Public bodies can meet behind closed doors if they’re discussing someone’s job performance or negotiating terms of a contract. They can add things to their agenda if a majority agree to …
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5/27/21
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The DOT was looking for approval for its new detour plan. What it received was an earful from residents and political leaders about how important the East Bay Bike Path bridges are.
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5/21/21
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The financial woes of the Bristol Warren Regional School District are structural, systemic and cannot be fixed in the next week.
The school committee will soon make necessary, short-term …
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5/13/21
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Here is the good news: The Barrington Middle School construction project is 99.99 percent complete, and the contractor is finishing under budget by $4.3 million.
Just a few years ago, …
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4/30/21
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One hundred and sixty-six years ago, heavy trains loaded with industrial cargo began rumbling along railroad tracks from Bristol to Providence. They carried the products of enormous factories from an …
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4/29/21
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Perhaps this drama will have a happy ending, but the plot to pry the Bristol Theatre Company from its home in the former Reynolds School building feels unnecessarily dark.
First, the theater …
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4/22/21
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When state governments need money, they often focus on familiar targets: personal sins (drinking, smoking and gambling), fossil fuels and the rich. In the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing …
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4/15/21
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This town’s obsession with optics is growing. It seems every passion, cause and public spat ends up on a lawn sign, waving in the breeze from front lawns everywhere.
We have signs …
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4/9/21
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Football, cheerleading and volleyball were approved for competition at Barrington High School. Unified volleyball was not . Why? There’s no clear reason, other than the school department is …
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3/26/21
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The main notion behind the multi-trillion-dollar federal bailout was to pump aid directly and immediately to citizens who have suffered financial harm during the pandemic. That injection of cash will …
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3/26/21
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Management of scenic South Lake Drive in Barrington has been as bumpy as the road itself. Three months ago, Town Manager Jim Cunha announced he would be closing the road to vehicular traffic. He …
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3/26/21
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A generation ago, many would finish that sentence by saying Bristol is a great place to raise a family. Would they still today?
We ask because of what we discovered while researching population …
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3/12/21
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Now that the Town of Barrington has made public symbolism one of its core principles, residents can expect a fair amount of their government’s time to be devoted to the cause — causes, …
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3/4/21
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Bristol residents are in good hands these days — which is noteworthy, since “these days” are some of the worst days in anyone’s lifetime.
The pandemic is approaching its …
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3/4/21
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Covid has interrupted so many of life’s normal routines, but most jarring are those once-in-a-lifetime experiences that can never be recovered.
Weddings can be postponed until better days. …
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2/18/21
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‘Operation Warp Speed’ has become a bad joke and nowhere is it less amusing than in Rhode Island.
Last week, the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center released a vaccination …
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2/18/21
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The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority’s move to fully automated toll collection this week is welcome and long overdue. Starting Feb. 14, the bridge authority will launch a …
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2/12/21
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Seasonal residents of Westport’s East Beach Road get to park their trailers on a place that common sense, Mother Nature, and rising sea levels suggest is badly suited for structures of any …
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2/5/21
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As municipal design projects go, the effort to design a new bike route through Bristol is about as good as it gets. Paid for by state government, the process has been thorough and deliberate, with …
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2/4/21
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It’s been quite a week for the Town of Barrington, beginning with the stumbling missteps of the Covid-19 vaccination rollout and ending with a six-hour-plus Town Council meeting so unwieldy it …
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2/3/21
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Choosing who gets the COVID-19 vaccine, and when, is one of the greatest challenges a public servant has ever faced. That’s saying a lot for a group of both elected and appointed leaders who …
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1/21/21
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If written a week ago, this editorial would describe the shame and embarrassment of watching one of the sad days in American history unfold on live television. It would excoriate all those …
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1/14/21
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Cursed 2020 has taken so much already (freedoms, joy, travel, livelihoods, not to mention precious lives) … did it need to take away the beloved snow day, too?
When Rhode Island acted …
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12/17/20
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A generation ago, maybe two, the leaders of local government agencies were typically well-known residents from entrenched families who ascended to the top positions through patronage, political party …
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12/3/20
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It’s always a good idea to shop locally, and it might mean more this year than ever before.
The pandemic has disrupted everything — every person, every organization, every business. …
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11/25/20
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