Archive - News Article
May 28th, 2013
PAWTUCKET — This weekend, work got underway to address the ceilings in the Potter-Burns Elementary School, with a target date of June 3 still on for classes to resume.
Since last Wednesday's incident in which a 6-foot by 10-foot section in a basement classroom gave way, all of the ceilings in the nearly 100-year-old building have been inspected by outside structural engineers and the city's building officials. Now, the immediate solution involves shoring up some of the ceilings with a strapping support system while in other areas, the ceiling material will be removed completely.
WOONSOCKET – Could four-day school weeks be coming to Woonsocket?
It’s possible, if a bill that passed the Senate last week manages to find its way to becoming law.
Introduced by State Senator Roger Picard (D-Dist. 20, Woonsocket, Cumberland), the bill doesn’t mandate four-day school weeks. But with the state’s consent, school districts could adopt any sort of calendar they deem fit, so long as the school year provides no less than 1,080 hours of instructional time, the equivalent of the existing 180-day minimum.
May 27th
S. ATTLEBORO – The old Shaw’s store at Bristol Place off Route 1A in South Attleboro near the Pawtucket line is giving way to a new much larger Market Basket store at the same location.
The old building has been torn down and this week steel girders were beginning to frame the planned 80,000-square-foot Market Basket store.
Stephanie Davies, senior land use planner in Attleboro’s Planning Department, said Friday the old Shaw’s, which had been closed by the supermarket chain in 2009, was demolished to make room for the new Market Basket development.
May 26th
The end of school is near, and there’s no time like the present for teenagers to try to find that summer job.
Lining up work with a private business is one way for teens to fill their free hours but that may not be an easy task given the area’s still-recovering economy.
There are also community-based jobs — funded through local governments, state agencies, or federal programs — that may still be available to interested job seekers.
CUMBERLAND – It’s been 68 years since Wilfrid E. Hebert, 91, returned home from World War II and he has spent much of that time coming to terms with his days as a B-17 crew member flying missions over Europe.
Hebert, an ex-POW and a resident of Flat Street, can tell you what helped him most through his troubled times and also about the things he still grapples with when holidays such as Memorial Day arrive.
By
DENISE PERREAULT (Special to The Times)
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of profiles of the new leaders of Central Falls, a community emerging from the turmoil of bankruptcy to become a virtual New City, with new officials in place and new goals for the future.
CENTRAL FALLS – Sonia Grace has spent her working life doing whatever she can to help others improve the quality of their lives, and it’s a commitment that continues now that she is chief of staff to Mayor James A. Diossa.
May 25th
PAWTUCKET — The Potter-Burns Elementary School will remain closed next week while workers install bracing to shore up the ceilings throughout the century-old building. Classes are scheduled to resume on June 3, according to Schools Superintendent Deborah Cylke.
The school, at 973 Newport Ave., has been closed since Wednesday afternoon after a section of ceiling in a basement classroom suddenly gave way. No one was in the room at the time, although it is periodically used as an occupational therapy classroom for a couple of students at a time, Cylke said.
PAWTUCKET — With the arrival of warmer weather the Pawtucket Police Department announced that officers have resumed patrolling various locations in the city on bicycles. The uniformed patrols began earlier this month in Payne Park and Slater Park.
“These patrols are an important part of our ongoing focus on community policing,” said Police Chief Paul King.
More than a dozen banks from Providence to Pawtucket have been robbed over the past five months, leaving some to wonder if bank robberies have reached epidemic proportions in the Blackstone Valley.
While it may seem like the valley is a hotspot for bank theft of late, Special Agent Greg Comcowich, a spokesman for the FBI’s Boston division, says the recent spate of robberies, which include Monday’s heists in North Providence and Cranston, and Thursday’s robbery in Pawtucket, are not an indication of an overall rise in the number of bank robberies in the state.
May 23rd
PROVIDENCE – Proponents of a bill to alter the School Siting Law passed last year say it will strengthen the safety requirements for building schools on former industrial or manufacturing sites.
PAWTUCKET — Was it just old age? The reason for the sudden collapse of an original ceiling in the nearly century-old Potter-Burns Elementary School was being investigated by city officials and architects on Thursday as the school remains closed at least until Tuesday.
They’re known as The Flying Squadron, an ever-changing group of Uxbridge veterans who have made it a Memorial Day tradition over the past 138 years to visit local schoolchildren with a simple message: The final Monday of May is not just the start of summer vacation season, but a time to honor Americans who died while serving in the U.S. military.
The squadron, which is made up today of 20 town veterans divided into two units, will conduct its 139th consecutive visitation to town schools on Friday to kick off the town’s Memorial Day observances.
May 22nd
PROVIDENCE – Plans for consolidating Cumberland’s four fire districts are causing a rift in the town’s General Assembly delegation that could delay a merger until next year.
May 21st
PAWTUCKET – A leading advocacy group for affordable housing released a report today criticizing state government for failing to protect its investments in affordable housing with additional funds for maintenance and operations.
The HousingWorks RI report characterizes affordable housing as an essential component of the state’s economic development infrastructure. The report, entitled “The Complete Approach to Affordable Housing,” says the state not only needs more affordable housing but should invest more to make sure what it has is sustainable.
PAWTUCKET – To help get unwanted guns off city streets, a Pawtucket Police Gun Buyback program will be held on Saturday, June 1 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the police substation at 270 Armistice Blvd. (across from Precision Harley-Davidson). The program is open to all city residents.
PAWTUCKET — Despite being shot down twice by the City Council, Mayor Donald Grebien is again pushing to hire a business/communications liaison as well as create a new position for an economic development professional who would be funded jointly by the city and the Pawtucket Foundation.
CENTRAL FALLS — Former State Police superintendent and congressional candidate Brendan Doherty has been nominated to be the next chairman of the board of the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility by Mayor James Diossa.
Doherty would replace Steven T. Hartford, who resigned the chairmanship of the five-member board. The panel also includes Ernest “Gip” Cabral, Hugo Figueroa, Yedinson A. Rios and Frank Tillinghast.
CRANSTON – Public school teachers from North Smithfield to Newport jammed into the auditorium at Cranston High School West Monday and for well over two hours unloaded a long list of grievances against Education Commissioner Deborah Gist with the stated intention of convincing the new state Board of Education to not renew her contract next month.
May 20th
PAWTUCKET — A 41-year-old city man suffered cuts to his hands after trying to defend himself against two intruders to his Dawson Street home early Sunday morning, police said.
According to Major Arthur Martins, the man told police he was watching TV at his home at around 1:48 a.m. when two masked men, dressed all in black, entered through an unlocked door. He said that one of the men grabbed him from behind and tried to strangle him and another was armed with a knife.
PAWTUCKET — A movie described as a “paranormal family drama” is set to begin filming scenes in Rhode Island and Massachusetts this week, including at a local Irish bar.
According to a press release from Boston-based tFrog Films, Justine Gendron and Kyle Johannessan announce the filming of principal photography for the short film “Devil May Care.” Filming is set for May 23 through May 27 in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Locations include Pawtucket's own Galway Bay Pub, as well as St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Newburyport, Mass. and Island Grove Park in Abington, Mass.
