Archive - Oct 2011 - News Article

Mounties hand Coventry first defeat

October 24, 2011

COVENTRY – Tuesday’s Division I volleyball match between the Mount Saint Charles Mounties and Coventry Oakers was probably the most highly anticipated of the season.

Collective bargaining agreements in place

October 24, 2011

NARRAGANSETT—The town council passed a motion to approve and authorize three-year collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) with Local 1033 of the Rhode Island Laborers’ District Council and Local 1589 of the International Association of Firefighters. Both agreements are the culmination of a number of meetings which have taken place over the past months to gather input from town employees and firefighters.

O’Reilly calls Perlman ‘patriot’

October 24, 2011

By MARTHA SMITH
Special to the Standard

NORTH KINGSTOWN – Business magnate Marc Perlman, president and CEO of Ocean State Job Lot, headquartered in the Quonset Business Park, recently won an auction benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project.
With a high bid of $60,000, Perlman brought home the second of three original, framed posters depicting a solider carrying his wounded comrade to safety. The three pieces of artwork were signed by all five living U.S. presidents – Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Coventry gridders feel ‘Patriot’-ic

October 23, 2011

COVENTRY — The Coventry football team began Saturday’s non-league contest against Pilgrim by playing their worst five minutes of football this season.

Narragansett tribe represented at ‘Carcieri Fix’ hearings

October 23, 2011

A Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing was held in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Oct. 13, to consider and review the countrywide effects of the 2009 Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar that found Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, did not have authority to take Narragansett Indian tribal land into federal trust.

Tell Me Your Story: Cancer survivor surprised herself during long treatment

October 23, 2011

EXETER – Paula Hughes has her sewing machine set up at the kitchen table where she has been busy celebrating the end of her breast cancer treatment by making fluffy fleece blankets for women seeking comfort during their own battles.
Creating these blankets, which are bright solid pink on one side and white with imprinted pink ribbons on the reverse, reflects Paula’s generous spirit. In this case, the blankets were destined for a cancer treatment center until she learned of two people she knows who have been diagnosed. They will receive the snuggly fleece.

Water treatment plant begins construction

October 22, 2011

COVENTRY—According to General Manager Tim Brown, the Kent County Water Authority (KCWA) has been supplying customers with drinking water for close to five decades. The new Mishnock Well Field Treatment Plant will expand its capacities to Kent County Water Authority customers in Coventry, West Warwick, West Greenwich, as well as other neighboring towns, he explained.

State leaders hatch a hybrid pension plan

October 22, 2011

PROVIDENCE – A new hybrid plan that combines a traditional pension guarantee with a 401(K)-style plan, a suspension of cost-of-living increases for Rhode Island’s retired government workers for up to 19 years, and a higher retirement age up to 67 years old for current workers 51 years of age are what Governor Lincoln D. Chafee and General Treasurer Gina M. Raimondo propose will save the state from its only 48 percent funded pension system and $7.3 billion unfunded liability.

Economic freefall killing Exeter development projects

October 22, 2011

By MARTHA SMITH
Special to the Standard

EXETER – If you are a developer planning to create a subdivision of big houses on big lots, now is not the time to start.
In fact, you’ll probably want to rethink a small-scale plan calling for a few modest buildings in a rural contract.
Except for the odd exception – Deerbrook, off Mail Road comes to mind – development in Exeter has ground to a halt.

NEARI leaders see major flaws in Raimondo’s pension plan

October 21, 2011

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – General Treasurer Gina Raimondo touted the pension plan proposed Tuesday night during a special legislative session as fair, but local National Education Association union leaders are seeing it in a different light.

Immediately following Governor Lincoln D. Chafee’s and Raimondo’s introduction of the plan, unions, specifically National Education Association of Rhode Island (NEARI) didn’t hide their disapproval and told lawmakers they will challenge the bill in court for breaking promises made to state employees.