Dressed in matching pajamas, two-year-old Isabella Paulson and her aunt Amanda DelPonte get ready for the Polar Express to depart the Woonsocket Depot yesterday for the 90-minute excursion and reading of Chris Van Allsburg's classic "The Polar Express," presented by the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council. The local depot has been dubbed the Polar Express Train Station this holiday season, with trips coming up today, Nov. 20, and on Dec. 2, 3, 4, 11, 16, 17and18. The train leaves at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m on Fridays, and at 10:45 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
WOONSOCKET – The budget war between the school department and the city administration will continue for at least another legal skirmish, following a 3-2 vote of the outgoing committee Wednesday night.
The school committee had school department attorney Richard Ackerman lodge an appeal of the city's move to cut school spending last year even though it subsequently cut its $62 million budget to the $59 million figure. Mayor Leo T. Fontaine and the city council maintained it was the only funding available for schools.
