Archive - 2011 - News Article
November 19th
WOONSOCKET – Before it can gain access to capital that’s needed to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant, the city must renegotiate antiquated pacts with neighboring communities that also use the facility, including two in Massachusetts, officials say.
The City Council recently gave Mayor Leo T. Fontaine the go-ahead to borrow the first $26 million for plant upgrades whose costs could top out at $40 million.
WOONSOCKET – The rise of storefront churches in retail zones once dominated by the greengrocer and tailor isn’t necessarily a trend greeted with the utmost reverence in a city struggling to save its traditional downtown for small business.
But the Rev. Al Berja of His Presence Church International was preaching to the choir when he asked the Zoning Board of Review for permission to put his church in an old cotton mill.
So far as anyone can tell, it’s a first for Woonsocket – and the Zoning Board likes it.
November 18th
PROVIDENCE — The General Assembly culminated an historic special fall session by overwhelmingly approving a radical overhaul of the public employee's pension system designed to save the state hundreds of millions of dollars over time and preserve the integrity of the pension funds going forward.
November 17th
WOONSOCKET — After a preliminary review of Landmark Medical Center’s application to merge with Steward Health Care System, state regulators have deemed the paperwork incomplete, but a Landmark spokesman dismissed the notion that the assessment means the merger is in jeopardy.
“It’s not a bump,” said Bill Fischer. “Quite frankly it was expected because if you look at history there’s no hospital conversion that I’m aware of that’s had an application deemed complete on the first pass.”
WOONSOCKET — Luigi Porreca Jr. is not a magician, but he and his father are going to turn metal into food for the poor this year — again.
The proprietors of L&R Scrap Metal Co. are sponsoring the 2nd Annual Help Feed the Hungry for the Holidays event, which raised enough cash to provide about 500 dinners for the hungry last year.
“This year we hope to make it a thousand,” says Porreca.
But L&R needs your help — or at least your unwanted appliances — to make it happen.
November 16th
PROVIDENCE – Demonstrating vigilance against what they fear might be “eleventh-hour, last minute shenanigans” pulled by the General Assembly on the pension reform legislation scheduled for a final vote on Thursday, three government watchdog groups held a Statehouse press conference to urge that the bill be passed in its current form.
November 14th
LINCOLN — Route 116 South, near the intersection to Blackstone Valley Place proved to be quite the scene on Monday morning.
Two elderly women had been traveling southbound at about 9:30 a.m. when a deer leaped in front of their 2002 Buick Century and crashed through its windshield and roof, ripping a massive hole. In the process, the animal struck a 75-year-old passenger from Central Falls, and the woman suffered injuries to her head and face, stated Police Capt. Raymond Bousquet.
November 13th
Norman Decelles, 5, of Wrentham, with his grandmother, Michelle Decelles, owner of the Coachman’s Lodge in Bellingham, presents a check for $200 to Terry McKenna, founder of Terry’s Auto in Woonsocket, during the 16th annual Because He Lives fundraiser Sunday.
NORTH SMITHFIELD —The school department's hiring of a new food service provider, Aramark School Nutrition Services, has brought many changes to the school breakfast and lunch program, including a new menu with healthier food options and, as of this week, a new computerized money and meal count system to help ease the payment process for parents and students.
WOONSOCKET – The John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission marked its 25th anniversary by calling on its longtime volunteers and stalwart supporters to help the cultural heritage and natural resource district win designation as a National Historical Park.
The appeal came during a birthday celebration billed as a “Rally for Valley” held Thursday evening in the Providence & Worcester Railroad Station at Depot Square —one of the dozens of significant historic sites along the corridor’s 40-mile route between Worcester, Mass. and Providence, R.I.
