BY ABBY FOX

For Nick Rath, biology teacher at the high school, “Yes” is the only conceivable answer to question 4 on the Nov. 4 ballot, whether or not to vote for the school bond.

If the bond is approved, the school will go from four labs to six and one all-purpose room, less than the eight the teachers originally asked the state for, but enough to be considered “adequate,” Rath said.

BY ABBY FOX

Parks and Recreation Director Kathy Bradley received word this week that the Parks and Rec hiking class called The Ramblers has won the governor’s award for wellness in the town and city government category.

The award will be officially presented Oct. 29 at the state house.

BY ABBY FOX

A Yes vote, in taxpayer terms, means taking on 30-year debt to pay for the $52- million school renovation project.

Using as a yardstick the “average” house price of $500,000,  that homeowner would pay $625 in the year 2013, the first year of the payment schedule, and lower ever year from then on, as debt is paid off, at an interest rate of 5.2 percent. In the year 2018, for example, the homeowner would pay $560, then $500 in the year 2023, $435 in 2028, $370 in 2033, $305 in the year 2038, $255 in the year 2042, and so on, until it’s paid off in 2043.

BY ABBY FOX

The company Netsenergy, on the state’s master price agreement, is subcontracting to Third Millennium to do the work, Information Technology Manager Wendy Schmidle said.

“They’re great guys,” Schmidle said. “They’re more than qualified. We got a very good price and the price is the best the town can do.”

BY ABBY FOX

Bob Hartman, the owner and general manager, repackaged some of his popular nut mixes for an Obama/Biden bag of cashews, chocolate chips, raisins, yogurt raisins and dry-roasted peanuts, competing with a McCain/Palin mix of raisings, cranberries, almonds, cashews, walnuts and pistachios.

BY ABBY FOX 

You would think someone like Bob Smith, president of Rhode Island Clam Company, who has been making a living from shellfish ever since he was fourteen on the south shore of Long Island, would feel invulnerable to this year’s dip in consumer spending.“I’ve been working for myself since day one,” he said. No kidding, either; he was selling fish at New York’s Fulton Fish Market at 17.But this economy is making even Smith a little nervous, though the tough times haven’t come yet, not really. 

By JONATHAN GIBBS  

BY ABBY FOX

The police station on First Avenue is expected to be complete three weeks after Nov. 1, project manager David Ducharme told the town council at Monday night’s meeting, because the wait for permanent power is holding the project back.

And until the power is put in, the elevator can’t be installed, he explained. A generator has arrived but the police station doesn’t have a transformer yet, he added.

By the first week of October, the windows should be completed, he said, and the roofing is nearly done.

So far the project has had just three change orders, Ducharme said, adding up to less than three-fourths of one percent of the project, or about $50,000. “Give us the details,” at the next meeting, Council President Michael Isaacs told him.

Ducharme reassured the council that three weeks past Nov. 1 would be the “worst case” scenario and “If all the stars are in alignment, I’m projecting a better date than that.”