Woonsocket

There’s lots going on up there in Woonsocket, lots of worrying and lots of shortages on paying the bills. But why? Clearly if a town is in financial trouble, it means the Mayor hasn’t been doing his job, right? He’s the chief executive in the city, so that’s where the buck should stop. When you…

After the Woonsocket City Council voted to approve a motion tabling a resolution requesting that the state to create a budget commission for the city, until after the House Finance Committee votes on the supplemental tax, I asked Mayor Leo Fontaine for his reaction… Anchor Rising: Tonight, the City Council voted to table the resolution…

In a brief interview immediately following last night’s Woonsocket City Council meeting where the Council had voted to table a resolution asking the state to appoint a “budget commission” to deal with the city’s finances, Council President John Ward discussed how city officials have already been working with the state to do just about everything…

Good evening, from the city of Woonsocket, where I will be liveblogging tonight’s Woonsocket City Council meeting that includes an agenda item requesting that the state appoint a budget commission for the city. [6:56] Official start time of the meeting is 7:00. [7:01] Meeting called to order. [7:04] Public comment portion of the meeting. On…

Without losing sight of the 38 Studios situation, other matters around the state continue to move inexorably forward and, therefore, command our attention. Not the least of these is developments regarding the city for which, ominously, a budget commission has already been assembled, though not sent in. So, in order to stave off that budget…

A couple of hours ago, the AP reported that the organization which has demanded that Woonsocket remove the soldiers’ memorial in front of a fire station is counting their crosses before they’re removed. The Wisconsin group challenging the constitutionality of a cross on a war memorial in Rhode Island says it expects to prevail without…

So reports the Valley Breeze’s Sandy Phaneuf. While Woonsocket’s legislative delegation continues to debate the merits of a supplemental tax bill, State Revenue Director Rosemary Booth Gallogly is reportedly preparing for the worst and has already begun choosing members for a Budget Commission to help guide the city out of fiscal crisis. The commission would…

The Woonsocket Call reports. The thorny constitutional principle of separation of church and state is rearing its head over a 1921 World War I monument featuring a prominent Christian cross on city property. Unlike the recent prayer banner controversy in Cranston, which was sued by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the…

Observers of Woonsocket’s current financial straits are aware that the city has proposed a 13% supplemental property tax – an increase, by the way, that would then form the basis, going forward, for Woonsocket’s new (higher) tax rate. Such a step requires approval by the state legislature. The Valley Breeze reports, however, that at a…

In a move that should set off alarm bells in (state-aid receiving) school boards around the state, Ed Comm Deborah Gist will pay three overdue school invoices directly and reduce state aid to the Woonsocket school department by that amount. Three vendors owed money by the Woonsocket Education Department will receive the funds directly from…