Leadership Rhode Island defines goals for Central

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School board:
Deficit was
unexpected
PAWTUCKET
State gets $3.3
million more for
bridge project
By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN
(AP) — The U.S. government is chipping in more
money for the
replacement of
the Pawtucket
River Bridge
on Interstate
95 in Rhode
Island.
The state's congressional
delegation
announced an additional $3.3
million in federal funds
Tuesday.
The old bridge was built in
1958 to carry 60,000 vehicles
per day and now carries more
than twice that number.
PROVIDENCE
Man gets 50
years for murder
(AP) — A Rhode Island
man has been sentenced to 50
years in prison for the 2009
killing of a Providence
woman.
The Rhode Island Attorney
General's office says Travis
Garcia
was
sentenced
in
Providence
Tuesday
County Superior Court. In
addition to a 50-year prison
sentence Garcia was given 15
years suspended sentence
with probation and was
ordered to undergo mental
health treatment.
CRANSTON
Body found in car
behind Wal-Mart
(AP) — Cranston police
say a car found overturned
near a pond with a woman's
body
inside
apparently
hopped the curb and barreled
through a chain link fence
before driving down an
embankment and ending up
on its roof.
The car was found Monday
behind a Wal-Mart partially
submerged in a ditch near a
retention pond.
WARWICK
Home prices fall
but sales are up
(AP) — The median price
for a single-family home in
Rhode Island fell more than 6
percent in the three months
that ended June 30, but sales
rose 18 percent compared
with the same period a year
ago.
The
Rhode
Island
Association of Realtors
released sales numbers on
Tuesday.
It says the median price of
a single-family home fell to
$192,000,
down
from
$205,000 last year.
The median condo price
fell less than two percent to
$170,000, while the number
of sales increased 11 percent.
Submitted photo
A group of Rhode Island artists, led by Providence-based designer Kaitlyn Frolich and Pawtucket art gallery owner Candita
Clayton, havelaunched the Central Falls Summer Arts Initiative (CFSAI) with the New Millennium Arts Factory in cooperation
with Leadership Rhode Island.
Leadership Rhode Island
defines goals for Central Falls
By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN
CENTRAL FALLS — It always
help to tackle a big project by breaking
it into smaller pieces. And that's just
what the 2012 class of Leadership
Rhode Island has done with its ambitious plan to effect positive change in
the financially troubled city of Central
Falls.
The 60 participants in this year's
Mike Ritz, executive director of
Leadership Rhode Island, said he is
impressed by the project proposals that
the teams have come up with as part of
Leadership in Action phase of the program. This year's class chose a theme
that uses the acronym of IDEAS, based
on Imagine, Discuss, Engage, Act and
Solve, and Ritz feels that the projects
reflect these parameters.
See GOALS, Page A-2
CF woman charged
with DUI in Lincoln
Mary Lynn Bosiak named
publisher of The Times
PAWTUCKET — Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers
Incorporated (R.I.S.N) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mary Lynn Bosiak as the publisher of The
Pawtucket Times. Mary Lynn joined The Times in February
2012 in the capacity of director of advertising. Her appointment is effective today.
Rhode Island Suburban
Newspapers is very pleased to be making this appointment.
“Mary Lynn has a number of years of solid newspaper, print
publication and media industry leadership and experience.
Her appointment to the position of Publisher of The
Pawtucket Times is a positive step for the community and
the newspaper” said Melanie Radler, president of Rhode
Island Suburban Newspapers Inc.
Mary Lynn Bosiak
Statement from our new publisher
This feels like a “natural” transition.
Since my return to The Call and The Times
in February as Director of Advertising, I am
excited about this opportunity to further
serve our neighborhoods/communities as
Publisher of our newspapers.
I formerly served The Call and Times as
Advertising Director from 2003 through
2006 and upon my recent return, I feel at
“home.”
Our position in our markets is definitely
positive as we continue to be the dominant
daily news sources for Woonsocket,
Pawtucket and their surrounding communities. It is exhilarating to hear the positive
comments from our thousands of readers
reiterating all the things we are doing right!
We will continue to be a dominant daily
news source for years to come. We will continue to evolve and continue our focuses on
delivering the news, advice and information
our communities thrive on! We will maintain
our mission to provide all of our communities with local news and information daily. I
can promise you that we are committed to
excellence, and for our readers, we are here
to help in any way we can, any time you
need us.
I am excited, energized and I look forward to serving our communities and the
great citizens that make up our communities
for years to come!
FOLLOW
PROVIDENCE
ON
City picked for child
well-being effort
&
and we encourage
our advertisers and
readers to join
The Pawtucket Times
- Staff Networking
Group on
Vol. CXXVII
No. 183
(AP) — Rhode Island's
largest city has been chosen
as the first site for a national
effort to help at-risk children
through a greater focus on
preventative programs and
collaboration between government and the schools.
The Annie E. Casey
Foundation
announced
Tuesday that Providence will
be the first city for its new
Evidence2Success program.
The initiative calls on
organizations that work with
vulnerable children to work
together to collect data.
class, who represent a diverse group of
business, community and civic leaders,
have been meeting for eight months
now. Working with comprehensive data
gleaned from interviews with Central
Falls residents, they have been broken
up into teams according to their interests and skills. The teams then delved
into focus areas such as the city's economy, education, government, health,
public safety, arts and culture.
PAWTUCKET — A gamble of sorts with the amount
of money that was set aside
for medical claims in last
year’s school budget turned
sour late in the game, leaving
a deficit of $1.5 to $1.8 million that must be addressed.
At a special meeting on
Tuesday, Schools Supt.
Deborah Cylke addressed the
issue with the School
Committee as well as provided several general options for
coming up with the money.
Cylke blamed the deficit on a
“lag” in the amount of money
that turned out to be needed
for medical claims within the
School Department.
Cylke said that the area of
medical reserves is still somewhat fluid and final figures on
the fiscal year 2012 budget
won’t be known until
October, but said she expects
the deficit to be somewhere in
the $1.5 to $1.8 million range.
She said the funds that had
been set aside in the FY12
budget for the medical
reserves line — something
which changes from year to
year — turned out to be too
low after all, resulting in the
deficit
Cylke outlined the FY12
budget history, which began
with a $7.3 million deficit.
She noted that a reduction of
$4.4 million was achieved
through concessions, furloughs and other cuts; $1.1
million came from literacy
set-aside funds, $800,000 was
See DEFICIT, Page A-2
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LINCOLN – Police charged a 36-year-old Central Falls
woman with driving under the influence after stopping her
vehicle on Old Pike early Monday morning.
Lorena Lopera of Aetna Street, Central Falls, was pulled
over by Patrolman Kyle Wingate after he observed her vehicle weaving on the road and delaying to start at a green light
at the intersection of Old Pike and Twin River Road.
After making contact with the operator and detecting
signs of intoxication, Wingate said he requested that she perform field tests for sobriety. The operator was reported to
have failed the field test but refused to submit to a chemical
test for alcohol intoxication, Wingate said. She was subsequently taken into custody for operating under the influence
and processed at Police Headquarters on a charge of driving
under the influence, a first offense. She was also cited for
refusing to submit to a preliminary breath test, refusal to
submit to a chemical test, and a marked lane violation,
police said. She was issued a summons to appear before the
Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal and released to the custody of
a friend. In other matters, Christopher L. Santos, 24, of
Central Street, Manville, was charged with driving after suspension following a motor vehicle stop on Eddie Dowling
Highway at 10:54 a.m. Saturday.
And Alvin Fernandez, 20, of Crossman St., Central Falls,
was charged with driving after suspension after his vehicle
was stopped on Great Road at 11 p.m. on Saturday.
Both drivers were issued summons to appear in District
Court on the charges, police said.
Blackstone Valley
A-2 — THE TIMES
Deficit
Continued from Page A-1
taken from medical reserves,
additional cuts were made of
$550,000
and
another
$450,000 was trimmed by
reductions in central office
staff to bring about a balanced FY12 budget.
With the new fiscal year
now in effect as of July 1, the
deficit must be paid, and
Cylke suggested three basic
ways to do this. In one
option, the city would agree
to a budget deficit reduction
plan for $360,000 that would
be paid over five years. A
second option would involve
the School Department using
surplus funds from its current
(FY13) budget to pay the
FY12 deficit and then make
cuts to the FY13 budget. The
third option looks for a
shared budget deficit reduction plan between the city
and the School Department
where each side pays
$180,000 over a five-year
period.
Cylke noted that the FY12
school budget had to deal
with the structural deficit that
occurred in FY11, when the
state held back $9 million in
motor vehicle excise funds
from the city and the city, in
turn, reduced funding to the
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schools by about $1.6 million. She noted that the more
than $1.5 million deficit
amount now is almost equal
to the amount of the cut that
the School Department took
in FY11, and suggested that
the schools “never recovered
from the structural deficit.”
Cylke also said that while
the FY13 budget contains a
surplus of $970,000 in accelerated funds that came from
the state, she wants to see the
bulk of this money — at least
$570,000 of it — spent on
Pawtucket’s students. She
said $570,000 is sorely needed for reading materials for
students in kindergarten
through grade 2.
Noting that recent test
scores show only 22 percent
of the city’s students having
proficiency in science, Cylke
defended $150,000 being
Goals
Continued from Page A-1
Leadership Rhode Island
is a tuition-based, non-profit
community leadership development organization that has
existed for over 30 years.
Participants are typically
nominated and sponsored,
and each pays a $4,900
tuition fee to take part in the
10-month program.
Each year, Ritz said that a
class takes on a project under
the core mission of helping
Rhode Island to be a better
place. Past projects have
involved areas such water
conservation, preservation,
marketing and tourism promotion, and establishing
business links or cultural
partnerships with foreign
countries for specific goals.
This is the first year that the
organization chose to devote
itself to an entire city, and
Ritz said it made perfect
sense to try and lend assistance to the community that
was struggling most in the
state.
Ritz said that when the
group first convened and
were told that their “mission,” so to speak, was
Central Falls, most participants were pleased and
intrigued with the idea. “I
think the class was quite
taken by it. Although there
were some who had concerns
about a perception that they
were coming from the outside and telling people how
to live their lives,” said Ritz.
To combat this, Ritz, who
facilitates the program, said
the participants were given
the clear message that
“Whatever projects they do,
they have to be what the people of Central Falls believe in
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allocated for a science coordinator (salary, benefits and
materials). Other items funded through the state money
include a curriculum coordinator/content specialist, computers for the elementary
schools, and other supplies
which Cylke said are needed.
The superintendent told
the committee that she would
be meeting with the mayor
and his director of administration and financial director,
as well as the state auditor
general and state revenue
director to discuss the deficit,
and would then come back to
the School Committee with
some options to vote on.
A majority of School
Committee
members
expressed the desire to find a
way to address the deficit
without tapping into the
$970,000 in funds that is
meant to improve education.
Several members said they
would like to see some type
of shared deficit reduction
plan with the city, given that
the city held back money
from the schools in FY11.
The committee agreed to
wait until Cylke had met with
city and state officials to take
any action on the deficit.
In other matters, the
School Committee approved
several appointments, including two new principals.
Michael Gilmore, a former
vice principal at Baldwin and
Fallon Elementary schools,
was named principal of the
Winters Elementary School;
and Dr. Linda Gifford, a former guidance counselor at
Tolman High School, was
named principal of the
Alternative
Learning
Program.
and they have to include the
people.” He said the class
was also instructed that the
projects must be sustainable
and involve members of the
community, so others can
take over when the leadership Rhode Island class
departs. “It can't be a case of
the 'outsiders' giving you
something. It must involve
working with the 'insiders' to
make it happen. And that can
be tricky,” he said.
To help ensure that the
projects were things that the
people of Central Falls really
wanted or would benefit
from, Ritz said that over 300
residents were interviewed
by the team members. They
were asked things like, 'How
is your city doing?,' 'What
are your concerns?', and
'What are the city's strengths
and weaknesses?'” explained
Ritz.
Ritz noted that the questions were based partly on a
30-year-old anthropology
study of Central Falls by
Janet Mancini Billson called
“In the Wake of the Mills” in
which dozens of residents
were interviewed. Yet, unlike
anthropology, Ritz said
Leadership Rhode Island is
not just studying the city, but
is trying to do something to
help bring about positive
change.
The teams came up with
seven proposals based on
each of the main focus areas.
The one that has received the
most media attention is from
the team looking at city government.
Titled,
“A
Government by the People,”
this project is designed to
assist the people of Central
Falls to understand and
engage with their government and to strengthen citizen participation in the city's
democracy by supporting and
providing technical assistance to the Central Falls
Charter
Review
Commission, said Ritz. It
also involves developing and
leading a voter education and
registration drive with the
objective of increasing voter
turnout in the November
election as well as increasing
voter understanding of the
Charter Review questions
that they will be voting on.
Ritz said that state
Revenue Director Rosemary
Booth
Gallogly
asked
Leadership Rhode Island to
be involved in the Charter
Review Commission and its
board of directors agreed that
the organization could serve
in an advisory capacity. A
panel of Leadership Rhode
Island class members and
alumni helped in the recruiting of applicants and the
screening process, and provided then-receiver Robert
Flanders with a list of candidates.
Ritz admitted that an initial public forum to introduce
the charter review process to
the community did not go
smoothly, and the Leadership
Rhode Island team got an
earful from residents who
vented their frustration with
the current receivership and
political situation . However,
he said that a subsequent
public forum was more well
received, and the team provided assistance in other
ways by conducting a straw
poll, providing language
interpreters when needed,
and serving as advisors to the
Charter
Review
Commission.
Jason Pezzullo, Principal
Planner for the city of
Cranston who is on the government team, said that while
leadership Rhode Island had
to remain non-partisan, he
believes the team was helpful
to the charter review process.
Pezzullo added that he thinks
the
Charter
Review
Commission, which recently
concluded with eight proposals for the November ballot,
did “an excellent job.” He
said the next phase of the
government team will be
devoted to “getting out the
vote,” which involves everything from registering new
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The Who fans trade in
1979 tickets 33 years later
By MICHELLE R. SMITH
Associated Press
PROVIDENCE — It was
December 1979 when Emery
Lucier learned the concert he
was eagerly awaiting in
Rhode Island by British rock
band The Who had been canceled over safety concerns.
The 17-year-old was so angry
he knocked over a chair in his
high school classroom.
“I just remember being so
upset about the whole thing,”
he said.
Lucier, now 50, of
Milford, Mass., held onto the
ticket, for which he paid $25
($12.50 for the ticket and
$12.50 more for the scalper).
On Tuesday, he and nine
other people traded in tickets
voters to educating residents
about who and what issues
they are voting for.
Another high profile team
project is the implementation
of a “Neighborhood Watch”
initiative, said Ritz. This
project, taken on by the public safety team, will engage
local public safety officials to
develop a partnership with
community leaders and the
residents of Central Falls to
create
a
culture
of
service/volunteerism, citizenship and responsibility in
their city. Encouraging people to “see something, say
something” would empower
citizens to help officers
respond to situations quickly
while also helping minimize
or prevent crime.
The health and wellness
team is devoted to lending
support to an existing nonprofit program in the city
called Project GOAL (an
acronym
for
Greater
Opportunities for Athletes to
Learn), said Ritz.
Team member Cindy
McDermott, a senior vice
president of operations with
the YMCA of Greater
Providence, said the team is
excited about the success that
Project GOAL has achieved
already with the city's youth,
particularly its target male
population, and wants to help
the program expand.
McDermott said her team
is collaborating with Project
GOAL staff to develop a plan
to increase fundraising and
other revenue opportunities.
This would help the 501C3
organization pay for more
children to participate as well
as to allow it to eventually
have its own location and
infrastructure. Additionally,
the team is helping Project
GOAL develop a marketing
and communications program to increase its visibility,
she said.
McDermott said the team
considers Project GOAL to
be “an example of incredible
work on a really small scale”
and is working to assist the
organization in creating a
long-term vision and plan for
growth. Through its work
with after-school tutoring
and soccer, the Project
GOAL program can boast
that 90 percent of its students
attend college, she added.
Another project, one that
Leadership Rhode Island's
education team has proposed,
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from that canceled show and
got new ones for The Who's
final appearance on its
tour
in
Quadrophenia
February at the Dunkin
Donuts Center, the same
venue it was supposed to play
33 years ago.
The venue's general manager, Lawrence Lepore, said
earlier this month he would
honor tickets for the 1979
show, which then-Mayor
Buddy Cianci canceled after
a stampede before a Who
concert in Ohio killed 11 people. Any 1979 tickets the
venue receives will be donated to the Special Olympics of
Rhode Island, which plans an
August eBay auction of the
14 tickets turned in on
Tuesday.
is an “eMentoring” (on-line
mentoring) project that partners Calcutt Middle School
youth with high school student leaders from nearby
school systems. This project
will involve one-to-one mentoring conducted through a
safe and reliable on-line
mentoring tool, said Ritz.
The environment team has
come
up
with
“CF
Recycles!”,
a
project
designed to increase the percentage of waste that is recycled in Central Falls. The
multi-pronged campaign is
designed to both educate the
public about the new recycling program as well as to
distribute the recycline bin
stickers in conjunction with
Rhode Island Resource
Recovery Center's singlestream recycling awareness
initiative, Ritz said.
Additionally, the basic
needs team has proposed a
“Basic Needs Training
Program,” said Ritz. This
would involve a partnership
between Leadership Rhode
Island and the Central Falls
Family Leadership Institute
that would deliver structured
training programs to Central
Falls residents. The training
would be led by Leadership
Rhode Island alumni and
would provide city residents
with the education and tools
to better leverage existing
community resources, he
said.
Also, Ritz said that the
members of the teams
focused on the economy,
media/public relations and
arts/culture decided to pool
their resources and create a
Central Falls “Restaurant
Week.” As is done in
Providence and other communities, a promotion would
be held through the city's
restaurants offering specialty
pricing on lunches and dinners in order to bring people
and commerce to Central
Falls.
Ritz said there is a multitude of good, local restaurants, many which are small,
family-owned operations,
which people in other parts
of Rhode Island don't know
about. The effort would generate publicity as well as
stimulate the local economy,
he stated.
As something new, Ritz
said that in an effort to ensure
the sustainability of the
Central
Falls
projects,
Leadership Rhode Island will
be offering its training program to 25 people from
Central Falls who would
make up a smaller group
called Leadership Central
Falls. The local group would
begin in October when the
class of 2012 wraps up its 10month project in Central
Falls.
Unlike
the
regular
Leadership Rhode Island participants, this group won't be
charged tuition for the leadership training. Ritz said he is
working on finding a funding
source to pay for the participants to attend classes from
October through March, and
another 25 people to take the
leadership training from May
through
the
following
October. This way, he said,
by October of 2013, there
will be a group of 50 people
from the city who will be
prepared to pick up where the
class of 2012 left off.
Anyone interested in
donating to the Leadership
Central Falls initiative is
asked to contact Mike Ritz at
(401) 273-1574, ext. 103, or
e-mail to: [email protected].