While the majority of my coverage this week was dedicated to following the tumultuously tense and fast-breaking news surrounding a local school committee race, I would be remiss not to point out a sunny example of something positive happening in the community in recent days as well.

Charmane DiNardi reached out to our general email address on the afternoon of July 1. She had wanted to simply publish a letter to the editor expressing her unhappiness with the state of Crescent Park Beach, and to share frustration that a note she had sent to the mayor’s office outlining those concerns went unanswered. When I answered her on July 3, I felt a better course of action would be to do a story on the situation, getting input from her and from the city, and hoping that something good could come from it all.

Since I dove into DiNardi’s concerns, the reaction from city government has been decidedly swift and encouraging.

I met DiNardi on Friday, July 10, and spoke to Mayor Bob DaSilva on Monday, July 13, sharing my findings and photos backing up what DiNardi had described. He expressed his surprise at the situation, and informed me there would soon be additional parks employees coming onboard to help clean parks throughout the city. Then he backed up those words with action.

The very next morning, DaSilva shared photos of crews cleaning up the trash on the beach. On Monday, he shared a video of the city’s beach combing machine renewing the sand in a way that looked quite a bit improved from when I visited just 10 days prior.

While I hope that DiNardi’s original note of concern simply got lost in the shuffle and was not just ignored, the administration’s willingness to face this constructive criticism head-on and try to address the issue is exactly what should happen when a resident reaches out with legitimate concerns.

Even if it took our nudging to get things moving, I consider that another sign that civilized discourse in East Providence is alive and well. That the local newspaper can approach the government with a local issue, and receive a nearly instantaneous response to see about fixing it, is worthy of some praise.

I can feel the rolling eyes of cynics across the city saying in unison: “Wow, the government did their job. Whoop-dee-doo.”

To that I would say — as someone living in a nearby city where I have been trying to resolve a very fixable issue myself for over two years now, unsuccessfully, due to the apathetic inaction of city hall — yes, it actually is incredibly satisfying when something actually gets done; let alone at this pace.

Kudos to Charmane for speaking up, and kudos to Mayor DaSilva and the parks department for being willing to listen and adjust. This simple bit of humility, and taking responsibility for a shortcoming made East Providence a little bit better for everyone.