Photo: Abby Fox

Last week, Rocky Hill School Headmaster Jim Young, left, led a tour of the school’s  50-foot  Catamaran that he envisions as a classroom

BY ABBY FOX
Rocky Hill School received a $100,000 grant last year from The Champlin Foundations to construct a classroom, but it’s different from any other at the school, or at most schools, for that matter: it’s a Catamaran, 50-feet long and 16-feet high, docked at the Potowomut River, the body of water next to the school’s campus, and Headmaster Jim Young envisions it as the school’s new “floating classroom.”

 Photos: George Simms
The East Greenwich Library last week featured a performance by Keith Munslow as part of its continuing summer programs.

Photo: Abby Fox

 BY ABBY FOX

Lots of East Greenwich businesses won “Best of” Rhode Island awards at last Thursday’s annual party, but Fat Belly’s stood out in the three prizes it took home: best neighborhood bar, best burger and best pub.
Fat Belly’s has been on Main Street East Greenwich since February, with the first Fat Belly’s established in Warwick in 2006, but the team behind it – owner Scott Parker and his former students, chef Chris Miele and manager Sal Buscemi, have worked together much longer.

Photo: Abby Fox
Frenchtown Road resident Elizabeth Stitt decided for her 7th birthday, July 19, that in lieu of presents this year, she’d prefer that her friends bring donations to the animal protection services, the Potter League, in Middletown. So over the weekend, the Stitts dropped off bags of dog toys and treats.
 “She was very willing,” her mother said.
Here she is with her nine-year-old brother James and their two pet guinea pigs.
 

 BY ABBY FOX

A combination of rain showers, drunk driving and a curve in the road at London and Main Streets appear to have caused the death of one Johnston resident and the serious injuries of his passenger, near 2 a.m. Saturday morning.
Robert Tellez, 38, of Calumet Street in Johnston and Dina Paquin, also 38, of Westwood Manor Drive in Providence, had gone to the beaches at Quonset Point Friday, then to karaoke night at the Kingstown Bowl in North Kingstown.

Photo and story: Abby Fox

By ABBY FOX

To catch the next in-person tour of the school construction and renovation projects ongoing at the middle school and the high school science labs, the early birds have the advantage.
The public tours are held every other Thursday, with the first tour of the high school construction at 7:30 a.m., and 8:30 a.m. is the time for the tour of the middle school. Ken Romeo of Strategic Building Solutions, of Old Saybrook, Conn., the project manager, gives the tours, and people meet in the back parking lots to gather and borrow a hard hat.

By Abby Fox

The Department of Public Works moved into its new home – the old police station, underneath the police department – on June 30. The roughly $450,000 project was done mostly by the DPW employees, including the carpentry, sheet rocking, jail cell and office wall demolition, and painting, while the electrical, and mechanical (HVAC) and plumbing work were subbed out, DPW director Joe Duarte said.
The renovation work began in early February.
  Doing most of the work themselves will pay off, the employees said. “The original construction estimate was $825,000,” said Wayne Pimentel, building official. “It’s a really big savings. It took a lot of time and effort on everybody’s part; it consumed an enormous amount of time for everybody to coordinate and do the work.” With the savings Pimentel said, the town will save itself having to issue the bonds that weren’t needed.  “It’ll hold down the tax rate,” he said. “It took up a lot of time but we all realized where we were, budget-wise and staff-wise. It was a nice project, because we were all going to benefit. It is a beautiful space, really nice.”
 Here, Special Project Coordinator Peter Bamberry waves out  of the new office. If the window looks familiar, that’s because he’s waving from what used to be the East Greenwich police station, moved several months ago to First Ave.
Bobby Wheeler worked on the brick. George Castro, Hugo Aragon and Ken Toeves painted, while Charlie Phillips was the construction superintendent.

Photo: Abby Fox

Norma Harris, one of the many lifelong Michael Jackson fans affected by the pop legend’s sudden death a couple of weeks ago, recently found the autograph she got from the man himself in 1973, when they were both 14-years-old.
Harris was on an airplane with her uncle Stevie, coming back to Providence from St. Louis, where they had just seen the Jackson Five in concert. To their amazement, the Jacksons were just four seats in front of them on the plane. “My uncle told me to take my ticket to them for an autograph; I was so nervous,” she said.
Harris has all of Jackson’s albums at home, she said. “I used to listen to them all the time,” she said. Lately, she’s brought some of his music in to Norman’s Restaurant, while news about Jackson has been playing almost constantly on the TV.
“My uncle totally surprised me” with the tickets, she said, and in 1973, it cost only $22 to see Jackson in concert “I never thought I’d get the chance to see him,” she said.
“I’m pretty proud of it,” she said of her souvenir. “I loved all his albums. He had a great voice, and lot of good music.”
When last Tuesday’s memorial in Jackson’s honor came on TV, Harris said she watched the whole show, or as much as she could, while working at Norman’s. “It was a nice tribute; it was what he deserved,” she said.