tot lot was only one of several projects tackled last week by some 90 Pawtucket Proud volunteers, according to Lynne Kelly of Colette Vacations. It was Colette CEO Daniel Sullivan, co-founder of the Pawtucket Foundation, who came up with the idea that local businesses pitch in annually in a visible way to help revitalized the neighborhoods. The volunteers planted a garden and did a yard fixup at Elizabeth Johnson’s historic Fruit Street home, which also houses the Pawtucket History Research Center, finished painting the YWCA complex, revisited their prior work at Hodson Park, planted flowers and mulched tree wells downtown, and did other beautification work with help from city Public Works Department workers. The volunteers gathered at the Veterans Amphitheatre for a group photo then adjourned for pizza, cookies and a digital slide show of their long day’s work at the Visitor Center theater, where John Carney, DPW director, was presented the foundation’s annual Golden Bucket Award for his assistance with the Proud Day effort. |
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Section of fence mural reflects themes of nature and children's activities |
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Mayor James E. Doyle enjoys a light moment as he sits for group photo with dozens of volunteers who made fifth annual Pawtucket Proud Day a success |
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Lynne Kelly of Collette Vacations, who coordinated Pawtucket Foundation's annual Pawtucket Proud Day, presents Golden Bucket Award to city DPW chief Jack Carney for his help with the effort |
The grand opening will come later, but just days after getting its final city approval a new Hyundai dealership has sprung up -- in full flower, with more than 200 vehicles in stock -- at 939 Newport Ave. Minus a few balloons, but more on that in a moment. The City Council at its June 11 meeting granted the Courtesy Hyundai operation, the latest automotive-related venture of Sterry Street Towing owner John Martins, a car sales license for the site, former home for many years to the bygone E.P. Fournier dealership and more recently to a Subaru dealer. Working in anticipation of the approval, Martins and his general manager, Scott Braga, supervised a cleanup, repainted the building in Hyundai blue-and-white colors, and moved vehicles onto the lot over the weekend for the soft opening Monday (June 16), with a more formal event to be held later. Martins bought Al Anjos’ former Pride Hyundai dealership and for several weeks used Anjos’ Division Street site while negotiating with Hyundai. “We had to get Hyundai’s approval” for a new location, Braga explained. Although Martins has a newer car sales facility less than a mile north on Newport Avenue, Hyundai saw it as inadequate for expansion, Braga said. “It was the size of the facility, it was all about size,” he said. When the doors opened Monday, there were 250 new Hyundais and various used cars, SUVs and trucks waiting for customers, according to Braga. The lot was also dotted with dozens of helium filled pink andyellow balloons, though by Tuesday most had been claimed by students from the Potter-Burns Elementary School next door, Braga smiled with a resigned shrug. “We have to get some more,” he said. |
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DEALERSHIP DEBUT Courtesy Hyundai general manager Scott Braga stands among some of the more than 200 vehicles moved in as the new dealership worked to open its doors Monday |
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Braga said high gas prices are pushing sales of Hyundai’s fuel-efficient cars. “All the Hyundai cars get 30-plus miles to the gallon so everyone wants to get rid of their whatever for them.” The impromptu “Courtesy Hyundai” sign newly painted on the building will be augmented by more formal dealership signs that have yet to ship in. “We have workers in the building while we’re still working (on the rehab). Mostly it’s just a freshening. We resealed the parking lot and changed to the Hyundai colors. National Grid put in energy efficient lights,” Braga said. Inside, the surprisingly large building boasts 13 bays and “we’ll be doing state inspections.” Already there are approximately 15 full time employees and Braga said he expects to add more in the future. Planned hours for the seven-days operation are Monday to Thursday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Braga said. At the council’s public hearing on the license, two residents of nearby Vine Street, James Abbott and Kevin Duclos, ticked off a list of concerns they said resulted from how the prior dealership had operated. They cited an exspotlight on the building’s east wall that shined into their homes and had been left on all night, wanted hours restrictedon use of the intercom system, employee parking restricted to the car lot and not on side streets, no parking of flat haulers on the street, and no storage of junk cars in the southeast lot as they said a prior dealership had done.terior |
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HANDS ON Head mechanic Julio Talpo checks out a wheel in one of Courtesy Hyundai's 13 service bays at the 939 Newport Ave. facility. |
The objections were news to Councilor Paul Wildenhain, who represents the area and had called only for maintaining a restriction on vehicle test drives on the local side streets. “It could have been resolved before,” Wildenhain said of the residents’ concerns. The hearing was recessed while Wildenhain conferred with Martins, his attorney Michael Horan, and the Vine Street residents, to work out a mutual agreement. When they returned Martins agreed to redirect the exterior lighting and limit the use of the intercom, require all employees to park onsite, store no junk cars in the fenced-in lot on the southeast side, and, as a formal license restriction, conduct no test driving on local side streets. Wildenhain, after also making a petition of several neighbors’ concerns part of the hearing record, moved approval of the license, which the council granted on a unanimous voice vote. After the vote, Martins told All Pawtucket All The Time that it cleared the way for moving in over the weekend to open the doors on June 16 but a bigger event will be planned for later. “We’ll have a grand opening in probably 60, 90 days,” he said. |
Story and photo By DOUG HADDEN Ernie Marot and his band of volunteers are getting packed up to go, as the Pawtucket Soup Kitchen is once again about to change its location. Located the last several years along Taft Street in the rear of the Masonic temple, the soup kitchen seemed for a time to be putting down roots, with not only new appliances and cooking facilities, thanks in good part to help from the city, but even showers to help clean up the poor and homeless clients it serves. But about two years ago some of those clients, allegedly harassing people on the street who worked downtown, put the soup kitchen on the hot spot. City officials wanted Marot to move to the Salvation Army on High Street but he resisted the idea, saying that even though the soup kitchen had for a time been located there it was not an appropriate location for the long term. The perseverance that for 16 years has seen Marot and his numerous volunteers able to maintain the soup kitchen -- which survives on grants, surplus free food from generous donors such as Providence College, and the help of a dedicated corps of voluneers -- again served him well. He was able to fight off the proposed Salvation Army relocation, and now the operation will move next month into the church hall at St. Joseph’s Church on Walcott Street. |
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Moving day for the equipment is July 5, “then it will take me all week to get organized,” Marot told All Pawtucket All The Time. Until things are set up again the soup kitchen will operate temporarily out of the Salvation Army, Marot said. With hard economic times permeating the local economy, from high prices at the supermarket and the gas pump to a sharp spike in housing foreclosures, Marot said he has noticed a change in who’s coming to dinner at 4:30 each afternoon during the week and for breakfast at 10:30 on Saturday morning. “I’ve got more working clientele now,” including families. “It’s over 100 every Saturday. One week it was 138,” Marot said. “Without the volunteers I don’t know if I’d be able to do it.” Everybody has to abide by a few basic rules or they are not allowed into the soup kitchen. “If they come in drunk or on drugs, I don’t serve them,” Marot said. “You have to come in straight.” Marot, who confessed “I’m pushing 80,” said he would like to see a paid full time director take over when, inevitably, it comes time for him to step down. As for the move to St. Joseph, Marot praised the cooperation of church pastor the Rev. Robert Perron, and said the city councilor for the area, John Barry, has also lent his full support. “I’m taking all my refrigerators and freezers, the washer and dryer,” but will have to leave the installed showers behind. Marot said the soup kitchen’s tenure in the Masonic temple space has been on a month to month basis, and temple officials now want the space vacated. With the soup kitchen planned to operate at the Salvation Army the second week of July, Marot said he was hopeful he could resume regular operations shortly after. “I’m trying for the third week of July. I think the important thing is I’m going to a place that wants me. Every place I’ve been, they kicked me out. “I don’t know how many times I said, ‘Screw it, I’m gonna quit. Then I see the faces in front of me -- sad faces and that.” Helping those “sad faces,” Marot said, is what still keeps him going. |
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Growing up isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Neither is cracking jokes about it as a comedian, because like a blues singer you’ve got to feel the hurt before you can portray your funny take convincingly to someone else. Eugene and Stan Jerome, two 20-something brothers growing up in 1949 in the working class Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, know that real pain, and the funny lines to cope with it, begin at home in the bosom of their increasingly dysfunctional family. Their homemaker mother, with that sure sense no woman can deny especially to herself, knows that her husband Jack has been prowling for other liaisons beyond their 33-year marriage. Also in the household is their often-dotty and unintentionally funny grandfather Ben Jerome. Ben (Carl DeSimone) is an unreconstructed socialist with an increasing aversion to anything that smacks of commercial success, but whose loyalty to his daughter Kate --the boys’ mother -- in her late-midlife crisis is unshakable, even if that means letting his wife relocate to Florida without him. The boys themselves are looking, almost subconsciously, to transform these shattering pieces of their filial glass menagerie into comic material that will resonate with wider audiences who tune into the CBS radio show they’ve begun writing scripts for. If they succeed, they can get their own apartment in New York City, as if their family’s incipient breakup is the raw material of their big break in show business. “Broadway Bound,” the 1986 Neil Simon play that wrapped up his “BB” trilogy (after “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Biloxi Blues”), puts a bittersweet |
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| Kevin Broccoli and Barbara Schapiro |
wrapping on the autobiographical tale of how a clever Jewish kid -- with Eugene Jerome (Simon’s alter ego, portrayed by Kevin Broccoli with just the right comic touch) learns to turn the sweet-and-sour apples of his growing up into the stuff of Broadway comic smash hits. Stan (Adam Florio, in his Community Players debut), who works in a clothing store, is a stand-in for Simon’s older brother Danny, with whom he formed a writing team at their start of their showbiz careers. He has the business focus Eugene, the more spontaneously funny of the duo, lacks but they know intuitively they can make it together. Even that however has its internal contradictions. |
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| Up, left to right: Kevin Broccoli and Adam Florio; Down, left to right: Janette Gregorian, Barbara Schapiro and Carl DeSimone |
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“The thing about writing with your brother is your relationship gets in the way,” Eugene confides directly to the audience in one of his many such asides. “Can you imagine ‘Hamlet’ written by William and Harvey Shakespeare?” Touchy-feely does not describe the Jerome family. As Ben’s other daughter, mink-coat wearing Blanche (Janette Gregorian) who lives on Park Avenue with her wealthy husband, asks her father, “Why is it so hard for us to talk to each other?” “Because you ask too much of me,” the 77-year-old Ben replies. “I’m not an affectionate man. I don’t trust affection. Sometimes people give it to you instead of the truth... But I cannot accept the benefits of a society that makes my daughter rich and makes poor half the country.” “I was taught,” Blanche replies, “that a family that loves each other takes care of each other.” Ben, it will turn out, has some secrets of his own, which he confesses to his straying son-in-law Jack, Kate’s husband. Stan hits it on the head when he tells Eugene that “the essential ingredient in every comic sketch” comes down to “conflict” in wanting some thwarted thing -- a girl, money, getting to Philadelphia. “And when one brother wants to kill the other brother,” observes Eugene. “It’s not funny if it’s not believable,” Stan chastises. “You think the Three Stooges are believable?” counters Eugene. At the press night opening last Friday (June 13), Broccoli as Eugene and Florio as Stan already had their comic byplay down pat. DeSimone, despite occasional rough edges to his timing, well portrayed a dotty grandfather who may not be so self-unaware after all. Sonny Dufault, as Jack, a Garment District cloth-cutter who has begun to wonder whether his family sacrifices have come at too high a personal cost, could perhaps lend a bit more vulnerability to the role but was still able to bring out the conflicts built into his character. But it is upon Kate (Community Players newcomer Barbara Schapiro), the pot roast-pushing mother who sees her family life crumbling on all sides, that is the center around which the play, recognized as one of Simon’s best, must turn. Here Schapiro succeeds admirably, striking the right tone of wronged spouse, stalwart mother, concerned daughter, and reflective woman who Eugene finally convinces to relate in detail the adolescent night she snuck off to a ballroom to entice a young George Raft to ask her to dance. The feminine wiles involved in all that are, Eugene admits to the audience, probably more than he bargained for hearing from his mother, but he shows us every mother’s son’s transformation from being a self-centered kid to seeing his mother simply as a person. Schapiro convinces us that the deepest family trauma is felt not by the one who’s leaving home but by the one who’s left behind. The way Schapiro and Broccoli pull off the ballroom reenactment scene with humor-laced sensitivity is itself worth the price of admission, in a play that stays in your head long after the laugh lines have died away. Director Brian Mulvey has gotten everything out of the script and his actors in what is the Community Players last production of the season. He also designed the upstairs-downstairs set of the Jerome household in what is a marvel of form-follows-function. Kudos also to stage manager Mary Booth and properties manager Mary Thompson, and a golden spike for master carpenter Victor Turenne and set builders Peter Babiec, Erich Koch, Lee Hakeem and Mulvey. Erika Koch’s costumes give us a timepiece we accept without question, and the brown and amber tones complete furnishings that tell of a signature time period of the American family yet never lapses into nostalgia. If you haven’t been to a production of the Community Players, now in their 87th season, for awhile (as I should confess I had not), “Broadway Bound” is a great reason to enjoy an inexpensive and entertaining night out in the neighborhood and indulge in the home-baked goods offered in the Jenks cafeteria during intermission of this approximately 2 ½ hour play. It’s well done from start to finish, and will send you off reflecting that maybe that crazy family is not so unlike your own after all. “Broadway Bound,” play by Neil Simon. Directed by Brian Mulvey. Performed by The Community Players, Jenks Junior High School auditorium, Division Street. Tickets $15. Peformances Friday and Saturday (June 20-21) at 8 p.m., Sunday (June 22) at 2 p.m |
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Story and photos By turns solemn and celebratory, proud and patriotic, members of the Mathieu Senior Center including several veterans showed their colors in a Flag Day ceremony conducted by the Dusza-Almeida Post & Auxiliary 2339, VFW in an hour-long event last Friday. The calendar said June 13, a day ahead of the official Flag Day, which commemorates the adoption, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress, of the official American banner on June 14, 1777. Instead the timing was pegged as close to the official date when the senior center is also open, in what has become an annual celebration. About 40 seniors plus guests including Mayor James E. Doyle took part in a solemn flag-raising at the flag pole in front of the senior center, heard patriotic readings inside,sang along with a Kate Smith recording of “God Bless America” and generally conveyed a profound sense of respect for the flag and love of country in commemorating an occasion that many bypass on their busy calendars. |
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“It brings out the thing of being here in the United States,” said Marie Domingos, “to remind us of how lucky we are compared to some other places around.” The honor of striking the Stars and Stripes went to 83-year-old Irving Bassiliere, who served as an infantryman in Europe during World War II. “I do it every day (outside the senior center) and yes, it is an honor,” he said. “I put this flag up every day and it is an honor.” He also struck the white-on-black POW/MIA flag, which flies just below Old Glory. In his blessing, the Rev. William Shaw of Union Baptist Church, who is also the city’s affirmative action coordinator, said Flag Day was a time to be reminded of the many sacrifices made “for the liberty we enjoy... and we pray for liberty and freedom around the world.” Mayor Doyle said while daily headlines tell “the sad story of what’s going on,” from housing foreclosures to high gas and food prices, countless people around the world would do anything to come here. “Be proud today that you’re an American, as I am, as everyone else (in this country) is,” Doyle said. “And thank those buried in cemeteries here and throughout the world.” Rose Abraham, a past president of the state VFW auxiliary, read a poem on the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance, saying the oath was “a promise that I will always be true (to my country).” |
World War II veteran Irving Basiliere (left), with help Vietnam veteran Donald Drew and Dorothy Irving |
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Abraham noted she lost a brother in World War II but has no grave to visit. “He was flying back from Tokyo” when his plane went down. “I can’t visit his grave but we continue to pray for him.” She brought home the sacrifice of countless veterans in a later reading that said that it was not the preacher who has guaranteed Americans freedom of religion, not the reporter who has granted freedom of speech, nor campus organizers the freedom to assemble, lawyers the right to a fair trail or politicians the right to vote. “It is the veteran,” she read. In her reading, “I Am Old Glory,” Auxiliary member Lourdes Mossor said the American flag will continue to fly “so long as men love liberty more than life itself... so long as justice and charity remain deeply rooted in the human heart, it shall be the enduring banner of the United States of America.” As Auxiliary member Dorothy “Dot” Irving read a description of the symbolism behind each step in the ceremony of folding the flag, Bassiliere was joined by Marine veteran Donald Drew, 75, of Fairlawn, who served in the Vietnam War from 1965-67, in that solemn task, which among other occasions always accompanies military funerals. “We go to seven different cemeteries and ‘flag’ them,” Irving said of one of the Auxiliary’s ongoing services. “We do about 100 graves.” |
The Rev. William Shaw in his blessing at Flag Day |
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Ruth Abraham, a past president of the state VFW Auxiliary |
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The Auxiliary members also go to the state Veterans Home in Bristol, VA hospitals in Brockton and Providence, and every two months send gift packages of day-to-day items -- toothbrushes, socks, robs and the like -- to veterans serving overseas. “It’s a lot of hard work,” and relies on donations, said Donna Ormonde, another past state Auxiliary president and moderator for the Flag Day event. The VFW among other programs also sponsors the annual Voice of Democracy patriotic essay contest for high school students, which recently boasted a national finalist, and the Patriots Pens program for middle school students, among other initiatives. |
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By DOUG HADDEN In a revenue-starved year, layoffs, battles with city union workers, and the dropping of an all-day kindergarten proposal are among the many casualties of the new city budget. No major changes from last week’s public hearing (June 4) by the City Council were made as the fiscal 2009 spending plan was approved 7-1. Councilor Donald Grebien, who said the city should be making a 10 percent spending cut across the board, voted no and Councilor Robert Carr was absent. What did emerge this week was the School Committee formally agreeing to drop its request for more than $600,000 to extend full-day kindergarten citywide. That move however was widely expected. The council slashed 2 percent wage hikes across the board to save $309,746 and about 6 cents on the tax rate, leaving taxpayers a 53-cent increase on the real estate rate, from $11.86 to $12.39 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The commercial tax rate, pegged to a formula based on the real estate rate, will rise 90 cents, from $19.98 to $20.88, again per $1,000 of assessed valuation. For the city-average owner of a $230,000 home, the boost will mean a tax bill about $122 higher when the notices are sent out for the new fiscal year that begins July 1. While some council members had advocated for a zero tax increase, the first passage vote was 7-0, with Councilors James Chadwick and Donald Grebien absent. The Doyle administration’s approximately proposed $203 million budget proposal includes about $108.5 million on the city side and $94.5 million for schools -- $2.6 million below the budget approved by the School Committee. The administration’s budget also targets savings of more than $965,000 to be derived from layoffs (about $644,000, with the first round of 15 pink slips to take effect June 27) and $322,000 from furloughs yet to be negotiated. The union most affected, 300-member Local 1012, Council 94 AFSCME, with 13 layoffs received June 6 and effective June 27, met Wednesday with city officials. Local 3960 suffered two layoffs, with other union workers facing possible further layoffs in later phases. Mayor James E. Doyle, in his June 4 budget address to the council, said the budget “is as lean as possible to minimize the tax burden on our residents, while still providing for the essential services that many have come to expect.” Doyle was also sharply critical of what he called a “grandstand” proposal by Grebien, who was out of state that week, to shave 10 percent off city spending across the board. “I find it personally reckless, irresponsible and even dangerous,” Doyle criticized. “It is totally irresponsible and completely negligent to pass a budget without noting the needs of the city.” The budget includes what, by any other name, is basically a deficit-spending plan to make up a past $3 million-plus funding shortfall for schools, slotting about $756,000 a year, for four years, to make up the gap. Spreading the payments, in a move agreed to by the administration along with the school board and council and approved by state Auditor General Ernest Almonte, will mitigate the bottom-line impact of having the total added funding become immediately part of the baseline for schools, saving taxpayers some $7.5 million over the four years. At the June 4 hearing, resident Lewis Soares said taxes were already too high. “There has to be some way to cut corners,” he said. Thirty-eight-year resident Savino Salerno, 89, said only his reverse mortgage was keeping him in his house, even though “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t gamble. I don’t even go out to sporting events.” Benjamin Street resident Ken Bowdish questioned the ongoing school shortfalls, and how a $2 million schools budget cut could be sustained. Finance Director Ronald Wunschel responded, “We expect the School Department to decrease its expenses to its budget,” Wunschel’s version of which was based on available revenues. “The only other way” would be for the city to kick in another $5 million, he said. “They spend the money,” said Councilor Henry Kinch Jr., “and then they sue.” The schools successfully sued the city two years ago under the Caruolo Act, and the threat of similar action has hovered over the school budget process ever since. In fact, the schools took several steps required by the state law, including seeking cost waivers from the state commissioner for elementary and secondary education (which were denied), which kept that threat intact. In the end, the compromise over the $3 million four-year avoided another court clash. Doyle added that “a community’s ability to pay,” as set out in proposed Statehouse legislation, should be taken into account. “(Caruolo) projects disaster and eventual bankruptcy for the city, in my opinion,” he said. Doyle said later that Pawtucket has contributed $6,000 so far, along with other communities in the R.I. League of Cities and Towns, for a lobbyist to push for the legislation. Councilor Thomas Hodge noted that School Supt. Hans Dellith, in a May 30 letter to the mayor, stated the proposed extension of full-day kindergarten citywide had been put on hold, which knocked $612,962 off the budget. The school board affirmed that move in a vote at its meeting Tuesday (June 10). Currently the Baldwin and Cunningham schools, thanks to federal Title I reading grants, have the city’s only all-day kindergartens, which school board member Nicole Nordquist said studies show makes children better able to learn when they reach first grade. But while the request for city funding was withdrawn, the all-day-K may not be dead yet: Schools Business Manager Thomas Conlon, in a May 30 letter to the state Office of Municipal Affairs, noted that, “Though not yet finalized, full-day kindergarten funding contained in the FY09 budget is close to being realized from other sources,” which he did not specify. Of the proposed 53-cent tax increase, 15 cents is for the first-year $750,000 payment toward the prior schools shortfall, in a city where one penny on the tax rate raises about $53,000. At the initial council public hearing on the budget, Councilor John Barry said while the number of residents protesting tax hikes at the hearing was not great, his sense of the community is that people already hit with spiking utility, gasoline, food and other costs were taxed out. “I’m getting calls from everybody, people are stopping me on the street, people are saying not to raise it,” Barry said. “This is a community with a large number of elderly [residents]. They’ve been affected by everything else,” and an average of $10 a month more for city taxes was too much. When it came time for first passage, Barry acknowledged that, “I wanted a no-tax increase. That would have been irresponsible of me,” he said. “We could not fund city government.” “This budget has a lot of pain and hurt in it,” said Barry, “but it will provide the essential services we need and want.” “The budget that was presented to us was very, very tight,” said Council President Mary Bray. “There was not much we could do with it. We tried to do the least harm and keep services.” That led to final passage as expected Wednesday night (June 11), with the new budget to take effect July 1. |
Theatre By The Sea back in fine style with ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ |
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(clockwise from left) Starr Domingue, David Jennings, Patrice Covington (center), Tony Perry and Rheaume Crenshaw |
(from left) Patrice Covington and Rheaume Crenshaw celebrate the music of Fats Waller in the toe tappin’ Tony Award winner, Ain’t Misbehavin’ |
(from left) David Jennings, Tony Perry, Starr Domingue, photos by Mark Turek |
Review by DOUG HADDEN After being shuttered for four years, the venerable Theatre By The Sea acquired new owners in time to stage “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” last fall and has now launched its first full season. The kickoff choice of Ain’t Misbehavin’, based on the music of Thomas “Fats” Waller, is famously short on plot and long on singing and dancing. Which means timing, from the vocal harmonies to the almost nonstop choreography, among the five-member cast is everything. And at the Friday (May 30) press-night opening, the vocals were superb, with duets, three-part and full-cast pieces that allowed each voice its own distinction while coalescing the voices into a pleasing whole. Ditto the dancing, with nary a step out of place. Now season the music with several solos and stir with choreography where the performers mixed in a lot of humor, and you have a two-hour evening (with one intermission) of entertainment with great songs that will leave you feeling lighter when you leave the old barn of a theater. Actually it’s a bit unfair to gloss over Ain’t Misbehavin as if it had no plot because it does tell a story of the 1930s and ’40s, just not in any linear way. It sort of emerges between the lines of the songs, from the catchy title tune to now-standards such as the independence of ’T Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do,” the sublime “Black and Blue,” and romantic “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and “It’s a Sin To Tell a Lie.” Although Ain’t Misbehavin’s tunes stretch from the start of the Depression to World War II, they seem -- despite the racism and economic struggles of that era -- to tell the story of a simpler time, albeit with a lot of strutting, joyful cafe-going, though not without its share of romantic jealousies and heartbreak thrown in. There is also a contrast with the somewhat more upbeat, partying songs of the first half and the swift second half (which also gives us a jazzy Nat “King” Cole song, “That Ain’t Right”) with sort of bluer aspects of the black experience, from “Lounging at the Waldorf” to “Black and Blue,” which is as much about the universal human condition of being down for the count, but not out, as it is about being a black person in that circumstance. But it’s only a tone, not a social-message drag on the evening. The five principals -- Patrice Covington, Rheaume Crenshaw, Starr Domingue (who is also dance captain), David Jennings and Tony Perry -- all shined in their individual turns yet blended together so well you’d think the TBTS run was just another pit stop on a months-long tour. For me, the diminutive Crenshaw’s voicings and humor particularly stood out but there are no weak links in this five-part chain. |
Director/Choreographer Ken Leigh Rogers has them firing on all cylinders, and music director/piano player Andrew Smithson has his orchestra (trumpet, reeds, drums and standup bass) in top form as well. In short, Ain’t Misbehavin’ is an outstanding feel-good show and a great way for Theatre By The Sea and its new owner Bill Hanney, along with Amiee Turner, the producing artistic director, and Joel Kipper, managing producer, to kick off their first summer season. That the place retains its wonderful gardens, restaurant and post-performance cabaret, in one of the most unique and scenic settings not only in Rhode Island but anywhere, is a grand bonus. But make sure you go for the show itself. While musicals are a bit tough to describe in words, you know the feeling you get when you see a good one, and this one has it all the way. Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Theatre By The Sea, 45 Card Pond Road, Matunuck through June 15. For tickets ($39, $44, $49, student rush $15 one hour before curtain) and information, call 782-TKTS (782-8587), or go to www.theatrebythesea.com. |
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(from left) Tony Perry conducts Rheaume Crenshaw, Patrice Covington and Starr Domingue |
Story and photos In a move applauded by parents and students alike, school administrators bowed to Monday’s brutal heat and humidity by letting students out at 1 p.m., about an hour early. An even earlier dismissal was planned for Tuesday (June 10), when the mercury was expected to take another run at 100 degrees -- high heat in schools that all lack air conditioning and where any scattered fans tend to be those brought in from teacher to teacher. According to administrators, and as posted on the Pawtucket School District Web site (http://web.psdri.net), Tuesday dismissal was set for 11:30 a.m. for all city schools. The complete schedule of lunches will be served prior to dismissal, according to administrators. There will be no |
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Richard Craige stopped by to pick up his daughter Kellyann Patenaude, a freshman at Tolman High School, after near-100 temperatures prompted school officials to dismiss students |
WHO WEARS SHORT SHORTS. Shorts seem to be the dress of the day as students throughout the city were let go about an hour early Monday because of the extreme heat and humidity, with similar conditons expected Tuesday |
afternoon preschool or kindergarten. Morning starting times will remain unchanged. Parents like Richard Craig were pleased with the early-out decision Monday. “Yes, I am. It’s hot and there’s no air conditioning in the schools,” he said as he was picking up his daughter, 9th-grader Kellyann Patenaude, at Tolman High School. “They probably could have been dismissed a bit earlier.” Kellyann said her fellow students also agreed it was too hot to remain in class. “We’ve got fans, but they’re like little fans,” she said. “It felt like it was 100 degrees in there,” said 9th-grader Ryan Peterson as he came out of the school. “We only had fans in one class, an oscillating fan, and it was on the teacher.” Tolman’s school resource officer, Officer Robert Cardente, said there had been no problems with the early dismissal. Barbara Savella, Tolman assistant principal, said all five lunch periods were held before the 1 p.m. dismissal, and that would continue to be the procedure. “We had a lot of parents come early,” after they heard on TV and radio that school would be let out at 1 p.m. instead of the usual 2:10 p.m. let-out time at Tolman. Provisions were also made to send special education students home at 12:30 p.m. |
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ALL WINDOWS OPEN. Students look to be joking about being shut in a hot Tolman High School, which lacks air conditioning everywhere except the central office |
The newly former Friends of Jenks, with help from the junior high’s students, put on a craft fair Saturday that also highlighted the attempt to boost parent involvement in the school. Crafts exhibitors paid $20 a table to showcase their wares, while the students chipped in by getting numerous local business to donate prizes for a raffle. “We just try to make money for the school,” for both in-school and out-of-school programs, said Agnes LaDuke, whose sister Rose Wright also helped out by using her weed wacker to trim the grass. Other parents -- actually, Agnes’ school tie is her niece -- also active in the effort include Maria Lemire and Tammy Lourenco. Second-year Jenks Principal Sue Pfeil (pronounced file) said the funding help is welcome and also praised the Friends for helping to raise school spirit. “These ladies, especially Agnes and her sister Rose, they’re like angels. I got out of school at 6 o’clock (Friday) night and the three of them, Agnes, Rose and Maria (were getting things ready). They just stay the course, no matter what.” For 7th-grader Amber Lourenco, Tammy’s daughter, getting the raffle prizes was something of a lesson in geography. “We went all over Pawtucket, North Attleboro and Attleboro and stuff, asking people (to donate prizes),” she said. |
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Starting last winter, these Jenks Jr. High 7th-graders made the rounds of local businesses soliciting raffle prizes for the first-ever Friends of Jenks fundraiser and crafts fair, held Saturday outside the school. Pictured from left are: Veronica Wiggins, Amber Lourenco, Marcos Tavares and Ralph Llaverias |
“We got a bunch of bakeries, pizza places, haircuts,” for prizes, as well as shower radios, nail salon certificates, and enough items to also make up a grand prize basket. As for the coffee and doughnuts on hand, credit Ralph Llaverias’ visit to Tim Horton’s on Central Avenue. And credit the Friends for boosting morale within the school as well. “For teacher appreciation day,” Pfeil related, “they made (the teachers) breakfast and made them little cards. And the teachers were just so grateful for that. “We don’t have money for field trips, we have to fundraise. We’re trying to teach the kids about teamwork, community spirit. In January we brought in professional story-tellers and musicians, thanks to the Friends group.” In a two-year junior high, it’s a constant challenge to build support and rapport with parents and raise funds for school activities, and the Friends group is bridging that gap. “Aside from raising funds, it’s just building the connections with the community,” Pfeil said. |
Story and photos nBy DOUG HADDEN Imminent cuts in the new city budget have already brought their first visible casualties, with approximately 15 “first phase” layoffs between two city unions, including the two driver/clerks who for years have piloted the popular Pawtucket Public Library Bookmobile. With no one to drive it or lend or receive returned materials, the 25-foot bookmobile will likely be mothballed at least several weeks after the two full-time workers’ last day June 27. |
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Bookmobile parked Friday outside of Potter- Burns School, where students and parents alike visit it each week after school closes. |
Sisters Amber (left), a grade 6 student at Potter- Burns, and Ashley, a junior at Tolman High, pay their weekly visit to the bookmobile. |
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City officials said they will work to revive it on a reduced basis with part-time workers, in a process that could stretch at least well into the summer. The bookmobile runs Tuesday through Saturday year ’round, making stops not only at all city public elementary schools but also outside of parochial schools, at senior highrises, child care centers and several neighborhood venues, serving hundreds each week. The operators also bring videos and reading materials to handicapped shut-ins based on their requests or, because of long familiarity, adjusted to their individual tastes. The impending grounding comes barely two years after the city put the new $102,000 bookmobile into service in April 2006. The fire engine red vehicle replaced a failing blue one that was purchased for $63,000 in 1982. The first bookmobile was launched in 1968, in part to replace services lost by the closing of library branches. It stocks numerous children’s books as well as videos and books on tape, current magazines, adult fiction and nonfiction, and large print books. “I think it’s very important,” said Christie Fredette, whose Potter-Burns 1st-grader Logan was with her picking up his weekly books from the vehicle, parked Friday outside the school. “It helps me with my book reports and I get information on my projects,” said Potter-Burns 6th-grader Amber Lynch. “I’ve learned so much” through the bookmobile, she said. “That’s the first thing we do on Fridays is come out here,” added her sister Ashley, a junior at Tolman High School. “If I request something from here they make sure they have it for us.” Said their mother, Lorraine Lynch, “I’ve been coming six or seven years to the bookmobile. I (borrow) my DVDs from them,” she said with her son Joshua, a 3rd-grader at Potter-Burns and bookmobile user, in tow. “They love it. I think I’ve been to the (downtown) library I don’t know when. They help with all the homework and the book reports,” finding information she can’t get from her home computer because it’s not connected to the Internet. “They help with the tax forms, anything. Missy and Pam, I love them to death.” The longtime operator/clerks, Pamela McGrath and Melissa Cabral, members of Local 1012, Council 94 AFSCME, were among about 15 city workers given layoff notices Friday, according to Mayor James E. Doyle’s administrative director, Harvey Goulet. He said McGrath had approximately 18 years of service with the city and Cabral about 16 years, and will be eligible to “bump” into other jobs. Goulet confirmed that one City Hall worker given a layoff notice had more than 30 years’ tenure with the city. He said approximately 13 members of Local 1012, which represents laborers, library employees, Water Supply Board workers and others, had received layoff notices, and at least two members of Local 3960, which represents professional and technical workers, many in City Hall. Goulet said the administration had been in discussions “for two or three weeks” on how to renew the bookmobile service, on fewer days with fewer stops, if the City Council approved the administration’s revenue-squeezed budget proposal, which calls for dozens of layoffs. “That’s something we’re looking into,” Library Director Susan Reed acknowledged late Friday. “I think the bookmobile is very important so we don’t want to lose it entirely.” The council, with Councilors Donald Grebien and James Chadwick absent, voted 7-0 first passage of the budget Wednesday (June 4), when it also eliminated 2 percent pay raises across the board to save another 6 cents on the tax rate. Final passage vote is scheduled for Wednesday. The pink slips specify June 27 as the termination date for the jobs being eliminated. The laid-off union workers retain “bumping rights,” based on seniority, to other city jobs they may be qualified for. Reed said restarting the bookmobile after the post-June 27 shutdown will require creating two new jobs, both likely part time, on a reduced schedule that would eliminate less-busy stops. Once the new job descriptions are written, they must go before the Personnel Board then receive final approval by the council. During that process, the bookmobile will remain shut down, “unfortunately,” she said. As to whether the bookmobile could be grounded all summer, when its stops include Slater Park, “I hope not,” said Reed. “I don’t know how fast this (process) can go. But that’s one of the reasons to get started right away.” Reed said she would issue a press release on the matter Monday. The Rev. Edward St. Godard, a city resident who has served on the library’s board of trustees for 20 years, currently as chairman, said the board will discuss the issue when it meets Tuesday. St. Godard said Reed in a brief phone call had suggested the bookmobile “make fewer stops,” retaining the busiest ones. “It would still continue but maybe a little less convenient.” Told by a reporter that one of the laid-off bookmobile workers is a mother of four children and the other has two youngsters, St. Godard said, “That was my big concern, would this be a hardship for anybody.” But he noted, “Everybody’s cutting down on funding,” including at the Woonsocket church where he is pastor, “because everyone’s hurting.” Joseph Peckham, deputy director of Council 94, which represents the 300-member Local 1012, said a meeting was set for Monday (June 9) to discuss the impact of the layoffs and the union’s response. “We must look at the bumping (rules),” Peckham said. In the case of some the layoffs, “the service will still be provided” by remaining workers, but for the bookmobile, “the entire service is not going to be provided” with elimination of both driver/clerks. “It can’t be done.” Goulet however said he was hopeful that after reorganization the service can resume, if on a more limited basis. “Sue Reed assured me that they can perform the same functions, part time. Will they eliminate two or three (stops)? I would suggest yes,” he said. “It’s a very difficult thing. What we’re trying to do is eliminate the positions (being cut throughout the city) and still have the residents get good service. Obviously, these (bookmobile) people are necessary, and I feel bad for them. If you want to go through the layoffs, there’s a story for every one of the layoffs.” Goulet also confirmed that police clerk Sheila Malloy, whose tenure stretches 11 years, received a layoff notice. He said efforts are also being made to “reduce the weekly overtime for the other police clerks.” John Tassoni, Council 94 business agent for the approximately 40-member Local 3960, whose proposed 3-year contract the council rejected last year chiefly due to longevity clauses, blasted the city for laying off workers while he said administrators and City Council members made no sacrifices in their own pay and benefits. Figures confirmed by Goulet show City Council members are paid approximately $7,732 in salary, and are eligible for $15,000 in health benefits plus |
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$900 in dental coverage, on which they pay a flat dollar fee co-pay that computes to about 7 percent. “I’m extremely disappointed how they’re trying to balance the budget on the backs of union families,” said Tassoni, who is also a state senator representing Smithfield. “If they want to balance the budget, the administration and the City Council should pay a (percentage) co-pay” for their medical benefits, he said. “They hired 19 summer people (temporary workers). If you’re laying off full time people with families, why (hire) kids with no family obligations,” Tassoni said. “We gave them a laundry list of savings (suggestions), I think it was two pages long. If they did half, there would be no need for layoffs. We haven’t had a (negotiations) meeting now in two or three months,” on a contract that will be open a year come June 30, he said. “We were very disappointed in the administration. They wanted to take us to a zero (pay increase for next year as well).” As for the bookmobile, it remained unclear how the summer reading program run from it every year will be affected. But two 6th-graders at Potter Burns School who visited the bookmobile on its regular visit there Friday said they rely on the services and would miss them if they stopped. “We think it’s very good because if we don’t have time to go to the library we can check out books,” said Michael Majdalani. “It means a lot to us. My mom works a lot,” so she has him visit the bookmobile “every Friday,” he said. Austin Le said with gas at $4 a gallon, it helps his parents not to have to drive to the library downtown and he likes the services the bookmobile offers. “We really appreciate that thing, that bookmobile,” he said. |
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Christie Fredette with her son Logan, a first grader at Potter-Burns, with books he borrowed Friday. "I think it's very important " she said of the mobile service. |
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Story and photos By DOUG HADDEN For a first-ever effort, Saturday’s Tolman Spring Carnival seemed to get everything right. Despite threatening skies, turnout was strong and more than three dozen of the Exchange Street high school’s student organizations took part in the carnival, held in the parking area between Tolman and the Gamm Theatre. So did several good-sport teachers who took a “pie” in the face or a drop in the dunk tank, showing their school spirit while adding to the festive air. The carnival was coordinated by art teacher Christine Tavares, who is also student council adviser. ‘This is our first annual, it’s never happened before,” said the enthusiastic Tavares. “We are trying to promote all the clubs and organizations we have here. There’s 38 being represented out of the 46 at the school. They were lining up at the last minute” to take part. Tavares said the event also served as a get-acquainted opportunity for Goff and |
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From left: Amber Homer, Caitlyn McCarron, sisters Melissa Cabrera and Cindy Cabrera, Leah Campanelli, Stephanie MacLaughlin, Erin Tracey, Cailee Dolloff, Ashley Tavares. |
Jenks junior high schoolers to see what Tolman is like and become awareof the activities it offers. “It’s proven that if you’re involved in something outside of school (classes), you do better in school,” she said. “And it’s just to have some fun and maybe raise some money,” she smiled. Among the many organizations represented were the Robotics and Key clubs, yearbook, library, music department, National Honor Society, cheerleader squads and several sports including hockey, tennis, football, basketball, softball, volleyball and track. At the cheerleaders’ table, you could get a slice of pizza, donated by Domino’s and Spumoni’s, for $1. A couple tables away, hot dogs were being grilled. Then there were the games of “skill” where teachers took it on the chin, or in the water. No matter how many times Enid Negron, a 13-year Spanish and ESL teacher, had to take a dive into the dunk tank, she came up smiling. Math teacher Noreen McVay conveyed the same ubeat attitude at the “Pie a Teacher” booth, where the “pies” consisted of whipped cream spread on a sponge that splattered her face as she smiled through a hole in a cardboard backdrop. McVay noted she is also adviser to the Junior Board, which is raising money for next year’s senior prom. Ambling his way from booth to booth was Tolman’s new school resource officer, Patrolman Robert Cardente. “It’s nice” seeing the students have fun, he said, pointing out that his job is more about “communication” than enforcement. |
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Tolman cheerleaders perform an airborne routine at first-ever Tolman Spring Carnival held Saturday in the paved area on the side of the high school. |
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“I think they did a great job the first time through,” praised Tolman Principal Fred Silva. “I think it’s amazing how many kids came out with the weather,” which promised thunderstorms but fortunately didn’t deliver. “We’re seeing 8th-graders that will be in the high school next (fall). It’s also a nice get-together thing. It gives them a chance to get together, play together and enjoy each other,” Silva said. |
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Story and photos Sometimes going ’round and ’round in circles can really get you somewhere. That was certainly the case for the approximately 250 participants who again made the annual “Relay for Life” event, conducted from 6 p.m. Friday night (May 30) till almost noon on Saturday on the walking track ringing Pariseau Field adjacent McCoy Stadium, such a success again this year. This is the fourth year for the Relay since it was revived in Pawtucket after a lapse of several years, said Rick Goldstein, who coordinates the city’s end of things and whose team raised $2,000. |
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Robin Bowro walks with sons Aiden, 3 (wearing ballcap) and Kyle, 2 |
Rich Blank, with his 2-year-old son Ben, picks up where his wife, Sharon, left off the night before |
For Robin Bowron, making the last few laps with sons Aiden, 3, and 2-year-old Kyle, the American Cancer Society-sanctioned event was another triumph for her Johnny Walkers team, and more importantly another blow in the fight against cancer. “We raised $10,443,” their biggest effort yet. “My brother, Ted Foos, is a cancer survivor,” said Bowron, who like her brother hails from Pawtucket. “This is our third year as the Johnny Walkers and we’ve come in first” each time." Rich Blank, proudly making the circuit Saturday morning with his energetic 2-year-old son Ben, said they were just picking up where his wife, Sharon, had left off. “My wife was here all night” with her Terminators teammates, he said. “It’s worth it,” he said of the hours spent enlisting contributors then logging the laps on the track. “It’s worth the extra time.” Besides, he smiled, “I could be playing golf in this lousy wind.” The walkers weren’t the only ones notching long hours: DJ Bobby Brown, “Mr. Music Encyclopedia,” and his music coordinator and wife, Denise, kept things lively spinning discs much of Friday night and again Saturday morning. The music helps keep the walkers going, Denise said. “And we get a lot of requests as people are walking around. You could see the people dancing.” Some of the walkers notched the 26-mile marathon distance. But all went a championship distance in the eyes of event co-coordinators Tara Whitman and Deb Costa, of Pawtucket, who were assisted by the ACS-RI’s coordinator for Pawtucket, Megan Evangelista. “I cross the border from Seekonk because my mother, Maryanne Whitman, was in the (Memorial) Hospital in Pawtucket” for treatment of cancer that eventually spread to her lungs, Whitman said. “She passed away five years ago in July. I still remember some of the nurses,” said Whitman, a nurse herself. As for the Relay -- the ACS’s biggest fundraiser, including dozens in Rhode Island held in May and June, “I think it offers hope,” Whitman said noting numerous cancer survivors took part. “There’s also strength that comes from being with survivors,” noted Goldstein, “and it gives us great hope we can do good things.” One of those survivors is Lucille “Lu” Larivee, who was given only months to live when she was diagnosed with cancer. “I had my treatment. I’m now 61. I was 43 when diagnosed. “I had Stage 4 lung cancer. It’s the worst. Stage 5 you’re dead. It had spread to my esophagus. They gave me six months to live.” But after chemotherapy and radiation at Memorial, the high-spirited Larivee has remained cancer free. |
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Larivee said Memorial’s Cancer Center has a twice-monthly cancer support group, for anyone struggling with issues related to any type of cancer, unique in the state. She attends to boost others’ spirits, and has seen success stories like her own. “You make strong friendships. Maryanne (Whitman) became a very good friend. I figure if I can give one person hope, that’s what counts. You know I survived, I can help you.” Whitman’s preliminary tally, pending possible later donations, showed a total of $44,533 raised by the Relay event. It was a colorectal surgeon in Tacoma, Wash., Dr. Gordy Klatt, who spontaneously launched the first Relay in May 1985 as a challenge to his friends, walking 24 hours around the track at the University of Puget Sound and raising $27,000 for cancer research. The scale of Relay is now enormous, across the U.S. and in several other countries. In 2006, over three million people, including a half-million cancer survivors who traditionally walk the first lap, took part in more than 4,600 Relays in the U.S. alone, raising more than $375 million. |
Pawtucket native Frank Breault, of Lincoln, and his niece Mary Robin, of Foster, notched another lap for cancer research |
Tara Whitman, local co-coordinator for Relay for Life event, announces fundraising results with Megan Evangelista, Pawtucket liaison from the American Cancer Society of Rhode Island |
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Story and photo Instead of arresting suspected criminals, as many as 15 police officers could be collaring their own careers in anticipation of losing top-notch health benefits when they retire, as the city proceeds with negotiations with the local Fraternal Order of Police union. The sudden spike in arrested careers is coming as the union’s current contract, which does not have a so-called evergreen clause to keep its stipulations in place while a new pact is negotiated, bears down on a June 30 expiration date. So far, at least 10 police officers have signaled they will turn in their badges by the end of June, Police Chief George Kelley told City Council members Wednesday at a budget workshop in City Hall. That figure includes three officers who put in for retirement earlier this year, joined by another seven in the past few days. Kelley, with other department heads attending Mayor James E. Doyle’s annual “neighborhood summit” Thursday night at the Woodlawn Community Center on West Avenue, updated the prospective figure for All Pawtucket All The Time, saying at least another three to five officers could be on the way out. The issue for the uniform officers is the expectation that the city, |
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Police Chief George Kelley (foreground), pictured at Thursday's annual mayor's neighborhood summit at the Woodlawn Community Center, could lose roughly10 percent of his officers in a mass exodus to avoid possible changes in theirretiree health benefits. Water Supply Board official Bob Benson, one of numerous department administrators to attend the community meeting, is seated behind Kelley. |
facing its toughest budget problems in years with slack revenues, cuts in state aid and rising costs for schools and other services, will likely target the health care benefits of police retirees. Under the expiring contract, where officers can go out at 50 percent of pay at 20 years and 60 percent at 23 ½ years, retirees incur no health co-pay. Teachers, starting almost two years ago, were the first city union to pay a percentage toward their current health benefits, which rises steadily as health costs rise, while other unions were paying relatively low flat fees with marginal annual increases. Police officers, according to Kelley, now pay a 3 percent escalator for their Blue Cross coverage -- still far below what annual health care costs have risen the past several years. But the retiree lack of co-pay remained untouched. Now apprehension that the city will revisit the percentage contribution from current police officers, and more crucially seek the first-ever co-pay for retirees, is driving the parade to the exit door. Kelley said three officers -- Bill McGill, Bob Eckman and Ken Salois -- left earlier this year. In the last few days, “Ten have submitted their papers to Personnel (department),” he said, and he anticipates several long-timers could be following them, “potentially three to five more.” The police force complement is 153 officers, which with the city’s 150 firefighters form the backbone of the city’s public safety capability. Firefighters recently concluded arbitration hearings on their contract, with a decision from the three-member panel expected sometime in August. Contractual minimal manning requirements, and a reluctance to reduce the public safety force in uncertain times, have kept the Doyle administration from seeking any reductions in either police or fire personnel despite the severe budget crunch. From the audience, 40-year resident Bill Greenwood said he had a disagreement with his wife’s position that police and fire personnel should also absorb some layoffs. But, citing expenses such as city taxes and his totally self-paid family health insurance, he said it was time for other unions to absorb some increases. He asked Doyle “if there’s any way to get through to these unions, because they’re not feeling it.” Doyle noted two city unions, Locals 1012 and 3960, Council 94 AFSCME, could be facing health care hikes or other givebacks, pending negotiations. But he said the level of police and fire coverage should not be reduced. “You’ve got to have your police officers out there,” Doyle told Greenwood and the small public gathering of about two dozen people at the summit. “That’s public safety,” and their contracts have minimum manning requirements that must be honored, he said. Kelley after the meeting told All Pawtucket All The Time that while he understood the city’s financial plight, the prospect of a mass exodus of seasoned officers – roughly 10 percent of his force -- was not a pleasant one. “Because when you start to lose guys in their 40s and 50s, you lose a lot of talent,” and experience in specialized areas from drugs to gangs, he said. “You lose a lot of savvy guys like that, it doesn’t help anybody.” Rumors have swirled in recent days that the city may consider holding exiting police officers harmless on their health retirement benefits until a new agreement, which could take months, is reached. Extending the retirement window that way would allow a more staggered replacement of departed officers as recruits make their way through the Municipal Police Academy. “There’s talk,” Kelley acknowledged, “but there’s nothing in writing yet,” he said. As for the level of blue flight, Kelley said it was well beyond what he was used to in more than a decade as chief. Typically, “we budget three to five retirements a year,” he said. |
Story & Photos By: DOUG HADDEN The Pawtucket YMCA’s annual “All-Star Benefit” event at McCoy Stadium is always a fun event, where everyone gets to enjoy a barbecue and a ballgame. But it also has a serious side, since it’s one of the Y’s top fundraisers every year. “It’s a fundraiser for the summer youth programs for the Pawtucket Family YMCA, the downtown branch,” explained Esselton McNulty, the Y’s general director. “It’s intended to raise money to do programs in the neighborhoods, to give kids alternatives in the summertime when it’s hot.” |
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Jonathan Baran, 4, enjoys an ice cream bar at McCoy Stadium. Jonathan attended with his parents, Jeff and Tracy Baran, and 2-year-old brother Christopher |
William Haley, 4, of Johnston was turned out in his Red Sox gear to enjoy Pawtucket Y event at McCoy Stadium with his mom, Sara Haley |
Hoops legend Ernie DiGregorio will coach a girls AAU basketball squad this summer at the Pawtucket Y. |
One “cool” program is the Y’s use of Vets Pool in Fairlawn on some weekday nights. There are also baseball leagues, trips to the pool at the Y facility at MacColl Field in Lincoln and, thanks to the fundraiser, scholarships for children to attend summer camps. The camps can range from travel camps and “Aim High,” a remedial math and reading program at the downtown Y, to Ernie D’s Basketball Camp. Ernie DiGregorio, the former Providence College star and NBA Rookie of the Year, and staff give instruction and run basketball games for youths ages 11 to 16. Thanks to sponsors and donors, including tickets and the right center field pavilion area the PawSox reserved for the Y, the fundraiser was a success, with a projected $20,000 being brought in. Donated raffle prizes included a drawing for tickets to this summer’s Major League All Star Game in New York in what will be the final season for Yankee Stadium, Red Sox tickets, a ball signed by every player on the PawSox, and DVD players along with numerous kid-oriented prizes. DiGregorio noted his own local ties. “My wife was born in Pawtucket, Susan Percival,” he told All Pawtucket All The Time. “Palm Street,” near Coatsfield Manor. He said the basketball camps will start in July; he also runs an AAU program for girls in grades 5-11 from the Y, a coaching niche he is already well familiar with, including girls teams in Boston, he said. “I love it,” he said of coaching the girls. “They listen.” Former URI basketballer Kyle Ivey-Jones runs the companion boys program. Sean Cassidy, Y senior program director, said DiGregorio’s summer camp stresses youngsters’ “skill development, to get them going.” Bob Verdun, Y executive director, said that beyond basketball itself the hoopsters learn how to train for the sport, from stretching to lifting weights. “So between Ernie’s experience and the trainers, we’ve got a program at all levels teaching them,” he said. Cassidy noted the hoops program is open to everyone who wants to participate. “If you’re a (Pawtucket YMCA) member, you’re on the team. That’s important,” he said. |
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Esselton McNulty, Y general director, awards prize to young raffle winner as Y executive director Bob Verdun looks on |
Joy Cassidy, 16 months, and her mom, Rachel, take in some sun and fun at Monday's "All Star Benefit" event for the Pawtucket YMCA at McCoy Stadium |
Brothers (from front) Robert, 9, and 10-year-old Patrick Hagerty and their gloves |
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is standout season finale |
Review by DOUG HADDEN If you like your entertainment funny, fast-paced and full of surprises then the Gamm Theatre has saved the best for last for you: Its season-ending sendup of William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” gets every witty, ribald, battle-of-the-sexes inch out of the Bard’s take on women vs. men and how they get that way, while staying (mostly) true to the poetry, with a lot of clever pratfalls thrown in along the way. The Gamm’s “Shrew” is simply one of the best versions of Shakespeare’s most popular comedy that you are ever likely to see on any stage. Don’t waste a moment wondering if you should go -- it’s more fun than a summer barbecue, without the greasy sauce. Think pasta sauce instead: The setting is the Shakespeare-dubbed Padua, but this time as an Italian-American neighborhood circa early 1960s, complete with not just a poster of a young lovely riding a Vespa but also the revving motor scooter itself, actors that pose like a Life magazine ad for Lucky Strike, and a distinctly non-aria soundtrack, from Del Shannon’s “Runaway” to The Temptations’ “My Girl.” |
Jeanine Kane as Katharina, Ralph Stokes as Priest, Tony Estrella as Petruchio. Back row: Tom Gleadow as Baptista, Dave Rabinow as Biondello, Casey Seymour Kim as Grumio |
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Or to sum it up, what “West Side Story” did to “Romeo and Juliet,” the Gamm has done to “Taming of the Shrew” without having to change the name, water down the themes or adopt a New Yawk accent. The plot is basic though it takes a complex twist of relationships, betrayals and deceits to play it out. Kate -- Katharina to her father, Baptista, though he is only too aware of her willful behavior -- must be married off or he will not allow any suitors to betrothe his fair-haired younger daughter Bianca. So Baptista (Tom Gleadow) has decreed, and he holds the dowry strings. Where others see woman trouble, Petruchio (Tony Estrella) sees opportunity -- or at least a chance at a better life than he enjoys among his squalid digs and C List servants. Conspiracies abound as Lucentio (Josh Short), a young man who comes from money, swaps identities with his faithful servant Tranio (Steve Kidd) to get closer to Bianca, with whom he immediately, swooningly hits it off. Bianca (Jillian Blevins) must fend off her other suitors -- Hortensio (Jim O’Brien), who is being pursued by a stern but ardent widow, and Gremio (Sam Babbitt), who is old enough to be her grandfather but still a man of some means. Rest assured all that will play out -- if Lucentio can only tame his shrew, who Gremio calls “this fiend from hell,” and of whom Hortensio says, “I wouldn’t wed her for a mine of gold...The one is as famous for her scolding tongue as the other for her beauteous modesty.” So the Bianca suitors, strung in their own webs of deceit, team up with Petruchio to further his scheme, which consists at first of a frontal assault of garbled poetry, impenetrable self confidence (complete with Tony Manero gold neck chain) and a realistic outlook: “I know she is an irksome scold,” he admits. “Will he woo this wild Kat?” wonders Gremio. |
Jeanine Kane as Katharina & Tony Estrella as Petruchio |
Kate, played with fire and brimstone yet a maturing wisdom by Jeanine Kane, proves no easy prey, and can kick as hard as she can caterwaul. Petruchio learns, when his willfulness turns physical, she hits back. And bites, too. Especially when he says things like, “For I am born to tame you, make you as comforable as other household Kates.” “I see that a woman may be made a fool if she does not have the spirit” to fight back, she asseses her unruly betrothed. “I will be master of what I own,” he declares, “she is my chattel, my barn, my ass.” Today that would be a prescription for lonely nights and fast food takeout for at least a week, if not a dish flying by the head. But before getting caught up in the fallacy of cross-cultural generalizations, mistaking the mores of the Shakespearean age for ours, it’s none too far afield to see that Kate knows how to play her own angles. What a modern feminist bent might see as obeisance is her method to make her own way. For behind her bluster, and that of Petruchio, who arrives late (on the Vespa) and drunk at his own wedding then tries to starve his new bride into submission, there is more a respect of equal wills, and love underlying it all -- something even the hard edged Kate, so unable to trust, realizes had almost passed her by. Though it is within what we would now see as the sexist rules of the time, she is playing to win, curbing her willfulness without losing her individuality. If that means learning to partner with a sometimes boorish lout who really loves her, and declaring day for night or sun for moon if that’s what he insists on, that’s fine too. She already knows who she is, and has finally decided what she wants. So when Bianca, the widow and Kate are all ordered to do what their “master” wills, it is the disregard of the refusers that grates us more, before another step even more telling. Estrella is in outstanding comic form as Petruchio, and Kane’s Kate is in every way his strong-willed match. The other principals well support their roles, and Casey Seymour Kim as Petruchio’s servant steals laughs throughout. The staging -- down the middle of the theater space, with seating on both sides -- finds actors occasionally sitting on a spectator’s lap, only adding to the fun. Sampieri has directed with a sure hand yet seemingly let his talented 14-actor troupe run just a bit wild, making the evening all the funnier for it. Don’t miss it. Then tell your friends. They’ll thank you later. “The Taming of the Shrew,” by William Shakespeare. Directed by Peter Sampieri. At the Gamm Theatre, 172 Exchange St., through June 15. |
Story and photos by: DOUG HADDEN / Executive Editor Over the course of several Memorial Day morning ceremonies in Pawtucket, the speakers included a Bataan Death March survivor, a Bronze Star winner, a women’s auxiliary president and the mayor. But as fine as their words were, perhaps the most lasting tributes were to be found deep in the hearts of those closest to those who fell. As members of the Pawtucket Veterans Council gathered about 9 a.m. outside the shell monument at the north edge of Slater Park, Mary Bray stood quietly in the small crowd of spectators as a brisk breeze battled the early sun. Bray, the City Council president, said although more than 60 years have passed since the Battle of the Bulge claimed her eldest brother, 21-year-old Edward Thompson, it is still difficult for her mother to talk about especially this time of year. Left without saying was the enduring effect on Bray herself. “He died on Christmas Day, 1944,” Bray related. Letters sent to him with that date were later returned. Bray said she always makes it a point to attend at least one of the Memorial Day ceremonies -- which local veterans held Monday at five sites -- to honor her brother’s memory |
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Navy veteran Bob Bryson observes a reflective moment at the Paw- tucket Veterans Memorial at Slater Park. The Shell, once housed outside City Hall, during Memorial Day ceremonies Monday morning. |
Past Gatchell Post Cmdr. Maurice Trottierand James Hollis, a retired Marinecaptain, place a wreath at the Spanish-American War monument at the edge ofQuality Hill overlooking |
At a wall below the shell, officially the Pawtucket Veterans Memorial, James Hollis, a retired Marine Corps captain who served in Korea and Vietnam and now heads the Veterans Council, and Ken LaFountaine, a 75-year-old former Army PFC who served in Japan, laid a wreath with colors of red, white and blue. Among those looking on were several members of the Maj. Walter Gatchell VFW Post 306 Ladies Auxiliary, crisp in their white blouses and powder blue suits. One veteran bearing quiet witness was World War II veteran Henri Fugere, a living reminder that not all service was done overseas. “I was a (stateside) radio operator intercepting radio messages,” he recalled. “You would get Russia, China, Japan, you name it.” Maurice “Moe” Trottier, a former Gatchell Post commander, explained that the Veterans Council was an umbrella group for “all the different posts in the city that want to join.” |
Crowd gathers for ceremony at the Shell monument |
Trottier spent 27 years in the military in various service branches, with five discharges to prove it. Noting the crowd at the she monument seemed half the size of last year, Trottier said of his World War II era, “We’re thinning out age-wise. We’re losing veterans right and left.” Next a wreath was laid at the Spanish-American War memorial at Grove and Underwood streets, which many a motorist passes unheeding as the rifle-carrying soldier statue looks vigilantly east over I-95 near the Cottage Street exit. Then the memorial contingent trouped to Mineral Spring Avenue Cemetery, a rundown city burial ground whose chief visual distinction is its statue, on a high base, of a Civil War soldier, surrounded by a circular iron fence. The small flags there were frayed; fortunately one of the veterans was able to pull from his car trunk the 33 needed to fill each star-shaped inground holder. Among those looking on for that ceremony were City Councilor James Chadwick, whose Dist. 6 includes the area, and Charles Malo Jr., “American Legion 56 years today,” he said proudly. Malo is also an AmVets and VFW member, each for 40 years. He served in the Army Airborne in World War II, which earned him a free trip to Germany to a hostile welcome. |
Retired U.S. Marine Capt. James Hollis, a Korea and Vietnam veteran, places flags in star-shaped holders at Civil War monument in Mineral Spring Cemetery on Monday morning, Memorial Day. |
Ken LaFountaine, chaplain for Gatchell Post 306 VFW in Pawtucket, placing flags that replaced tattered ones surrounding Civil War monument. |
Theresa Watts, Gatchell Ladies Auxiliary president for 13 years and wife of a former commander, helped with the flag-placings, along with fellow members including Peggy Roberts, Martha Cote, Carmen Pettite, Penny Trottier and Doris Bessette. Bob Bryson, 69, made all three of the smaller ceremonies that led up to the largest event, at the memorial in Veterans Park on Roosevelt Avenue next to fire headquarters. “My father is a Second World War veteran, my brother served in Vietnam,” he said. Bryson himself served from 1956 to 1963 as a Navy seaman aboard the USS Albany, a heavy cruiser out of Boston. “I got two grandsons, but they don’t want to hear (about military service).” At the ceremony downtown, Trottier praised the city and Mayor James E. Doyle for their support of veterans, noting there are 16 ceremonies at various sites around the city each year. Doyle, in brief remarks to a gathering of about 100 people, noted Decoration Day, the forerunner of the military remembrances paid on Memorial Day, traced to 1868 after the federal government officially caught up with what the families of Confederate soldiers had begun on their own, remembrances that have now continued without pause for 140 years. “We’re here today because we readily appreciate the sacrifice those people made for us,” Doyle said. “It’s a free country. That’s what we celebrate today.” Jack Lucas, executive secretary for the Veterans Council, recognized Chadwick and Councilor John Barry in the crowd and introduced Hollis. The Bronze Star winner spoke of the current day “war on terror, which it appears that it will not go away any time soon,” with 876 American soldiers’ lives claimed since last May, Hollis said. Gatchell Post Commander Jason Crawley, who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, said Memorial Day is also about “kids that believe in the service the way I did, the way all these people did.” State DAV Cmdr. Jim Robbins pointed out the disabled veterans memorial, newly appointed with flags, directly across the street. He said his group is about “veterans helping veterans and their families.” He noted the state chapter of the Disabled American Veterans transports veterans of all stripes to VA hospitals, including the Boston area, and the Bristol Veterans Home. He asked that the work be remembered “when you see us with the forget-me-nots,” the flowers DAV sells to raise funds. Bataan Death March in the Philippines, quoted Abraham Lincoln’s directive “to care for him who has borne the battle, and his widow and his orphan.” “America is No. 1 because of its veterans,” said Brennan. “We are preserving the peace of the world.” He also called for making English the nation’s official language and respecting the flag, and said, “our immigration laws, they should be brought up to date.” In the audience was Robert Kerle, at a relatively spry 93 the city’s oldest veteran. A Woonsocket native, Kerle served 1941-45 in the Pacific, including the Philippines, then resettled in Pawtucket. “It’s great to honor the veterans here,” he said, “they gave all they got. All my buddies did the same thing. There’s fewer here every year. I got one left, in Pascoag.” With Kerle was Leo Beland, a Central Falls native who in 1944 hit the sands of Omaha Beach in the D-Day Invasion. Machine gunned in the left leg, losing two toes, he was taken prisoner by the Germans, who sent him to a hospital in France. “They took good care of me,” though on a steady diet of German black bread and soup, “I lost 30 pounds in 32 days.” He was still in the hospital, in traction, when the allies liberated the town. He came home, married, and settled in Pawtucket. Now 85, Beland said his homecoming was bittersweet because of the losses to his battalion. “Out of 165 guys, there were only 30 left” by the end of the war, he said. Which perhaps shows again that it is in the memories and hearts of those with whom those veterans served that they find their most enduring tribute. |
Photos and Story By: DOUG HADDEN Executive Editoe: May 23, 2008 It took just minutes, plus several hours of aftershocks, for the May 12 earthquake in southwest China’s Sichuan province to bring down uncountable buildings, kill more than 50,000 people and injure almost 300,000 and make a staggering 5 million people homeless. The rebuilding effort will take many hands and many years. But even as the Chinese government works to bring aid to the victims, the Chinese-American community in Rhode Island, as in nearby. Massachusetts and elsewhere, has rolled up its sleeves, pooled its considerable expertise and begun a fundraising effort with an ambitious goal of $200,000. |
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Thursday night, the China Earthquake Relief Committee of Rhode Island, chaired by China Inn owner Louis Yip, met in a building at 84 Blackstone St. (off Roosevelt Avenue) to plan strategy. The funds raised by the group, formed six days after the earthquake, have now topped $50,000 including matching donations. Yip said all money raised will be forward to the Chinese Consul General in New York, then relayed to the Chinese Red Cross. The local relief committee includes physicians, business people, restaurant owners, academics and several other walks of life. Already, they have assembled a Web site (www.riforchinaquakerelief.org), are sending out thousands of letters to business and individuals seeking donations, and have enlisted several restaurants to donate a day’s proceeds to the fund. They’ve also signed on a veritable Rhode Island who’s-who of honorary co-chairs, including Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, Congressmen Patrick Kennedy and James Langevin, Gov. Donald Carcieri, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Attorney General Patrick Lynch and his attorney brother William Lynch of Pawtucket, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis, University of Rhode Island President Robert Carothers and Miriam Hospital CEO Dr. Kathleen Hittner. Victoria Huang, vice chair for the group, said donation boxes have been sent to Chinese restaurants throughout the state, along with posters and a brief donation guide informing people how to contribute. Other restaurants, supermarkets and other typical venues are also being enlisted. “We are sending out letters, roughly 4,000 (Wednesday and Thursday),” Huang said. “We spent a lot of hours, a lot of manpower. A lot of volunteers. We’re focusing on Rhode Island because Massachusetts (organizers) are doing something similar. Rhode Island is small and it’s pretty unique,” said Huang, who lives in Pawtucket. Remarkably, the first benefit concert has already been held: Wednesday night, in East Greenwich’s Swift Gym, by the Ten Drum Performance Group from Taiwan. The concert drew about 400 people and raised some $3,000. Other musical events are being planned, and perhaps a massive dinner such as the one at Lincoln’s Kings Inn in 1993 for victims of massive Chinese floods. Yip said $100,000 was raised for that cause and the current $200,000 goal is realistic. Committee member Sonny Ng said this time they may do it as a big outdoor cookout. Anonymous donors have given $10,000 in seed money and pledged to match up to another $40,000 to other donations, which has already leveraged the $30,000 funds-raised figure on the Web site past the $50,000 mark. Committee member Wenjun Kuai, of East Providence, a teacher at Moses Brown School in Providence, said support has been widespread. “Every day we are receiving checks from the whole community, not just the Chinese community,” she said. |
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Among the many ideas voiced at Thusday’s meeting, one of the most innovative came from Dr. Chunsong Luo, of Cranston, who is chief medical physicist at St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River. Luo noted that many local schools have a community service component including as a graduation requirement, and suggested contacting local superintendents and principals to get students involved. Meanwhile Tony Chan, of Lincoln, has been going almost without sleep, Yip said, in his effort to bring donation boxes to every restaurant or other business willing to help. (For a donation box, call Chan at 338-2807. For further information, call 722-6433.) “We made 64 boxes,” Chan reported, “and in one day placed 32.” What’s also needed are more people willing to volunteer their help. “Very simply, we need more manpower, more bodies,” Yip said. He said he is also working with the Pawtucket Red Sox on how the Triple A ballclub can assist the fundraising effort. “The students at URI want to help, they just want to know when and where,” offered Ying Liao, an assistant professor with the Confucius Institute of the University of Rhode Island. Hong Yang, an environmental sciences professor with the U.S.-China Institute at Bryant University, noted the university is already working on a longer term commitment. “The school has a plan not for the immediate but for the long term for schools in China,” he said. Committee vice chair Victoria Huang said three restaurants have confirmed dates where all proceeds that day will go toward the relief effort: Thursday, May 29, Red Ginger, 560 Killingly St., Johnston; Monday, June 2, China Buffet, 1000 Division Road, East Greenwich; and June 3, Royal Buffet, 272 Garfield St., Cranston. |
Members of a local committee to aid victims of the devastating May 12earthquake in China have raised more than $50,000 to aid the victimson the way to a goal of $200,000. Those meeting Thursday night at 84Blackstone St. included (foreground) businesman Sonny Ng and MosesBrown School teacher Wenjun Kuai, and (top, from left) publicist andvice chair Victoria Huang, chairman and China Inn owner Louis Yip, and Tony Chan, who has sited dozens of donations boxes at area restaurants. |
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| Local China earthquake relief committee chairman Louis Yip (top left) leads Thursday's fundraising strategy meeting | Hong Yang, a professor at the U.S.-China Institute at Bryant University, and Ying Liao, an assistant professor at URI's Confucius Institute, help plan fundraising strategy for earthquake victims. Donation boxes like the one at left have already been sited at restaurants throughout the state |
Photos and Story By DOUG HADDEN From Pawtucket to Westerly, seniors more than 350 strong converged on the Statehouse Thursday to stage a lively rally protesting cuts in senior services proposed in the upcoming state budget. “I’m here so they won’t do any cuts. We need the senior centers,” 83-year-old Emily Lucini, who lives with her husband of 55 years, Robert, in their Darlington house -- “I pay taxes,” she stressed -- told All Pawtucket All The Time. “They have the activities down there, they help with (understanding) the bills, taxes, extra help finding a doctor. The personnel down there are trained. They can open the doors for you. They can even make the phone calls or the mailings for you,” she said. “If they cut that (free RIDE) program out, it means I’m not going to be able to buy groceries for two weeks.” Lucini’s remarks before the rally hit most of the areas threatened by the budget axe: Elimination of the community information specialist program that was cut in half last year; creating a $4 round-trip fee for the RIDE program that provides transportation to medical appointments and senior meal sites; and slashes in senior center budgets including almost $60,000 overall for the Leon Mathieu Senior Center in Pawtucket. The “Senior Issues Rally” was organized by the R.I. Senior Centers Directors Association, with the R.I. Senior Agenda Coalition and Gray Panthers. While the protest under the Statehouse dome seemed more a page from the social activism book of their Baby Boomer children, the seniors made it clear they were not going to swallow the cuts without a fight. “This is how the seniors are going to get together. Otherwise we’ll get lost. There’s strength in numbers,”said Bud Brown, 87, with his wife, Mary, 82, who have been going to the Mathieu Center for 27 years. The activist slant was reflected in the numerous spirited chants the crowd -- seated below the Rotunda, lining the marble steps up to both houses of the legislature and spilling over the balconies -- spontaneously chorused before and during the speakers’ part of the program: “Save our centers or lose our vote!” “Where’s our governor?” “Remember in November!” Some 60 to 70 seniors from Pawtucket came to the rally by bus, school bus and car, according to Joan Crawley, Mathieu Center director. Kathleen Carland, president of the Senior Centers Directors group, told the crowd that senior centers were a key to “keep people in their homes and in their communities,” and the proposed cuts would rend a “safety net” that has existed “for years and years.” Carland noted most seniors are on fixed incomes at a time of “soaring costs for food, heat, gas prices.” If the proposed fees are instituted, “these programs would no longer be affordable,” leaving the elderly to choose between “medical treatment, heat and food. Don’t shut them out.” “Don’t shut them out!” the crowd yelled back. “It is our duty, our responsibility and our privilege to care for our seniors. We must not let them down.” “Don’t let them down!” the seniors and their supporters chanted Norma Santaniello, a member of the Mancini Senior Center in North Providence, said meals, transportation, social and other programs were crucial to seniors’ physical needs, while social workers addressed other need areas that she said Governor Carcieri’s budget was proposing to trim sharply next year. “Shame on him!” the crowd responded. Tom Magill, a newly added member of the Mathieu Center’s advisory board, also hit the activism button. “Every single person in this room, remember in November,” |
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Tom Magill, a member of the Mathieu Senior Center advisory board, addressess Statehouse rally Thursday where more than 350 seniors from around the state protested proposed budget cuts in senior programs |
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Joan Crawley, Mathieu Senior Center director, confers with state Sen. Daniel Issa |
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State Rep. Peter Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket, flanked by Ray Dalton and Mary Romano, receives signed cards from Mathieu Center seniors opposing proposed budget cuts to their programs |
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when senators and representatives are up for reelection (Carcieri, like other term-limited constitutional officers subject to a two-term limit, is in the middle of his final four-year term). “Remember in November!” the seniors echoed Magill, who called the governor an uncaring “lame duck.” “We cannot take any more of these cutbacks, we just cannot,” said Irene Santos, president of the Gray Panthers of R.I. John O’Hara of the Senior Agenda Coalition said it was crucial to retain the information specialists “because they’re doing a terrific job.” Officials targeted seniors for cuts, O’Hara said, “Because we’re old. “We don’t fight. (They think) we don’t know how to fight.” State Rep. Peter Lewiss, D-Westerly, who filed a House bill to keep the RIDE program free as it has been for 35 years (Sen. John McBurney, D-Pawtucket, filed a companion bill in the senate), said the fees will make the rides “cost more than lunch” and push some currently self-reliant seniors, such as those who use the bus for daily dialysis treatment, into nursing homes. Lewiss also said eliminating the CIS program will have “a substantial negative impact” on seniors’ ability to stay in their homes. “Your rally today is critical but take advantage of being in this building,” Lewiss said urging seniors to knock on the offices of the governor and their local lawmakers. “I want you to know that if you were not here today, this issue would not have a prayer,” he said. A group of the Mathieu seniors took the advice of Lewiss -- the only lawmaker to speak at the rally -- and with Crawley paid an impromptu call on House Majority Leader Peter Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket, delivering a bagful of cards signed by Pawtucket seniors demanding the services be retained. “Right now with the budget the way it is,” said Kilmartin, including a $450million-plus hole still unresolved for next year, “the two places were looking first to save (from cuts) is seniors and the developmentally disabled,” which he saw as the top two priorities. “The question is (where the money can be found) with an additional $55 million budget gap” that came to light last week, Kilmartin noted. “There’s always hope. The question is, where do you find the revenue stream.” He said he was “not averse to bringing back the capital gains tax (reduced the last several years to less than 2 percent) to 5 percent, still lower than our neighbors, Massachusetts and Connecticut.” Crawley said the Mathieu Center, including a $6,000 grant already spent before the state eliminated it mid-year, is facing “$59,000 in cuts in all. It’s awful. And the CIS person does so much work. And I know it’s very tough. There’s no money anywhere. And I know the city has no money. So anything you can do will be appreciated,” she told Kilmartin, who she noted she has known “since he was this high, he used to play with my kids.” McBurney, reached later in the senate chamber, said other duties had diverted him from speaking at the rally although he was listed on the agenda. He called the RIDE service “an excellent program, worth fighting for. But it depends on the budget,” which he pointed out originates in the House before coming over to the Senate side. “Am I fighting for that program? You bet your life. But it’s terrible up here, terrible,” he said of the state’s budget situation. |
Project bringing 245 condos to west end of downtown |
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Photos and Story By DOUG HADDEN Defying several trends, the developers of a massive former mill complex on Goff Avenue have opened the doors on the 90-unit first phase of an approximately $25 million redevelopment project that will top out at 245 units when completed in another two years. Husband-and-wife developers Garfield and Rebecca Spencer of Bridgeport, Conn. welcomed city officials and other notables with an open house event, complete with catered food under a tent in the parking lot, last Friday (May 16) where Mayor James E. Doyle lauded the project. Doyle, speaking inside the model unit, noted features such as its exposed brick walls and beams, oversized windows, 14-foot ceilings and the complex’s future attendant possibilities for accompanying retail, commercial and restaurants. He said the 330,000 square foot Union Wadding Lofts would offer “the convenience and quality of life” now sought by many buyers. The Spencers’ First National Development LLC, Doyle said, “will invest $25 million in this project, transforming this once vacant mill into a premier complex,” where residents can take advantage of the growing Blackstone Bike Path and potential revival of the Pawtucket-Central Falls train station stop for MBTA commuter rail .“Their investment demonstrates once again that Pawtucket is a city on the move,” Doyle said. The Spencers’ investment is coming at a time when economists say Rhode Island is in recession and a mortgage foreclosure crisis continues nationwide. The privately financed project is also being done without any reliance on federal or the state historic tax credits, so crucial to other mill makeovers in Pawtucket, recently curtailed by the General Assembly. Then again, the Spencers’ project can be said to have overcome the odds right along.
It was in August 2005 that First National Development bought Union Wadding, on 6.5 acres at 125 Goff Ave., out of the state form of bankruptcy known as receivership. The former 200-year-old manufacturer entered receivership in October 2004, owing $9.7 million to principal creditor Citizens Bank. FND’s $1.3 million bid was accepted even though it was below its sole rival’s $1.75 million offer because the Spencers put no environmental contingencies on their bid, feeling comfortable such issues were minor, Garfield Spencer said at the time, a judgment that has since proved sound. No sooner was that hurdle cleared than the developers began considering selling the property due to a massive trash transfer operation -- literally in Union Wadding’s back yard -- proposed by a New Jersey partnership allied with Amtrak. But the Spencers ultimately decided to remain, and earlier this spring the city defeated the trash outfit on zoning issues in federal and state courts. “It was a bumpy ride,” project manager Aurora Leigh remarked to Doyle at the open house ceremony. “Certainly we’ve been at your office a few times with our concerns.” “We do want to thank the City of Pawtucket tremendously,” Rebecca Spencer said. With Doyle’s backing, the City Council last December approved a five-year tax treaty that will stabilize the tax rate for Union Wadding Lofts at $1.75 per square foot, from the time the units become habitable. Leigh told the council the project would bring about $100,000 in tax revenue to the city the first year. Construction of the project’s first phase was accomplished with commercial loan financing from Rockland Trust, whose Jonathan Neuner, first vice president and manager of Rockland’s commercial bank lending center in Attleboro, attended the ceremony. Neuner said the funding used “our New Markets Tax Credit Program, a program put together by the federal government to spur (development of) ‘hot zones,’ generally defined as areas of economic distress.” The same funding was similarly used to renovate the former W.T. Grant building on Main Street for commercial and office uses, he noted. Neuner said Rockland financed FND’s first construction phase, in an amount he declined to specify, and said “we’re open” to funding later phases of the project, though no deal has been finalized yet. He said visiting a similar (though half the size) project FND had successfully done in Bridgeport showed the project here would be viable. “Other than the owner’s equity, we were the only (financing),” he said. Of more concern to buyers are the units themselves, which will start at $99,000 for 700 square foot studios to $285,000 or more for up-and-downstairs townhouses with private entries, in a complex that will function as a gated community, a first in the area. Parking surrounds the complex. After the base studio unit, the next two tiers are one-bedrooms, about 900 square feet for $130,000, and $175,000 for two-bedrooms of approximately 1,200 square feet. The square footage does not include loft areas (ranging about 5 to 6 feet from flooring to ceiling) that are provided with all units to take advantage of the high ceilings -- which on the top, third level reach 18 feet or more. The kitchen in the model unit, the first completed, boasted maple cabinets, granite countertops, all GE appliances (microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator), and the stainless steel upgrade; lighting fixtures in the living area lent a stylish industrial nod; and the ceramic tile bathroom featured a full tub and shower. Last Friday, All Pawtucket All The Time toured through the complex, whose first phase is four months ahead of schedule and targeted for completion in August, and its many innovative features. Leigh said 18 units are 90 percent complete, 15 units are 80 percent done and 56 are 70 percent finished. Heat is provided by an exposed forced air system coursed through the complex in an overhead duct. “One, it fits the style, an old factory transformed into loft style units,” and is more efficient than baseboards, said Leigh. Each unit also has separate air conditioning. Gas-powered high efficiency hot water heaters function on a demand basis, “so it only calls on it when you need it,” Rebecca Spencer said, another cost-saver, and is instantly hot though the device itself stores no water. (Electric heat is used for the hallways, which will also benefit from heat spilling over from the adjacent dwelling units.) “Every unit has a loft space above the bathroom and kitchen,” said Leigh. The ubiquitous hardwood floors vary: Where the old flooring could be saved, it remains, and where it was too worn, new hardwood has been installed. Other items retained to link to the mill’s past are some of the massive fire doors and various small pieces of machinery to be sited here and there. Leigh said the loft spaces allow owners creative license. “Some people use it for storage, or for a bed or a desk, whatever they feel will fit them,” she said. For further information, call 877-UW-LOFTS or go to www.unionwaddinglofts.com.
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Mayor James E. Doyle addresses remarks last Friday at debut of model unit for Union Wadding Lofts on Goff Avenue |
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Garfield and Rebecca Spencer stand by a mockup of their 245-unit, $25 million Union Wadding Lofts mill conversion project at 125 Goff Ave |
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Well appointed kitchen in model unit, with stainless steel appliances, maple cabinets and granite countertops is shown by project manager Aurora Leigh |
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Carpenter David McCullough of DBI Industries, Bradford, Mass. installs cabinets in loft unit still under construction |
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Project manager Aurora Leigh indicates air conditioning unit in 1,400 square foot two-bedroom condo at Union Wadding Lofts. Every unit in complex also has an extensive loft area beyond the regular square footage |
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last photo: Exterior of two former mill buildings in Union Wadding complex being converted for 245 units in a $25 million project by First National Development LLC of Bridgeport, Conn. |
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Story and Photo's By DOUG HADDEN Joe Asermely’s house on Quality Hill has the kind of history, architecture and remarkable interiors that can land a home on HGTV’s “If Walls Could Talk” program, where it will be featured on the episode first airing at 5 p.m. Monday, May 19. But it’s a wall that is no longer in the Tudor-influenced post and beam style house that may say the most about the high regard in which its owners -- of which Asermely is only the fourth in almost a century -- have always held it. That wall stood at the top of the main stairway; beyond it lay three of the five apartments in which the 6,000 square foot house at 24 Walnut St., which is on the National Register of Historic Places and listed by the Pawtucket Historical Preservation Commission, had been subdivided. For Asermely, it was a barrier that had to come down to restore the 1910 William Park House to its former glory. But instead of nail holes and damaged plaster, what was revealed underneath was extraordinary care: The wall was assembled in a way that everything hidden behind it, including inset moldings, lay intact. Even the broad stairway rail for the landing and its baluster supports were found well preserved in the attic, ready for reinstallation. “They built the wall without hacking the underlying woodwork. We had every single piece. When I took the whole thing down, it was sturdy but it came down in minutes,” Asermely said. The house’s generously spacious interior is a mix of styles: Victorian in the living room parlor to the left of the large entry hallway; in the kitchen (formerly the dining room), Federal; Arts & Crafts in other rooms or as evidenced in the doorway and flanking colored glass panes. Original mahogany paneling and other wood appointments, along with seven fireplaces including one of Venetian marble, reflect the stature and varied tastes of the original owner, a prominent industrial banker. The house, which Asermely bought in 1998, not only kept him in his native Pawtucket but has also provided him an ongoing project that he finds a labor-of-love diversion from his deadline-driven career as a medical software consultant. “I had looked at about 50 homes,” which all drew pithy dismissive criticisms from his mother, Anne Asermely. “I was not staying in Pawtucket. And when we got here -- she never spoke. After I put the offer in, she said, ‘That’s the house for you.’” The house’s generously spacious interior is a mix of styles: Victorian in the living room parlor to the left of the large entry hallway; in the kitchen (formerly the dining room), Federal; Arts & Crafts in other rooms or as evidenced in the doorway and flanking colored glass panes. Original mahogany paneling and other wood appointments, along with seven fireplaces including one of Venetian marble, reflect the stature and varied tastes of the original owner, a prominent industrial banker. The house, which Asermely bought in 1998, not only kept him in his native Pawtucket but has also provided him an ongoing project that he finds a labor-of-love diversion from his deadline-driven career as a medical software consultant. Not that there was a big line competing to undertake the major renovation project. “It was covered in vines,” Asermely said, and had been on the market “a few years,” and the asking price was the steepest of the time for Quality Hill. Asermely found expert craftsmen for the renovations. For the house’s history, he was able to tap his longtime friendship with Elizabeth “Betty” Johnson, the city’s most noted local historian, and her vast archives. They discovered that what later owners had carved out as apartments, had started out as well-appointed servants’ quarters. They found that Park and his wife, Anna Hathaway, had no children; that he had |
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Front gate leads to 6,000 square foot William Park House in Quality Hill |
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Joe Asermely has spent 10 years renovating his historic home in Quality Hill. Here he is seated in the Victorian-influenced parlor, complete with player piano and Venetian marble fireplace |
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View from second floor shows expansive entryway of historic Quality Hill home being featured on HGTV program "If Walls Could Talk." |
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served as a president of the To Kalon Club; and had died at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City in 1917. Architect for the house, according to an old rendering of the home, was R.L.N. Monahan of 255 Main St., who also did other houses on Quality Hill as well as in Oak Hill and, Asermely believes, in Providence’s Blackstone Boulevard neighborhood. Restoring the library was perhaps the biggest project: Save for the original mahogany mantle and parquet floor, it was a veritable shell whose recesses only hinted at the former built-in bookshelves. Not even Johnson had pictures of what it had been. “But local neighbors told me what it was like,” Asermely said. After several carpenters rejected the task, Asermely enlisted Attleboro wood craftsman Allen Mitchell, who topped off the mantle with a period-looking woodpiece (now dominated by a portrait of a Mr. Stone, “my fourth great-great uncle,” whose eyes seem to follow the viewer throughout the room) running to the ceiling, and again filled the recesses with built-in bookshelves that look like they were always there. To fill the shelves, Asermely scoured every flea market and book and yard sale he could find to pick up period-appropriate hardbounds. For example, reflecting the second owners, the Park family (later owners were the Costello and extended Henderson families), he picked up a set of Corpus Juris legal texts issued in 1928 to a lawyer named Charles Dumont. All in all, the library renovation took eight months. Remake of the kitchen brought cherry wood cabinets. Centerpiece of the living room, where a player piano holds down one corner, is the gorgeous Venetian marble fireplace, whose one-piece side panels are carved with oak leaves and acorns -- “which is a sign of wealth and strength” -- and holly leaves. “Betty Johnson told me this came in a crate from Italy, as well as the chandeliers from France.” The HGTV exposure stemmed almost from chance. “Well over a year ago,” Asermely said, “the production company of “If Walls Could Talk” contacted some local realtors, one of whom gave them my name. They asked me if I was interested in it. I filled out a form with the history of the house, the size of it, what was original, what was added. They wanted pictures and they were also looking at three or four other houses in Rhode Island. “They spent 10 hours in October, the whole day on a Saturday, cameras, sound. The producer came (although) not the host (Mike Siegel),” and an appraiser checked out the original chandeliers and signature marble fireplace. “They were amazed it was in such good shape.” While the house remains an ongoing project, with the master bedroom next on the list, Asermely has also undertaken another historically appropriate task: He is spearheading revival of the Quality Hill Neighborhood Association, dormant the last several years after an active stretch in the 1990s including under Lucie Coughlin, a friend and neighbor of Asermely’s. Quality Hill’s heyday was rudely interrupted about a half-century ago with the construction of I-95, which claimed about 60 houses on its eastern flank, including many of the most architecturally prominent, Asermely said. But like Pawtucket itself, he sees the neighborhood as being on the rise. “Pawtucket has two (common mis-) perceptions -- either it’s bad or it’s the parking lot of Providence,” Asermely said. “When people come to Quality Hill they see it’s not really like that. It’s an unfair reputation. That’s why I decided to put (the house) on TV. Quality Hill, Oak Hill, Darlington, Countryside,” are all under-appreciated neighborhoods, he said. “I don’t regret it at all, any part of the 10 years (of renovations),” which in 2000 landed the house’s early fix-up stage on HGTV’s “Restore America” show. “I do it for a reason, to bring notice to how nice our town is,” Asermely said.”I love it. I don’t get overwhelmed at all. In my business I have all deadlines. But this is fun,” he said. |
Formal dining area boasts large windows, original chandelier imported from France and one of the seven fireplaces |
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Renovation of the William Park House's library took eight months including custom built recessed bookcases. Parquet floor is original but period appropriate books took owner Joe Asermely many months to acquire |
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Second floor landing was once separated off for apartments by a wall those removal revealed detailing unharmed underneath |
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The historic William Park House at 24 Walnut St. (off Walcott Street) in Quality Hill, is featured on the HGTV program "If Walls Could Talk" |
By DOUGLAS HADDEN It has coursed through three centuries, from Pawtucket’s time as a city of wealthy manufacturers swelled by thousands of mill workers, through two World Wars cut by a Depression, the vagaries of urban renewal, the city’s post-industrial economic struggles, a changing demographic and now the demands of a global economy linked as close as a mouse-click. Through all that span, including a devastating 19th century fire that saw it members rebuild from the ashes, the Pawtucket Congregational Church has always anchored the triangled tip of Walcott Street and the end of Broadway in stately fashion, its tower a testament to the enduring faith of its worshipers and an iconic vertical crown on the downtown city skyline. But recent years have seen the congregation dwindle in numbers and the church having to dip repeatedly into its reserves to maintain the massive structure and fund ongoing operations. Now the church property, after a soul searching self-examination, is being put up for sale and its future as a congregation, at least in that stately house of worship, appears uncertain. In those obstacles the Pawtucket Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, is not alone, including locally. In neighboring Central Falls, the Providence Roman Catholic Diocese has reduced its churches from three to one, in January selling the former Notre Dame Church for $3.4 million to an out-of-state evangelical church group. In Pawtucket, the St. Martin’s Church on Newport Avenue was recently sold and other parishes are discussing mergers. Now Pawtucket Congregational, below 150 members, is being marketed by Olympus Real Estate Group, Providence, for $1,695,000. Contract papers were signed last Wednesday; advertising is to commence in the next couple of weeks. |
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Exterior of Pawtucket Congregational Church, newly put up for sale for just under $1.7 million as the church struggles with fewer parishioners and higher costs. |
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Besides the 500-seat sanctuary -- with its turn of the 20th century stained glass windows -- an architectural gem in its own right, the church property includes the central office for the Conference of United Church of Christ for Rhode Island’s 34 congregations, a hardwood basketball court, a two-lane bowling alley, and a once-busy theater complete with dressing rooms. The emotional decision to sell was not undertaken lightly: For more than two years, a process that evolved into a seven-member “special committee” has examined all possible options, running them by the congregation as it went, before making the decision to market the property. City officials including Mayor James E. Doyle and Planning Director Michael Cassidy, as well as key members of the Pawtucket Foundation, have all lent active assistance the past couple years. The church panel took a hard dollars-and-cents look at cost factors from the choir (once numbering scores, now done to a core of nine) to youth groups, Sunday school and others. “It took us about two years playing around with that to convince us,” said Dr. Richard Bertini, a retired orthopedic surgeon who chairs the panel. “We had to do something.” |
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In January 2007, the congregation “as a whole” gave the panel, itself established with unanimous consent in the democratic UCC fashion, the authority to come up with a plan, Bertini said. He credited the inclusive buy-in for a process that has proceeded with “probably no controversy,” though understandably not all members were happy with the outcome. The panel outlined three goals it would like to see accomplished in the sale: First, “preserve the historical and architectural significance of the big (church) building,” Bertini said. “Do something to benefit the Pawtucket community. And whoever the new owner is -- and this is not a requirement -- let us lease (the church)” for Sunday services and special events. He acknowledged that not accomplishing the last goal could jeopardize the congregation’s future. Minimally, “we’d have to find another place to meet,” he said. “And make a decision,” added his wife, Lois, also a member of the panel, “to our future.” “We keep saying, ‘Think outside the box,’ and believe me, we’ve tried,” she said. It was 26 years ago that a pastor in Danville, Vt., near St. Johnsbury, trekked 180 miles south to Pawtucket with his wife, Janice, an East Providence native, to check out the pastor opening at Pawtucket Congregational. The Rev. Dr. George Peters had already interviewed with another, more rural congregation in Rhode Island “that was more to my liking,” he recalled. “I definitely didn’t want to be in a downtown church. But I fell in love with this congregation,” he said. “At its high point, 50 or 60 years ago, this congregation had 800 members. Now it’s got about 128. It’s too much building for too few people. The (operational) cost is very high. The economics don’t |
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Sign outside church notes Sunday services by pastor Rev. George Peters, who has been splitting his time with another church in Lincoln. |
work anymore,” requiring drains on the endowment fund in recent years. “You can’t do that indefinitely,” and even with lease income projections, “we still couldn’t make up the projected deficit.” The sanctuary underwent a major refurbishing in 2001. About four years ago, Peters said repairing and painting the tower and the front part of the church cost “a couple hundred thousand dollars.” Now the back part of the church is scheduled for similar maintenance. The church to save money has been sharing Peters 50-50 with 130-member Sayles Memorial Church UCC in Lincoln, which dates to 1837 and needed a pastor, an arrangement he said has worked out well for both congregations. That means two sermons each Sunday for Peters, but it has also led to communal activities planned between the two churches, along with Park Place Congregational, this summer. But how long that will continue could hinge on terms of the sale. “Church sales sometimes take awhile longer. We’ve been told the most likely buyer is another church,” but there’s no guarantee, said Peters, who thinks a mixed use of church and offices for the approximately 30,000 square feet of usable space may be most likely. “I doubt there will be much interest in developing housing here. But we’re willing to look at any reasonable proposal.” |
According to city records which list the property as 46 Walcott St., the lot with the church building has an assessed value for taxes of $1.42 million for about 32,500 square feet; the rectory, a 19,000 square foot building on 9,600 square feet of land is valued at $1,008,000; and a 29,000 square foot parking lot at 107 Broadway is valued at $343,000 (the nonprofit church does not pay taxes). Peters said the bowling alley, gym and theater -- once home to Pawtucket’s Community Players -- hearken back to an era when the church was a center of social life and a focus of youth activities. “You have to remember this was before television. People met a lot of their social and recreational needs in the church,” he said. “There’s even a state of the art commercial kitchen -- a la 1937 -- it’s stainless steel.” A former movie room with projection booth is now storage space, and what’s now the UCC offices were once classrooms. Peters points to a growing secularization in society as a key reason for a general decline in church attendance and related activities. In Pawtucket, there is also a changing demographic that the past 20 or more years has seen an influx of Hispanics, evidenced not only by a plethora of so-called storefront churches but the purchase of the St. Martin’s (which merged with St. Michael’s and All Angels) property by Rev. Eliseo Nogueras’ House of Gethsemane parish in Central Falls, as well as the Notre Dame resale. Under the UCC system, Pawtucket Congregational is an autonomous unit that owns the property. “We make the decision,” Peters said. “My own feeling is the church is being very responsible and being very diligent to achieve a solution to a difficult problem. This is happening,” he added, “all over New England,” particularly in urban areas. The church has survived crises and change before. The initial structure that was built in 1829 (when the city was still part of Massachusetts) burned down in 1864 and was rebuilt in 1868, designed by Boston architect John Stevens. The parish house was added in 1937; the following year the original steeple -- even taller than the one that still commands a towering view over the Blackstone River -- was destroyed by the Hurricane of 1938 then rebuilt. |
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This turn of the 20th century stained glass window in the church, donated by the Goff family, depicts the UCC heritage descending from the Pilgrims of Plymouth and the Puritans of Boston. |
In the 1870s, tensions arose between the mill owners who built and dominated the church and the mill workers; Peters said legend has it that a clock “was put in the tower to ensure there was fairness and justice about when work ended.” Under Pawtucket Congregational’s minister, Joseph J.J. Wooley, a tireless defender of the poor in what became known as the social gospel movement, many of those workers ultimately defected across the river to establish the Park Place Congregational Church (that building burned in 1934 and was rebuilt on its present site). “He left in 1882, after several attempts to fire him,” Peters related the history. But all of that happened well before the late 1950s event that Peters thinks had “more effect than any other,” the creation through the heart of the city of I-95, which now carries 100,000 people a day instantly beyond their neighborhoods and the institutions, like churches, around which their religious and social lives once revolved. “I listen to parishioners who talk about Pawtucket pre-I-95 as being a small town where everybody knew everybody. Downtown Pawtucket was a vital center of life in a very active community,” said Peters, until the 1960s’ urban renewal altered its face. By the time he entered as pastor in 1984, “It was primarily an older generation, many had moved to outlying communities. There were 60 homes from this church directly affected by I-95,” he said. “This church at one time had a large Sunday school and large youth programs. No more,” he said. “The story I’m telling you is not unusual. Those of us with large buildings and diminishing congregations, if all you’re doing is trying to maintain a building, then you’re a museum. |
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“I’ll be honest. We still have work to do with what the future of our institution is. Some feel maybe it’s time to declare victory or whatever and move on. I think others feel there needs to be a transition to a new church. “The demographics of this city have changed and that’s a big part of this. The mill workers were English and Scottish and largely Protestant, when the political leaders were members of this church. The new immigrant community is not Protestant. They’re more Pentecostal and more evangelical. As the city changes it can’t help but affect the life of the churches in the community. That’s neither good or bad, it just is. “We have to think about what it means to be the church in Pawtucket these days, and that means change. We kind of agreed I’ll remain here, do both ministries (with Sayles Memorial), to position themselves for the next phase of their life. I believe that we need to resolve the future of this building, to figure out how to adjust and make changes, to be an effective faith community in this city,” Peters said. “It’s very clear that in our lifetime our society is becoming more secular. We’re not losing people to other churches, we’re losing them to no church. Eighty percent of the people under 25 in the U.S. have never been in a sanctuary.” But Peters, whose son Justin, a music teacher at the Lincoln School, was age 2 and daughter Amy, a museum educator in Somerville, Mass. was 7 when he and his wife, Jan, who heads the math department at Lincoln School, moved here, remains focused on the future. “I’ll be 61 shortly but I intend to be active in ministry until I’m 66, so that would be another five years. So that’s a lot of time. My goal is to help this church with this transition. But my sense is the next pastor of this congregation will not be a white male, that it’s going to call for a different leader with a different background and different experience,” he said. “If we took in 200 members, it wouldn’t change the picture. We’d feel better but it wouldn’t change the financial realities we’re dealing with. Can this once pretty powerful and large congregation make the adjustment? That’s the question,” he said. |
Sherri Newman, minister of music at thechurch, practices a piece called "We PrayNow to the Holy Spirit" by 17th century German-Danish Baroque composer Dietrich Buxtehude in the choir loft |
| Make Father’s Day a special memory at Slater Mill |
| Pawtucket, RI: Slater Mill, located at 67 Roosevelt Avenue in the heart of Pawtucket, will celebrate this Father’s Day with two events- Daddy & Me: Tin Workshop on June 7 at 11a.m. and the Gear Head Tour on June 8 at 3 p.m.
Dad and his little helper can create their own unique mementos as they learn the time tested tradition of tin punch at Slater Mill’s Daddy & Me: Tin Workshop. This technique has been used for generations to create a variety of useful and decorative items. Instructors will have a variety of designs to choose from or you can create an original work. Please reserve your space by June 5 by calling 725.8638. All materials are included. If you like grease, grinding, and gears the Gear Head Tour is for you. Join mill masters as they decipher the code of 19th century machinery in the 198 year old Wilkinson Mill. Grinders, millers, lathes and a nine ton water wheel are part of this tour where all things mechanical are celebrated. This event will be held on June 8 at 3p.m. and costs $10 per person. Please reserve your space by June 6 by calling 725.8638. For more information please contact Francine at 401-725-8638 ext. 105 or fmurphybrillon@slatermill.org. |
Photos and Story By DOUGLAS HADDEN Just a few years ago, Pawtucket was known as a city where pit bulls ran riot and cats, hoarded by the dozens, were constantly being pulled from the houses of neglectful pet owners -- often stretching capacity of the city’s outmoded animal shelter beyond the breaking point. It all made for a raft of negative publicity in the short term. But in the long run the problems brought high visibility that generated strong public support for the against-all-odds job being done by Animal Control Supervisor John Holmes, his ACOs Kevin Mooney and Carol Laroche and other staff, backed by a dedicated corps of volunteers. The most visible positive result is now taking shape in the southeast corner of Slater Park, where the walls of a new city animal shelter, approved by nearly three-fourths of voters in a $2.2 millon bond item in November 2006, are now rising just beyond the J. Raymond Kinder Playground. “This building is going to be something the taxpayers are going to be proud of when it’s done,” Holmes said. The new shelter, expected to open next fall, will enlarge animal holding capacity and bring expanded space for veterinary, adoption and other services. It also represents the city’s ultimate answer to the animal control problems that had beset it for years. Cooperation between animal control and city officials, despite objections from some animal rights groups, brought a law banning new pit bulls and tightening restrictions on ones already here. The ban has worked so well that 2007 marked the fourth straight year withoout a major pit bull incident in the city. The cat hoarding problem has been improved by working with the relative handful of repeat violators, taking a more cooperative than punitive approach. Now the new shelter, Holmes last week told All Pawtucket All The Time, will have a dedicated cat room with a play area for cats up for adoption. As for capacity, “We’re going to have 150 cat cages,” he said. But animal control is not something static that operates in a social vacuum. Holmes noted that, for the first time in memory, the shelter had taken in more dogs (132) than cats (127) thus far this year. “The economy, foreclosures, people not being able to take care of their animals,” he explained the surprise trend. Where once it was rare to see small dogs abandoned or turned over to the shelter, Holmes said owners now struggling “to take care of themselves” have reversed that pattern, with dogs also being found abandoned in homes owners have walked out on. |
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Workers and heavy machinery make progress on construction of new city animal shelter, as seen from the rear where dog runs (far left) will be built The facility is expected to open in the fall. |
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Animal Control Supervisor John Holmes stands in doorway of what will be the entrance to the new $2.2 million city animal shelter now being built in the southeast corner of Slater Park, just behind the J. Raymond Kinder Playground. |
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Whatever the changing needs, the new shelter was designed to address them. Walking through the opening that will form the entrance, Holmes pointed to where a conference room and an educational area -- aimed especially at better informing youngsters about the care of animals -- will soon take shape. Also in that part of the new shelter will be surgery and recovery rooms and a grooming area. “We want to start bringing kids in from the schools and educating them, and go to every school,” said Holmes, now in his 33rd year with the city. “That’s been a pet peeve of mine for years -- the kids, educate the kids.” Instead of the 19 dog runs and 12 cat cages at the space-limited limited old facility, there will be 46 kennels and the 150 cages for cats, which after hoarding incidents have often required placement with animal organizations and other shelters. Along with increased capacity, enhanced care and better education, Holmes said the shelter will help satisfy another long-time goal. “We want to see every animal spayed and neutered before they leave the shelter,” he said. Revenue from a state-approved add-on to dog licensing fees and ongoing fundraising will provide subsidies for low-income people, who Holmes said are often elderly, who can’t afford the services. A three-bay garage will allow direct dropoff to holding and evaluation areas in a rear portion of the new facility, for which City Engineer Steve Ricci has provided extensive engineering services allowing the project to stay within budget. Strict scurity for the holding area, which at times will contain vicious dogs, was a top concern “because you’ve got the kids in the (nearby) playground,” Holmes noted. Despite current limited resources, Holmes said the city animal shelter has continued to work towards its ultimate “no kill” goal. Of 401 dogs taken in during 2007 (including 46 pit bulls, some held for other communities), six were euthanized at owner request and another 22 at shelter request, 16 of those due to vicious behavior and the other six due to illness or injury. The shelter’s annual report states that, “one hundred percent of adoptable dogs... were placed or returned to their original owner.” Last year saw 709 cats taken in, with 436 successfully placed, 26 returned to owner, 37 that died while being cared for, and 15 euthanized at owner request. Of the 195 euthanized at shelter request, 141 had suffered serious illness or injury and 54 were due to vicious behavior. A number that should rise with the new facility is the 63 animals spayed or neutered last year prior to adoption. Overall, “99 percent of adoptable cats taken in to the shelter were adopted out or returned to the original owner,” according to the shelter’s annual report submitted in January to the City Council. For the year, animal control officers responded to a staggering 3,491 calls for service, including 130 for suspected rabid animals, and issued 538 violation notices to appear in Municipal Court for infractions such as unleashed, unvaccinated and unlicensed dogs and violations of the pit bull ordinance. Holmes said the public support for what he and his staff do every day on a roughly $200,000 budget, as well as for the new shelter, has been gratifying. “Almost 75 percent voted (for the bond issue). I attribute that to the people in the city knowing what we’re doing out there and believing in what we’re doing." “The old shelter, some parts of it go back to 1938. It’s falling apart. And the good part about this (new) building is, it’s built for the future. They’ll never have to add on to it. It just has to be maintained,” he said. |
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Pawtucket: Entries for the City of Pawtucket’s 10th Annual Photo Contest are being solicited for possible publication in the city’s official calendar for 2009. The contest’s theme is “Doorways and Gateways in Pawtucket.” The 11 best submissions as determined by some of Rhode Island’s most distinguished professional photographers will comprise next year’s calendar. Each year, Pawtucket prints approximately 8,000 color calendars, which are free and distributed (while supplies last) at Pawtucket City Hall, the Blackstone Valley Visitor Center, the Pawtucket Public Library and The Camera Werks in Providence. Photos for this contest should feature interesting doorways or gateways in the city of Pawtucket. Such pictures taken during any time of the year within Pawtucket are eligible. Only one entry from each contestant may be submitted. The top prize (the “Mayor’s Choice”) will be awarded $100, and smaller cash prizes and gift certificates will be given to other winning contestants. All entries must be submitted by Aug. 31. “This contest has been tremendously popular every year |
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since its inception 9 years ago,” stated Pawtucket Mayor James E. Doyle. “The awards ceremony, which will take place on Sept. 14, has become one of the most anticipated events of the Pawtucket Arts Festival, where the winning entries will be unveiled and the public can meet the distinguished judges.” Contest’s judges will include: Butch Adams, award winning photographer from The Pawtucket Times and recipient of several New England Press Association Awards for his photography; Richard Benjamin, a former staff photographer for the Providence Journal who freelances as an assignment photographer, and is a provider of stock photos of Rhode Island, in addition to publishing several books on his photography; Paul Darling, former Channel 12 cameraman and now a commercial & stock photographer; Jean Duffy, who is a member of several photo organizations including Professional Photographers of America, Professional Photographers of New England, and Professional Photographers of RI in addition to the 2008 recipient of several awards for her photography, including the Kodak Gallery Award, the Judges Award, and the Fuji Masterpiece Award; Carl Keitner, a former Art Director from Quebec, and now a commercial & portrait photographer in Providence; & Aaron Usher, who is active in CIPNE (Commercial/Industrial Photographers of New England), and has been published in over 300 magazines and/or books throughout the world. This year, Aaron Usher is celebrating his 29th year in business. Some of the themes from past contests have been: (2008) “Paws (or Pause) in Pawtucket”; (2007) “Historic Places in Pawtucket”; (2006) “Pawtucket People, Places and Things”; (2005) “Discovering Pawtucket”; (2004) “Taking Pride in Our Neighborhoods”; (2003) “Pawtucket Mills: Our Past and Our Future” and (2000, 2001, 2002) “Pawtucket: A City in Focus”. Rules for City of Pawtucket’s 10th Annual Photo Contest
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Photos and Story By DOUG HADDEN Uncountable souls worked their way through Slater Mill after its storied history began in 1793 as a new nation’s first mechanized cotton mill, credited with launching the American Industrial Revolution from plans that legend says were carried across the Atlantic Ocean from Belper, England in Samuel Slater’s head. The birth of water-powered commerce founded on one man’s remarkable memory soon spawned more than a hundred textile-making imitators along the Blackstone River. But it is only Slater Mill, its clapboards now restored to their original brilliant yellow color, that still stands as a witness to the tale. It’s also the tale of a place where children, including those of Slater’s partner Moses Brown and Slater himself, labored at the machinery. Where, in a time when workplace safety regulations were unheard of, workers lost digits, limbs and worse. And where working families made friends, and a hard living, that backboned the history and economic growth of Pawtucket. But is it also a place where some long-since departed souls have never left? That’s what two historic “interpreters” at the site, which a few years ago became a living history museum where interpreters stroll the grounds and buildings of Slater Mill, the stone Wilkinson mill and the 1758 Sylvanus Brown house (moved here in 1962 after displacement due to I-95 and the Apex department store) in period dress, have become convinced is something more than a tall tale. “Our job is to interpret the buildings and site. I represent a mill foreman,” said black wool-suited Carl Johnson after giving Coventry schoolchildren a recent tour. “The Wilkinson mill was built in 1810 to manufacture machinery and bobbins for Slater,” he explained, and was only staffed by adults “because they had big machines.” Joining Johnson in his interpreter role is his similarly dressed twin brother Keith, in a role they started as volunteers that grew into employment a couple of years ago. Before coming to work at the Old Slater Mill Site, the Warwick natives had a two-year stint with the SciFi Channel’s “docu-soap” show “Ghost Hunters,” the adventures of two Roto-Rooter plumbers who moonlight as paranormal researchers who co-founded The Atlantic Paranormal Society to investigate hauntings and other strange phenomena throughout New England. Today, they moonlight as founders of New England Anomalies Research, co-founded by Keith and Sandra Johnson, doing what the “Ghost Hunters” plumbers do on the show. According to their website (www.nearparanormal.com), complete with spooky music, NEAR “was founded for the purposed of investigating and analyzing phenomena which is suspected to be of paranormal origin; that is, removed from what is currently understood and accepted as legitimate by prevailing scientific standards. “NEAR’s investigation team consists mainly of former core members of internationally recognized ‘TAPS’ (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) -- best known for their work on the SciFi television series Ghost Hunters.” |
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Paranormal researchers Carl (left) and Keith Johnson stand outside Slater Mill, where the twin brothers work as historic interpreters |
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Paranormal researchers and twin brothers Carl (left) and Keith Johnson flank Jennifer Sutton, of Pawtucket, outside the Slater and Wilkinson mills where they work as historic interpreters. |
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You can catch their Ghosts R N.E.A.R. shows on the Web or on Cable access (check local listings). NEAR does not charge for its investigations but does accept contributions for expenses. All of which should the brothers Johnson qualified to answer the question: Are there ghosts at the Slater Mill site? “Only in Slater Mill,” declared Carl, the talkative twin.”If there’s something strange that’s happened it’s always in Slater Mill,” which he noted operated as a working mill until 1921. By then, it was manufacturing coffin trimmings, after a stint in the 1890s when it housed a well known bicycle shop, Carl said. “It stopped being a spinning mill about 1860, during the Civil War,” he related. “We’re not saying it’s definitely haunted,” he qualified, but there have been some, well, strange occurrences there, including rather recently. “Three years ago,” Carl related, “the education director was arming the building with a motion sensor,” when the Sonitrol device showed a message that the system was indicating the mill was not empty, even though they were sure it was. When the device was reset, “it showed a lot of movement like a group of people up in the shops.” But a check showed no one there. That was in the summer of 2005. The next day, when a technician did a recheck, “there were two more” such “false” readings, “besides a lot of little things” indicating activity no one could see. Then in 2006, while laborers for New England Construction were doing work on the mill, the caterers wanted to know, “Is your mill haunted? Because somebody pushed my (food) tray from the back.” “Then there’s one from 2007,” Carl continued. “In April of 2007 a sixth grade school from Massachusetts was coming through. I was working up front (standing) with a nine-year-old girl. I heard a boy scream. ‘Did you hear that too?’” he asked the girl, who affirmed she had. They searched together but found no one. That was the most recent strange occurrence, Carl said, but he wasn’t saying it would be the last. |
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Paul Grellong’s Radio Free Emerson Named “Outstanding New Script”
Paul Grellong’s Radio Free Emerson, The Gamm’s first-ever commission, won in the category of “Outstanding New Script,” a year after its world premiere last May. This was also The Gamm’s first Norton Award nomination. "We are honored to have developed and premiered Paul's brilliant Radio Free Emerson and are incredibly grateful that his work has been recognized with The Gamm's first-ever nomination and win at the Elliot Norton Awards. We are hopeful that this recognition by a group of preeminent theater critics will help expand The Gamm's artistic reach and reputation into Boston and the rest of New England,” said Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrella. Set in Rhode Island and inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, Radio Free Emerson is a raw, funny and complex examination of the naked truth and its consequences. Grellong, a Brown University graduate, works as a playwright and screenwriter in Los Angeles. His TV writing credits include the hit NBC series “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit”. "I'm honored that the Boston Theatre Critics Association selected Radio Free Emerson for this award,” Grellong said. “I share the recognition with everyone at The Gamm who provided me with a supportive environment in which to develop this work over the course of a year. Without their commitment and vision, the play would never have taken its current shape.” About The Gamm Theatre Founded in 1984 as Alias Stage, the nonprofit Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre performs great works of the classic and modern theater in an intimate setting that fosters the vital relationship between author, actor, and audience. As the cornerstone of The Arts Exchange at the Pawtucket Armory, The Gamm seeks to engage and enrich the community through affordable entertainment and educational |
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programming The Gamm is a member of New England Area Theatre (NEAT), a bargaining unit of the Actors Equity Association. About The Elliot Norton Awards
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By DOUGLAS HADDEN Another court, another win: In an issue that has dragged on for five years, the city -- for the second time in about three weeks -- has come out on top in its legal battle to halt a massive trash transfer operation proposed along the Providence & Worcester Railroad yard at 280 Pine St. on the west edge of downtown. In a nine-page decision issued Wednesday, the state Supreme Court agreed with the city’s appeal of a Superior Court ruling and effectively halted Pawtucket Transfer Operations LLC’s bid to site a transfer facility for commercial and demolition debris that would have handled up to 2,000 tons a day and scores of trucks. “I think it’s great,” City Council President Mary Bray reacted to the decision, noting it will boost a developer’s plans to remake the former Paramount Cards (Coates & Clark) mill building on Pine Street for residential and commercial use, and prevent the daily choking of city streets with trash trucks. In writing for the court, Justice Francis Flaherty said the issue came down to whether the transfer station proposed by PTO -- granted a zoning compliance certificate by then-Zoning Official Todd Olbrych in February 2003 -- was an allowable use under the section used to grant it. “Because we hold that a C&D transfer station is not an authorized use” under the ordinance section, Flaherty wrote with emphasis, “we quash the order of the Superior Court.” Using similar logic, the city’s planning and redevelopment director, Michael Cassidy, in a July 2004 letter had told PTO the zoning certificate was invalid. He said the code required trash transfer stations be operated by a municipal entity, and that the proposed C&D operation itself went beyond what the code allowed. Cassidy advised PTO it could request a use variance from the Zoning Board. PTO instead appealed Cassidy’s determination to the board, which backed the planning chief’s stance that the code, while allowing a “refuse transfer station” in the manufacturing open zone, did not allow for the big-scale, privately-owned commercial and demolition use. PTO then appealed to Superior Court with better results. Judge Stephen Fortunato ruled the board had “arbitrarily and capriciously amended the ordinance” and said there was no foundation for the municipality-only operational argument. The city then petitioned the high court -- which was under no requirement to review the case -- to take a new look, which the court in March of last year agreed to do. The city put forth a half-dozen legal arguments, including that Fortunato (since retired) should have recused himself because he once worked for city law firm McKinnon & Harwood, whose principal John Harwood was an initial attorney for PTO. It also argued that PTO, which had undergone a corporate change at one point, lacked proper standing, and that Olbrych lacked authority to issue the certificate which was not binding anyway, among other assertions. But the court found the city’s lead argument decisive enough on its own. “Because we hold that a privately owned C&D transfer station is not an authorized use under the ordinance and quash the Superior Court’s order, we do not address the other issues raised,” Flaherty wrote. The court also thus disposed of PTO’s arguments that Fortunato’s ruling was correct, that the city’s high court appeal came too late and that the compliance certificate was binding, among others. Flaherty noted the language of the ordinance (since firmed up by the City Council) was “unclear and ambiguous” because it did not define what constituted a refuse transfer station. That left it to the high court “to determine the city council’s intent in enacting the provision,” the justice said. The court found the zoning board’s interpretation was “neither clearly erroneous nor unauthorized,” and cited Cassidy’s testimony that a category for a C&D transfer station “does not exist” in the code. “No evidence adduced during the hearings before the (zoning) board contradicted Cassidy’s statements. We also cannot conclude that the massive scope of the commercial operations proposed by PTO was contemplated by the city council when it enacted (the ordinance), or that it intended to permit such a use,” the court said. “Because a C&D transfer station is not the same as a refuse transfer station... we hold that a C&D transfer station is not an authorized use under the ordinance.” The win for the city comes on the heels of last month’s ruling against PTO in U.S. District Court in Providence, where the court declined to turn the local zoning case into a federal constitutional issue. PTO has a brief time left in its 30-day window to appeal that decision. Observers said an appeal of Wednesday’s high court decision, which would be to the U.S. Supreme Court, was unlikely. Combining on the cases for the city were Michael DeSisto from the city’s insurer, Assistant Solicitor Frank Milos and, for affected abutters, local attorney Michael Horan. Attorney general Patrick Lynch also submitted a brief on the city’s side in the Supreme Court case. Attorney John McGarry argued for PTO before the high court. |
Story and Picture By DOUGLAS HADDEN A local barber as well known for his radio show call-ins as for his shaves and haircuts could be trimming as much as $100,000 from the city in a lawsuit now being appealed to the state Supreme Court. Joe Muschiano, better known to listeners of WPRO talkmeister Buddy Cianci and other talk shows as “Joe the Barber,” already won the first round in Superior Court. Muschiano, whose barber shops on West Avenue and the past dozen years at 394 Pawtucket Ave. have spanned almost 30 years in Pawtucket, alleged actions by city officials unlawfully thwarted his bid to sell his 7,000 square foot building and allied property for $750,000 to Carlos Andrade, who was set to convert it to a Dunkin Donuts franchise. During the process, Muschiano had closed his own Best Java coffee and doughnut shop on the other side of his building, with a drive-through approved by special permit by the Zoning Board in 1999, anticipating approval of a building permit the city would ultimately balk on. (Zoners also had approved larger signage in 2001 and later additions on each side of the building.) Andrade, of Westwood, Mass., operated the Dunkin Donuts just down the way on North Main Street in Providence, according to Muschiano. The repeated city holdups over issuing a building permit caused Andrade to terminate his purchase offer, inflicting financial damages, Muschiano alleged. Superior Court Judge Stephen Fortunato agreed, granting a declaratory judgment -- a ruling straight from the bench -- that the city had wronged the now 69-year-old barber and longtime |
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Democratic political operative, who followed his father into a trade he’s plied since he was a West Warwick teenager. Fortunato, since retired, particularly scored city officials for insisting on a landscaping plan approved by a state-registered landscape architect, despite “no written guidelines so that theoretically the town officials, the building inspector could keep Mr. Muschiano on some sort of a treadmill spinning around aimlessly and without purpose because they cannot come up with |
Joe "the Barber" Muschiano cuts hair of longtime clientJim Scullin, a city native now of Cumberland, at his 394 Pawtucket Ave. barber shop last week. The city isappealing to the state's highest court a lower court rulingMuschiano won over a permit issue he says unlawfullythwartedthe sale of the property for $750,000 for a DunkinDonuts franchise. |
what the trees should be, how tall the trees should be, or what species they should be, even though there are no guidelines to direct anybody or to advise anyone.” The city, which among other concerns cited increased neighborhood traffic from a Dunkin operation, subsequently appealed Fortunato’s decision to the high court. Its arguments include that Andrade and the city building official at the time should have been included in Muschiano’s claim, that the judge erred in issuing the declaratory judgment, and that the ruling went too far. Muschiano said he feels the appeal is a stall tactic by the cash-strapped city to push the potential financial hit into the new fiscal year that starts July 1, he told All Pawtucket All The Time last week. Muschiano’s attorney, Michael Horan, of Pawtucket, submitted his client’s response to the city’s high court appeal on March 5. Assistant Solicitor Frank Milos, who is handling the case for the city, said Tuesday, “There’s nothing new to report on that. Both sides have their briefs in and we’re just waiting to get a date for oral argument from the Supreme Court.” According to the track of the issue outlined in Horan’s brief, Muschiano entered into a purchase and sale agreement with Andrade in February 2005. That March, Muschiano applied for a zoning compliance certificate for a “Dunkin Donuts franchise store with drive-thru window,” which was granted by a building official in April. In late October, Andrade obtained another zoning compliance certificate, then in early November filed a building permit application. The plan was for the Dunkin franchise to replace Best Java, while Muschiano would continue operating his barber shop on the other side. But then-building inspector Rich Belham, after consulting with Susan Mara, then an assistant city planner, held up Andrade’s application and sent it to Mara. She in turn consulted with Zoning Director Ronald Travers and her boss, Planning Director Michael Cassidy.In a memo at the time, Mara noted that zoning chief Travers “does not believe there is any need for a special use permit,” but that, “we (Planning) feel that they should be required to file again,” although the memo makes no reference to the landscaping issue. That issue first arose in early December 2005 in a Mara memo to city lawyer Milos, where she also asserted Andrade must obtain a new special use permit for the drive-through because “the new use may result in substantially more traffic and noise.” Milos a few days later wrote back advising Mara to discuss the matter further with Travers and applicant Andrade as well as Muschiano, “so that you are sure that another special permit application is really necessary.” Horan noted the 1999 zoning decision had imposed no franchise store or landscaping restrictions, though it was discussed then that Muschiano was not bringing in a Dunkin or Bess Eatons. With back-up traffic from the drive-through now an issue for the city, Andrade hired Boston-based Conley Associates, which performs traffic engineering studies for Dunkin franchises throughout the region. Conley, in a report dated Dec. 22, 2005, said the drive-through would generate 68 patrons in the peak hour of 8 to 9 a.m., less than half the typical Dunkin. “Therefore, a drive thru queue of approximately nine or ten vehicles at this location is expected to accomodate the proposed patronage without interfering with traffic operations along Pawtucket Avenue,” and parking was adequate for both the doughnut store and barber shop, the firm’s engineers concluded. Assistant planner Mara, in a January 2006 memo sent to city lawyer Milos and zoning officials, dropped the special permit requirement. But now she said the Planning Department would not sign off absent the landscaping plan -- the same one Judge Fortunato later determined was a regulatory merry-go-round with no written guidelines. Still, Andrade persisted and hired Rehoboth-based landscape architects Howland & Higgins Co., licensed in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and submitted a plan to Mara in February. She responded that the plan called for trees unacceptable under the city ordinance Fortunato would later find so vague, and included a list of tree species that would be acceptable, as approved by the city arborist, for obtaining the building permit. Muschiano noted that because he is suing a municipality, state law caps the maximum payout, absent special General Assembly legislation (as has happened in a limited number of cases, but which he has not sought) at $100,000. He said Horan offered a settlement amount but the city instead took the high court appeal. At that point, Andrade threw up his hands and that March sent a letter to Muschiano terminating the deal. (Muschiano said he is also pursuing legal action pertinent to the deal cancellation.) That led to Muschiano’s suit, and Fortunato’s ruling that the city “issue a building permit for Mr. Muschiano in the form that he originally requested.” Horan in his brief also takes aim at the city’s argument that it has an interest “to protect the aesthetic interests of the public,” countering: “Thus, according to the City the issue of tree plantings along a three foot boundary strip outweighs (Muschiano’s) loss of the sale of his property and business because these trees were not satisfactorily planted... any balancing of the equities in this case clearly and heavily weighs in favor of (Muschiano).” Muschiano says his coffee shop “held its own,” but he decided to sell out because “you can’t compete against the national chains like Dunkin Donuts and Tim Horton’s. The headache wasn’t worth the return.” He thinks that for city planners, “the red flag for this is that it was a chain,” with traffic problems for the neighborhood. After being vacant the past few years, Muschiano said the coffee shop now houses a hair braiding salon while his barber shop, where he also rents chairs to other barbers, is as busy as ever. |
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Kennedy rips governor on immigration, scores Bush Iraq policy |
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By DOUGLAS HADDEN In frank remarks that went well beyond the usual politician-to-students patter, Congressman Patrick Kennedy blasted Gov. Donald Carcieri as a “terrible governor” whose stance on illegal immigration enforcement is divisive political posturing meant to distract from his own failings and was “fanning hysteria” that nationally amounted to “thinly veiled racism,” said it was time to begin leaving failed U.S. policies behind in Iraq that have dangerously “overstretched” the military, and that he was “inspired” by Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign for president. Kennedy took student questions for about a half-hour after a check presentation ceremony Monday in the drill hall of the Pawtucket Armory building, which houses the Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing and Visual Arts. The First District congressman secured the nearly $300,000 in operational funding through an education subpanel of the House Appropriations Committee, on which he sits. It took some urging from their teachers but once the students got rolling, they peppered the seventh-term Democrat with questions that showed their concerns extended well beyond music and theater. Asked his thoughts on the Iraq war “right now,” Kennedy said the large commitment of forces and repeated troop reassignments, as highlighted in the current film “Stop-Loss,” “are essentially burning out our military.” He said the U.S. military was “overstretched” in Iraq, leaving the nation with “no other defenses should (other crises) arise.” The extended tours are “doing enormous damage to our soldiers psychologically,” with long-term costs “health-care wise, to treat our veterans,” he said. “What we should be doing is downsizing our commitment (sharply),” because what’s needed in Iraq is “a political solution” achieved by Iraqi leaders, Kennedy said. “They’re never going to come to a political answer” until forced to, he said. “So as long as we’re there to kick down the doors,” that won’t happen. “We’re the ones doing the heavy lifting. There’s no incentive for them to really change unless we push them to change,” Kennedy said of Iraqi leaders. “So we have to push them to change.” To a question on how to address the high student dropout rate, Kennedy said mentoring programs would be one help. On what sparked him to help JMW, he said he tries to “remedy the disparities” between schools in urban core and affluent communities, made worse in Rhode Island by heavy reliance on local property taxes to fund education. The opportunity to gain a good education “should not depend on where you grow up,” he said. Kennedy also said a school like JMW needs support. “As you know, tragically when people talk about the arts, they talk as if it’s extra-curricular,” and typically the first thing targeted for budget cuts. If schools had more arts education, “I guarantee that would be one way to bring down our dropout rates.” On what prompted his support, along with that of his father, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and aunt, Caroline Kennedy, for Sen. Barack Obama’s candidacy for president, he said, “We were inspired by Obama, really inspired by him,” and felt “he was bringing people into the political process, while President Bush “was driving people away” with his policies, “not only lying to the American public but just driving a wedge, driving people away.” Obama, he said, was “the opposite,” bringing many into the process who have never voted or taken part before. “The only way government can work is to get people to claim it as their own,” or else special interests will dominate as they have for decades, Kennedy said. Kennedy noted the assassinations of his uncles, President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and presidential candidate Sen. Robert Kennedy as well as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, and told the students a political activism and enthusiasm that marked the 1960s had fallen to those ills as well as the Vietnam War and Watergate, “where people felt lied to... people got so disgusted,” he said. “Then it got that the only people who remained were the special interests,” he said. “In that vacuum, people became even more cynical.” While he said the Illinois senator and his Democratic nomination rival Sen. Hillary Clinton are little different in their political views, “it’s the way they go about that difference. He’ll get more people involved and inspire people to the process.” To a question on the environment, Kennedy emphasized that beyond initiatives like solar, wind and biofuels, “conservation is very important too.” The last student question, on stops of illegal immigrants by state police, as directed by Gov. Donald Carcieri’s administration, came from JMW junior Jessica Jean-Charles. As she said later of Kennedy’s response, “It wasn’t the answer I was expecting. But he just pretty much came out (with it).” Kennedy for several minutes ripped the Republican governor and his economic policies and immigration enforcement stance, which includes an electronic records check of legal status by state agencies which Latino leaders have protested will unfairly target their community. (Carcieri has repeatedly said the enforcement will be even handed and involve no racial profiling, and has recently met with religious and minority leaders, who protested the policies, to discuss such issues.) “I just feel kind of upset that he’s going to round up all those red-haired, freckle-faced Irish people,” he said as students chuckled. “I’m not kidding you,” the Irish, red-haired, freckled Kennedy corrected any misimpression. “Irish over-stays are probably the biggest (illegal immigrant category) in New England,” seeking to blend into the regular workforce when their temporary work visas expire. “So this whole thing is driven by bigotry. You read these op-eds -- ‘I went to Women & Infants (Hospital) and there weren’t any Americans there.’ OK, so what’s an American look like -- you?” “This whole hysteria the governor is fanning, it’s not new hysteria,” Kennedy broadened his theme. He cited “fifth-generation” Hispanic families complaining of being green-carded by authorities as illegals, and added, “I’ve met Native Americans who’ve been green-carded. Members of the Taos Pueblo tribes. They were here before anyone else got here,” he said. “It’s really obvious to me, it’s thinly veiled racism and we ought to reject it for what it is,” Kennedy said. He said Bush should be credited for trying to work out a federal solution to the problem of illegal immigrants but that his party’s right wing torpedoed the proposal. “And frankly I’m surprised the governor (Carcieri) has gone with the far right,” thereby breaking ranks with Bush. “This state by state approach is not going to work,” the congressman said. “How do you make the decision about who’s going to be carded? That is the question. And once you start having a Gestapo-like state,” the issue becomes why “some are chosen and some are left alone.” The result, Kennedy said, is to “break up the community along racial lines.” While stressing the importance of enforcing laws on illegal immigration, Kennedy said the governor should reconsider a policy that is “playing on people’s fears and prejudices,” and which is really serving “as a distraction” for human services cuts such as eliminating Head Start opportunities for some youngsters. (Democratic leaders in the General Assembly have thus far also signed on to many of Carcieri’s controversial budget cut proposals.) “He’d rather have people (think) ‘all my problems’” will go away if enforcement against illegals is stepped up, Kennedy said. “That’s why he’s doing this -- because he wants a distraction from his budget. This is classic, classic politics. Introduce a red herring,” so the public does not see “the disaster he’s done for this state. It just shows utter mismanagement on his part,” and “what a terrible governor he’s been.” “He just said what he thought,” student-questioner Jean-Charles, the 16-year-old daughter of Marie and Jean Charles of Pawtucket, evaluated later. A music major, she liked Kennedy’s stress on how studying arts with regular academics should go together to strengthen education. As for her own goals, “I would like to continue with my music and go on to business,” she said. |
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Story and Photo By DOUGLAS HADDEN BIG SHOES TO FILL. Richard Davis is leaving for a new challenge in Indiana after seven years as head of the private, nonprofit Pawtucket Foundation. They sure know how to draw a crowd. Some 350 people -- including a rolling cross-section of the city’s movers and shakers -- turned out Tuesday night as the Pawtucket Foundation honored three civic leaders at its fifth annual awards celebration, in the Pawtucket Armory building on Exchange Street. Besides the largest sit-down event in the cavernous drill hall since the Pawtucket Armory Association took it over to promote arts-related uses, the evening also featured strolling sequin-costumed characters and a drawing for signed original artworks and Red Sox, Bruins, and Patriots tickets, among other donated prizes for the fundraiser. |
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The evening was bittersweet for Richard Davis, who came aboard as the foundation’s executive director seven years ago and on April 28 will start his new duties as president of the Downtown Development District in 250,000-population Fort Wayne, Indiana, like the foundation a business-backed group keyed to fostering economic and civic development. “I came here April 2, 2001, so (Wednesday) will be seven years. Hard to believe,” reflected Davis, who like his wife, Mindy, originally hails from Ohio. “When I came here the foundation was in its infancy,” said Davis, who had run a similar organization in another New England mill city, Manchester, N.H. before coming to Pawtucket. “But we’ve really seen the agenda emerge. I think they’re the keepers of the long-term vision.” “What he was good at,” praised Vincent Ceglie, who runs the Blackstone Valley Community Action Program, sits on the foundation’s board and shared many an afternoon chat with his good friend Davis over coffee at Andy’s Cafe on Exchange Street, “was taking a fresh look at things we overlooked -- the railroad (proposed train station on Broad Street), the river. There’s a long way to go but at least he got everyone aware of the possibilities and moving toward those goals.” Mayor James E. Doyle, who at the event made the rare award of a key to the city to Davis, said of his contribution, “I think the best way to describe it is he’s become almost a household name in our office. Everything with the business community, the password is, ‘Call Rich Davis.’ Everything that’s happened in the city, he’s been an incredible supporter and helper. This is a huge loss. “And he does it in a very low key fashion. He is so widely respected. Fort Wayne is very lucky to get him.” Daniel Sullivan Jr., president and CEO of city-based Collette Vacations and foundation co-chairman, pointed to the evening’s big turnout. “That’s a testimony to Rich and what he’s done,” Sullivan said. He credited Davis with getting city, community and business leaders “to invest in Pawtucket and believe in Pawtucket.” Sullivan for a recent example cited the I-95 bridge rebuilding issue, where Davis helped lead the effort to turn an engineering problem into an opportunity for a more aesthetic structure by coalescing state transportation, city, fire, Memorial Hospital and other officials, also speeding the rebuilding timetable in the process. “And turn a negative into a positive.” Resumes from candidates as Davis’ successor are now being reviewed and Sullivan said he expected a new foundation chief to be on board “by the summer.” Davis himself noted the foundation’s recent success in halting a proposed trash transfer station in federal court, and getting the proposed train station next on the state DOT’s funding list right behind previously planned facilities at T.F. Green Airport and Wickford Junction. More broadly, “The city has continued to work as an attraction for the creative community -- the craftsmen, the artisans, the software people, the architects, the designers -- and the foundation has assisted on that,” including by spotting and encouraging such talent to enter the city, he said. The foundation under Davis also initiated “Proud Day” (June 19 this year), which gets business people on the streets with trowels, paint rollers and other hands-on tools for beautification, building spirit in the community and among the foundation’s members.
Robert Billington, founder and president of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, was given the foundation’s “Heritage Award” for his work making the Blackstone Valley a focus of sustainable tourism.
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| After seven years as executive director of the private, non-profit Pawtucket Foundation, Richard Davis is leaving to take a similar post as head of the Downtown Development District in Fort Wayne, Indiana, like the foundation a business-backed group keyed to fostering economic and civic development. Davis received a spirited sendoff Monday night as a few dozen of the many friends he has made here bestowed gifts, thanks and best wishes for the future in a gathering at the foundation's offices, 67 Park Place. |
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Mayor James E. Doyle, after granting Davis the rare honor of a key to the city, laughs after Davis jokingly asked if the locks had been changed |
Davis and his wife, Mindy, both Ohio natives, hold the honorary key to the city presented by Mayor Doyle. |
Davis holds a framed edition of the recent All Pawtucket All The Time article on his tenure at the foundation |
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Photo to the left:
Dan Sullivan, foundation co-chairman, presents Davis a commemorative plate made by local artist Gale Ahlers, inscribed to Davis for his "vision, dedication and commitment" as director of the foundation. photos by: Douglas Hadden |
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By DOUGLAS HADDEN That may have looked like plain old tap water flowing from your home faucet Wednesday, but don’t be fooled: It was actually the first liquid payoff from the approximately $45 million project bringing a new water treatment plant to the city. City Councilor Thomas Hodge was pleased to report that, after a more than two-year delay in getting online, water from the new facility on Branch Street, behind Pawtucket Water Supply Board headquarters, was finally being pumped to city homes. Though not without a few difficulties, appropriate enough for a project that has dragged on for so long and run into numerous and expensive glitches. Hodge cited “slight problems” as the increased pressure from the new system began making its way through city pipes. The veteran at-large councilor, who is the council’s liaison to the Water Board, said he received email notice of the launch Wednesday and early shakedown wrinkles from PWSB Chief Engineer James DeCelles. “The plant is online serving water. There are some problems from a spike in pressure,” Hodge related, along with “some dirty water complaints,” apparently from sediments dislodged by the new burst of water pressure. He said PWSB crews would continue to actively monitor the rampup. The new plant, designed, built and operated by city-chosen vendor Earth Tech, was designed to meet accelerating federal water quality standards that the city’s outmoded 1938 plant, just over the city line on Mill Street in Cumberland, would be increasingly unable to match. “We’ll leave the other plant open for 30 days as backup,” per the city’s agreement with Earth Tech, Hodge said. The launch was made possible after safety approvals by the state Department of Health. Hodge noted the city has accepted the plant as achieving what’s known as substantial completion, but problems with retrofitted pumps must be rectified before final signoff in the coming weeks, he said. “In essence we’ve accepted the plant itself but not (as yet) the whole project,” Hodge explained. “I think it’s been a long time coming,” Council President Mary Bray reflected on the numerous delays, “so I hope it’s going to be worth our while and we’ll see some return.” The project to bring a new water treatment facility to the city was championed by Mayor James E. Doyle, who backed the Water Board’s choice of Earth Tech. Bray and Hodge were among several councilors who preferred a different vendor, although the Water Board’s consultant had pegged the pricetag for using that company, which was later bought out, as much as $10 million higher. The matter took a Superior Court judge to settle, in a ruling stating that the council had authority over funding approval but not over selection of the vendor. But the Earth Tech-led project hit snags throughout, from initial issues such as who was responsible for costs to remove arsenic tainted soils at the facility’s site to the ongoing problem of the noisy new pumps. Several performance penalties kicked in, and the company also came under criticism for a “revolving door” of executives overseeing the project. PWSB, the second largest water utility in the state, serves approximatley 100,000 customers in Pawtucket, Central Falls and the Valley Falls section of Cumberland, as well as selling water to the entities serving the northern part of Cumberland. |
President of the Senate Joseph A. Montalbano (D-Dist. 17, Pawtucket, North Providence, Lincoln) last week wrote to National Grid requesting that they voluntarily extend their moratorium on gas and electricity shut-offs on low-income customers until May 1. The moratorium is currently scheduled to end about on April 15. The extension would ensure that low-income households that are currently behind on their utility bills are able to maintain their service until warmer weather arrives. “This heating season, we have seen sharp increases in home heating costs and an unprecedented number of utility bills going unpaid,” wrote Senate President Montalbano. “Last year, the number of people who had their source of heat turned off hit more than 20,000 households in Rhode Island. My hope is that you will continue to supply heat to families who are struggling to pay their bills until this heating season ends.” President Montalbano continued, “From information provided to us by the George Wiley Center, it appears that in 2008 Rhode Island will be at a record level of residential utility terminations for non-payment. We can expect this situation to get worse as energy prices increase. As a result, action is needed to help low-income households maintain utility service and be given the opportunity to become current on their heating bills.” “I know that you are cognizant of the many Rhode Island families, elderly persons, and individuals with disabilities who are living with limited and insufficient incomes who will benefit from this decision,” he wrote. |
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The U.S. Department of Labor reported on March 14 that, over the year, the energy index was 20.2 percent higher as prices for gasoline (35.7 percent), electricity (4.4 percent), and utility gas service (1.8 percent) all increased substantially. |
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By DOUGLAS HADDEN With state budget woes threatening a rollback of the historic tax credits that have brought millions of dollars of rehab help for neglected old buildings, city officials are looking into stepping into the breach to assure one new local project stays on track, by working out terms of a potential tax stabilization agreement with the developer. The project is the proposed renovation of the former Edward Creamer School Administration Building, a redbrick structure on Park Place that dates to the 1890s, for professional offices by Providence-based Amaral Revite. School administrators more than two years ago began moving out of the antiquated 18,000 square foot structure into a new home downtown at 286 Main St., former home of the Registry of Motor Vehicles, and in the fall of 2006 turned the Creamer building and allied parking lot over to the city. That left the decision on the property’s future to the City Council, which enlisted the help of the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency to find a buyer to redevelop the Queen Anne style building, which began as the Church Hill School then in 1987 was rededicated in the name of a former schools chief. The process elicited four proposals topped by the $500,000 bid of Everett Amaral, a registered professional engineer and contractor who recently revitalized an old mill on the west side of the Providence Turnkey Post Office into the gleaming West River Center, 100,000 square feet of professional offices already 80 percent occupied, according to Amaral. That project caught the eye of City Councilor John Barry, who told Amaral at a council Property Committee meeting Wednesday, “I’m so impressed by what you’ve done in Providence that I don’t want you to get out of here without [buying] that [Creamer] building.” The state historic tax credits, good for up to 30 percent of project cost and then resold to investors for about 80 cents on the dollar, were used in the Providence project. As part of the final signoff on the Creamer deal, City Planner Michael Cassidy is working with Amaral on a plan to carve space from a city-owned lot behind a nearby law office that would give the project another dozen parking spaces, for a total of about 48 spaces. But the state budget crisis has put status of the credits -- criticized as giveaways by some, but praised by others as the key element in restoring properties sometimes neglected for decades -- in jeopardy. Competing proposals on Smith Hill would trim the credits for commercial space to 25 percent, cap the annual dollar amount of credits granted or even make reductions retroactive. That all adds up to just the kind of financial uncertainty developers don’t like. “It may affect the saleability of the tax credits,” Cassidy said. “All this talk is making people skittish.” “This has been the only lingering issue,” Amaral told the council panel, chaired by Barry. “It appears the rest of the agreement is more than fair.” The panel directed that Cassidy and Amaral work with Tax Assessor David Quinn on possible terms of a “tax treaty,” or stabilization schedule, that would gradually accelerate the levy of commercial property taxes until pegging it to fair market value after five years. Final terms of the purchase and sale agreement could be wrapped up “in two weeks,” Cassidy said. “This sort of gives [Amaral] a safety net,” said Councilor Paul Wildenhain. “More predictable,” Amaral said. Barry pointed out that because the building had always been used for school purposes, “It’s never been on the tax roll anyway.” Amaral said later he was aiming at medical offices though space for lawyers or other professionals, or even government offices, depending on demand, could be included in what will be Class A commercial space. He said he was attracted by the building’s condition although it will need an elevator, as well as adequate parking, proximity to downtown and ready access to I-95. Also attractive to him was that the building was historic even though “it’s less expensive to put up a new one. So the tax credits help with that cost,” typically $100 per square foot. That would put the Creamer renovation at about $1.8 million, or with the purchase price an overall $2.3 million project. |
Girl Scout troops across Pawtucket & Central Falls have been keeping busy with many activities. Recently 108 scouts and 53 adults attended a Lock-In at the Pawtucket YMCA. The girls spent the night climbing the rock & boulder walls, singing songs, playing basketball, swimming and doing relay races. They also were able to enjoy pizza and ice cream. Many of the girls spent the night, while many headed home to their own beds. The Cadette Girl Scouts held a drive to collect toiletries that filled 26 bags and then were donated to Crossroads in Providence, RI.
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| Review by They didn’t invent their Victorian-era social system, but Anna and her “Boston Marriage” partner Claire sure have spent years of defiant cleverness trying to beat it. Or at least play its hypocritical edges for all they’re worth. Now Anna has enticed a rich married man as her new lover and “protector”; he even paid for the flowery drawing room makeover she knew Claire would gush over, chintz fabrics and all. Not to mention the gaudy emerald Anna’s flaunting around her neck. Meanwhile Claire has her own scheme: She is trying to entice an apparently teenage girl over for a “vile assignation,” though only with Anna’s approval, of course. Love is a relative thing in this two-acter by playwright David Mamet, which opened Monday at the Gamm Theatre. The play’s name is styled on a term coined to describe arrangements that, beginning in New England more than a century ago, helped allow women to live together, whether platonically or not, independent of men and without undue social opprobrium. “Men, what can you do with them,” muses Claire, played with fire and frivolity by Casey Seymour Kim. Mamet is known for writing kidney-punching rat-a-tat dialogue barked by mostly male casts in plays like his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Glengarry Glen Ross,” here he’s gone female (all three onstage characters, with Karen Carpenter well exploiting the foil maid Catherine’s role for all it’s worth and maybe a few tears more, are women).In fact Mamet apparently wrote the play with his actress wife, Rebecca Pidgeon, in mind, directing her in the Claire role (with Desperate Housewife-to-be Felicity Huffman as Anna) when “Boston Marriage” made its debut in June 1999 in Cambridge, Mass. |
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When Claire’s young lovely comes to the door, she spies Anna’s emerald, recognizes it as her mother’s, and bolts. Quicker than you can say “séance” (Anna and Claire hysterically convince themselves they can explain to the cuckolded wife they were borrowing the jewelry for the vibes needed to tell her fortune), the sugar is out of the daddy and it’s time to pack their bags. But will Anna and Claire stay together? There are themes struggling to get out here: Anna and Claire are clear-eyed about what their limitations and advantages are, and use their survivor instincts and feminine wiles to tilt the system their way. In this they are strong and resilient, if in Mamet’s hands perhaps too thoroughly modern Millies to be believed. Yet despite the oppressive weight of the sexual mores they labor under, they kick down on the lower social class maid, whose name they can’t remember and whose Scottish origin they keep relocating to Ireland complete with homilies on how, don’t you know, more nitrogen in the soil could have avoided that potato famine thing. It’s no fault of the Gamm crew under Director Judith Swift, which milks every laugh and pratfall, but Mamet’s script is just too thin and repetitious to stretch the play’s too-long second act so far. I actually found myself twitching. But Mamet, who recently confessed in a much remarked essay that he is “no longer a brain-dead liberal,” and “now found myself disenchanted [with his former worldview]... that everything is wrong,” here in this play from eight years ago seems to have already ditched his sharp scalpel work on the gray sewer of human emotions for the white cardboard cutout -- dare I say chick-flick -- kind. It’s enough to make one appreciate anew the earnest importance of Wilde’s Gwendolyn and Cecily. Even a little honest ditziness can be a good thing. “Boston Marriage,” play by David Mamet, directed by Judith Swift. At the Gamm Theatre 172 Exchange St., Pawtucket, through April 13. |
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