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Story and photos Like feeding the ducks on the pond or taking a ride on the Loof carousel, the weekly car shows in Slater Park have become an annual local rite of spring and summer. The well-buffed cars and trucks arrayed by their proud owners outside Daggett Delights concession stand also offer a chance to talk about the days when cars had fins, heavy metal was a description of chrome bumpers and you could get three gallons of gas for a buck. Anthony Walsh, the prime mover behind the car shows as well as the concession stand, says the economy and $4-a-gallon gas has slowed participation this season from what it was when the Tuesday night car shows began about seven years ago. But, as a recent night showed, the vintage vehicles are still quite an attraction, their display accompanied by an oldies-spinning DJ. And -- just as you’d expect -- behind every car is a story. In one row was Roger Rebeiro’s brilliant red ’56 Thunderbird, powered by a 1987 Lincoln engine; a row away was George Rizzardini’s gleaming white, all-original ’55 T-Bird. Being original boosts the car’s value, as does having the peak year, explained Rizzardini, of Seekonk, noting that “the one that’s bringing the most money is the ’57.” It’s hard to say why that is, though the two antique car aficionados easily ticked off the differences from year to year: The ’55 did not have the “continental wheel” (spare tire housing on the back), which arrived in ’56, freeing up some trunk space. The ’57 brought a revised body style, a bit bigger in back with a larger trunk and added hot-looking side vents needed to cool off the 12-volt battery, double the prior voltage. |
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Elizabeth Tremblay sits in her husband Frank's (he is at left) 1923 replica Model T Ford |
“It’s good, we relive the ’50s,” Rebeiro, of Rehoboth, said of the weekly car shows in the park, which sometimes attract more than 100 vehicles.Though as time marches on, he said, the car fanciers’ conversation has turned to other topics. “The operations we’ve had, the meds we’re on,” he laughed. Rebeiro said the Slater Park venue, which begins the second Tuesday in May and runs to the end of September, is one of many car show stops in the region. “We kind of make the circuit. There’s a nice one in Easton, Mass. at the Southeast Regional High School, every other Thursday,” which can top 200 cars. “There’s a waiting list to get in there. There’s shows every night of the week, every night of the week you can go somewhere.” Sundays the Sam’s Club on Route 6 in Seekonk hosts a show; Monday nights there’s one in East Providence outside Standard Hardware. The Wal-Mart in Seekonk and Crescent Park in Riverside, both on Saturday, are other pit stops for the shows. On this particular night in June, threatening skies did not deter Charlie Matteo of Cumberland from wheeling in his sparkling ’57 Ford Fairlane with its folding roof. “I’ve had it about six years,” said Matteo, who collects only Fords, including a 1915 Roadster and 1928 Phaeton, “the first Model T,” he said. “I come down every week, just come down and socialize, hang out with the guys,” Matteo said. Parked near Rizzardini’s white T-Bird was Don Governo’s 1969 Mercury Cougar, featuring a 351 HP engine and the signature grill and tail lights, and sequential turn signals, that made that run of Cougars famous. Except for the top, the rugs and the radio, the car is all original, with just 121,000 miles showing on the odometer. “I’ve had it 30 years,” since buying it from Mutter Motors in Cumberland “in’70 or ’71,” said Governo, of Attleboro. Though as an antique, insurance rules require the car be driven no more than 2,000 miles a year, he said a good chunk of that comes from his annual drive to Charlotte, N.C. For an alternate stylish ride, he also has a 1940 Chevrolet wood wagon and has completely restored a 1972 Chevy Monte Carlo. Matteo’s “hang out with the guys” comment notwithstanding, the car shows also attract a female fan element, which this night included Elizabeth Tremblay, resplendent in her drawstring floppy hat for rides in her husband Frank’s canary yellow 1923 replica Model T Ford. The color choice is not an unusual one for the Pawtucket couple, who live on Lake Street near McCoy Stadium. “This is his favorite color, yellow,” Elizabeth related. “This is the third T-bucket I built,” said Frank. “All yellow.” |
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Roger Rebeiro (right), of Rehoboth, explains the fine points of his '56 Ford Thunderbird's 1987 Lincoln engine to George Rizzardini, of Seekonk, who owns a white '55 T-Bird during recent Tuesday night car show in Slater Park. |
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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 |
