Archive - News Article
March 19th, 2011
BURRILLVILLE - The local Lions Club, in partnership with the Burrillville Parks & Recreation Department and Burrillville Public Works, is gearing up for the 12th Annual Burrillville Earth Day Cleanup to be held Saturday, April 23.
The event will kick off at 8:30 a.m. at the Burrillville Highway Department, 65 Union Avenue, Harrisville. The rain date is Saturday, April 30.
CUMBERLAND - The Town Council will hold a special meeting Monday to discuss the town's legislative agenda, which will include hot button issues such as acceleration of the school funding formula phase-in, vehicle excise tax, and state housing aid.
The meeting gets underway at 7:30 p.m. in the Cumberland Public Library's Hayden Center meeting room, 1464 Diamond Hill Road.
Each year, the council develops an agenda that both supports and opposes legislation based on whether or not the bills help the town achieve its goals or detracts from those objectives.
March 18th
The CALL is seeking photos of Blackstone Valley military veterans, whether they served in war zones or not. Please send photos to our email box: veterans@woonsocketcall.com or drop them off in the Veterans mail basket located on the front desk of The CALL's office at 75 Main St., Woonsocket.
Please include the following information with your photos:
Name of soldier:
Hometown:
Service branch: Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard.
Years served:
Location of tours:
Highlights:
Gloria Vignone admits to feeling âbittersweetâ about her tour as a nurse in Iraq back in 2006-07.
âSometimes when you are here, you want to be there, and vice versa,â the Franklin, Ma. native was saying earlier this month. âThe camaraderie with your fellow soldiers is unbelievable. All we saw were trauma cases over there, a lot of blood and amputated limbs. We had one soldier who lost 60 units of blood and he lived. His buddies came in and donated blood to save his life. To know that you helped save a soldierâs life is a feeling you never forget.â
March 17th
WOONSOCKET â The school department was once again looking for budget reductions on Thursday as the School Committeeâs budget subcommittee began a review of ways to solve a projected $1.6 million shortfall in the $59.8 million spending plan already sent to Mayor Leo T. Fontaine.
School Committee Chairman Marc A. Dubois said that âeverythingâ possible to be cut in the proposed budget would be looked at in the new round of budget work.
WOONSOCKET â In a shot across the bow of the firefighter's union, Mayor Leo T. Fontaine has proposed a shift restructuring of the fire department that would virtually eliminate overtime.
The mayor's proposal would fold the 124 members of the fire department into three rotating platoons instead of four, the current norm. And instead of working an average of 42 hours a week before overtime kicks in, every firefighter would have to work 56.
If you read newspapers on a regular basis you know that each day can bring both good and bad news.
Those of us who work the news business learn that early on in our jobs and it helps you form a thicker skin to the more troubling news that inevitably comes along.
Most times anyway.
Monday was one of those days when the news going into the paper drew a longer look and sparked that sense of sadness that comes with losing someone you knew.
Christine Nowak, 50, a Call reporter for 15 years, was up there on the proof sheets in an obituary.
March 16th
WOONSOCKET â He never smoked or drank. No one can recall that he ever raised his voice in anger. And the khakis and loafers he was fond of wearing were as low-key as his personality.
In many ways the Pulitzer Prize was a crown that never quite fit Edwin OâConnor, author of âThe Last Hurrah,â and the cityâs most famous Irish-American native son.
And, sadly, perhaps its most forgotten.
âAside from the catch-phrase âlast hurrah,â which has become part of the English language, he really has been forgotten,â says Robert Rose, an independent TV producer from Lincoln.
MILLVILLE â This week would have been just around the time that John F. Dean Sr. would dye his trademark white beard green in honor of St. Patrickâs Day. It was a springtime tradition that would often turn the heads of passing motorists while Dean, looking like an over-sized leprechaun, was out with his highway crews filling potholes.
Today, rather, it was a somber mood in Millville, as friends and family mourned the passing of 78-year-old Dean, a lifelong resident of Millville and longtime town highway surveyor, who died Tuesday at Landmark Medical Center after a brief illness.
WOONSOCKET â A Family Court judge yesterday âcertifiedâ a 17-year-old boy accused in a stabbing last April that left an elderly man paralyzed â a status that falls a step short of waiving him into adult courts.
But Amy Kempe, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, said the ruling also places the boy in jeopardy of serving an adult-length prison sentence if the courts determine he was responsible for the stabbing.
âItâs kind of a bifurcated approach,â said Kempe. âHeâll be tried in Family Court but heâll be subject to adult sentencing.â
