Archive - Feb 2012

Celebrating Black History Month: Servicemen found military not color-blind

February 20, 2012

By MARTHA SMITH
Special to the Standard

NORTH KINGSTOWN – When the legendary Tuskegee Airmen – the all-black flying unit of World War II now being celebrated in the film “Red Tails” – returned from their heroic exploits, they were greeted by the sound of silence.
It took 60 years for President George W. Bush to honor the survivors with the Congressional Gold Medal, awarded to each elderly man in a 2007 ceremony in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

Tell Me Your Story: NK music man honored for half-century of service

February 19, 2012

EAST GREENWICH – When Joseph R. “Joe” Pelosi graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Music in 1959 and returned to Rhode Island, his wife, Angela, saw an ad seeking a music teacher in the North Kingstown school system.
“I didn’t know where North Kingstown was,” Joe laughs.
He quickly learned – in fact, he became a legend on the local music scene – and the display areas in the den of his home near the East Greenwich-North Kingstown line are filled with evidence that North Kingstown certainly knows him.

Zorro dog tired but home

February 18, 2012

By MARTHA SMITH
Special to the Standard

NORTH KINGSTOWN – A scared little lapdog that escaped into the woods from its backyard and went on the lam for 10 days – an event that caused fliers to appear in every shop window in Wickford and galvanized the community into search parties – has been found.
Zorro, a Lhasa Apso rescued from an out-of-state puppy mill, vanished Feb. 2 and managed to avoid being eaten by coyotes or killed by a car while traveling from one end of town to the other.

Phil’s has community support

February 17, 2012

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Green signs exclaiming ‘vote yes’ rattled throughout the town council chamber Wednesday night as the downtown Wakefield community poured into the town hall to support Phil’s Restaurant owners Carl and Kenneth Tetzner and the Contemporary Theater Company’s plans to revitalize Main Street. Despite the flood of support for the plans, the zoning board postponed their decision until Tuesday.

“I thought this would be the night we got an answer. We all did,” Carl Tetzner said after the board meeting.

No apologies from SK Councilman

February 17, 2012

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The town council meeting was caught in a stalemate Monday night as union leaders repeatedly asked for apologies from Councilman Jim O’Neill, who remained steadfast in his silent refusal to give into what they wanted.

“I spoke at the last town council meeting. I expect an apology for the way I was treated and comments I received from a certain town council member,” Deborah Bergner, resident and member of the Democratic Town Committee said. “I was using my right as a citizen and taxpayer and was treated poorly.”

Unfinished business at Institute for Sport

February 17, 2012

NARRAGANSETT — Auditor General Dennis E. Hoyle released his audit report on Daniel E. Doyle, Jr.’s failure to repay funds to the both the University of Rhode Island and the state. Doyle, who has served at the Executive Director for the Institute of International Sport at URI since 1986, was audited after concerns were expressed to the Auditor General’s office about the unfinished state of the institute’s residential and coaching center, for which a state grant of $575,000 was given in 2007.

Town considering paying for DMS roof

February 17, 2012

By LINDSAY OLIVIER
lolivier@ricentral.com

NORTH KINGSTOWN – For the better part of a couple months now, North Kingstown school officials and town administrators have debated two key questions: Who’s going to pay for a new roof at Davisville Middle School and what account or bond it will come from?
Monday evening came the first glance at a potential solution.