Foster Town Council Meeting October 27, 2016

Rhode Island: DMV computer disaffiliates 12,500 voters

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

More than 12,500 Rhode Islanders who used the “upgraded” Division of Motor Vehicles computer system over the summer to register to vote or update their voter information while renewing their driver’s licenses were inadvertently categorized as “unaffiliated,” whether they were or not. The state Department of Revenue director, Robert S. Hull, who oversees the DMV, said Friday that the DMV “was made aware” of the problem midweek, and is “working diligently with the secretary of state’s office and our vendor — SAFRAN MorphoTrust USA — to make sure that all voter registration information received through the DMV is accurate and up to date.” The vendor stated it expects to fix the problem by the end of next week. 
Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea issued this statement: “It has been brought to my attention that ongoing system upgrades at the Division of Motor Vehicles have inadvertently led to a disruption in their ‘motor voter’ registration system. We have reached out to the DMV and their software vendor and have determined the following: “Starting on July 19, approximately 12,500 Rhode Islanders who used the upgraded DMV system and registered to vote or updated their existing voter information did not have their party affiliation transferred to the Central Voter Registration Database as part of their voter registration file.
“This resulted in their party affiliation being listed as unaffiliated, the system’s default,” but “this did not impact their ability to vote in the September 13 statewide primaries,” she stated. Elaborating, she stated: “The DMV is supposed to automatically transmit data to the Central Voter Registration database. But it didn’t in all cases.”
Department of Revenue spokesman Paul Grimaldi explained: “Apparently, the vendor did not capture the data ‘field’ listing party affiliation this summer when it began producing the new Rhode Island license design. We learned through a voter call to a third party, who contacted our department late Wednesday. The DMV administrator contacted the vendor the next morning.”
Source: The Voting News

Voter rolls off by 189,000 in R.I., Journal analysis finds

Voter rolls off by 189,000 in R.I., Journal analysis finds

Digital Photography 101 Class starting Nov.7

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

The History of Indian Summer

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

Indian Summer in the White Mountains by Sanford Gifford

Indian summer has evolved over the centuries from a pioneer superstition to the poet’s best friend to the meteorologists’ whipping boy.
It is a period of unusually warm, still days that follow a cold spell, the atmosphere is hazy or smoky, the barometric pressure is high and the nights are clear and chilly.
But it takes place at different times around New England. Indian summer historian Adam Sweeting notes that if Indian summer follows a killing frost, then Farmington, Maine, can have one as early as September 28. Block Island in Rhode Island doesn't get a killing frost until November 26.
On average, Concord, N.H., has its first killing frost on October 2, but Hartford, Conn., must wait until October 24.
Then again, some say it exists more in our imaginations than it does as a meteorological event.

Early Days

Indian summer has become as much a part of New England as the town common, the white steeple, the stone wall and the covered bridge. But it wasn’t always that way.
A Boston lexicographer named Albert Matthews searched early American literature to find who coined the expression. He found it in a letter written in 1778 by a New York farmer, Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, but he surmised the expression was used widely.
Then the concept of Indian summer was more prevalent in the Ohio River Valley – Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio – than in the Northeast. Samuel Kercheval, in his History of the Valley of Virginia, wrote that pioneers feared Indian summer. “It afforded the Indians -- who during the severe Winter never made any incursions into the settlements -- another opportunity of visiting the settlements with destructive warfares."
Some said the multicolored leaves wear war paint.
A Unitarian minister had another explanation. In 1812, the Rev. James Freeman of Boston's King Chapel claimed in a sermon that Narragansett Indians credited the summer to Cautantowwit, a god living in the Southwest.
Others speculated it was called Indian summer because it was noticed in places where Native Americans lived, or because Indians first described it to Europeans, or because it's the time of year when Indians typically hunt.
Daniel Webster thought the colonial settlers came up with the name because they thought the smoky haziness of the air was caused by great fires the Indians started on the Western prairies -- 'then an unknown and mysterious region of unimaginable area,' wrote the Boston Globe in 1927.

Indian Summer in New England

It was only after 1820 that Indian summer was consistently tied to New England, according to Sweeting.
“For perhaps a week in early November, New England seems most New England," he wrote.
New England writers seized on Indian summer imagery in the 19^th century. It became a metaphor for idyllic beauty before inevitable death, for wizened understanding, for an idealized past when peace settled over a community.
It was then that New England writers invented an Indian summer where Pilgrims and Indians sat down to Thanksgiving.
In Oldtown Folks, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote,

when the warm late days of Indian summer come in, the Deacon began to say to the minister, "I suppose it's about time for the Thanksgiving proclamation," at such times there came over the community a sort of genial repose of spirit.

The Transcendentalists, especially Henry David Thoreau, loved Indian summer. To Thoreau, it represented the hope that springs eternal. “May my life not be destitute of its Indian Summer," he wrote in 1851, so "I may once more lie on the ground with faith as in Spring."
Emily Dickinson was less cheerful than Thoreau: “A - Field of Stubble, lying sere/Beneath the second Sun. … Is often seen -- but seldom felt, On our New England Farms,” she wrote.
New England writers still used Indian summer imagery in the 20^th century. Peyton Place, by New Hampshire’s Grace Metalious, starts with, “Indian Summer is a woman.” It’s ‘ripe, hotly passionate, but fickle.’

20^th Century

By the 20^th century, Indian summer became a meteorological controversy. The question arose: Did it even exist?
In 1937, the Boston Globe reported that, statistically, there is no such thing as Indian summer.
"New England has the idea that, most Falls, we have a period of about two weeks in which we have glorious weather -- halcyon days when the sun is delightfully warm and the air is filled with amethystine haze. Really, this is merely another weather superstition." Such periods happen only once every 50 years, the newspaper reported.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac insisted throughout the 20^th century that Indian summer may only occur between Nov. 11 and Nov. 20.
The Almanac based its argument on an old saying, If All Saints’ (November 1) brings out winter, St. Martin’s Day (November 20) brings out Indian summer.”
The U.S. Weather Service defines Indian summer weather as sunny and clear with above normal temperatures, occurring late-September to mid-November.
The Boston Globe writer who questioned the existence of Indian summer in 1937 couldn’t help but acknowledge its power over our imaginations:

Meteorologically, these Indian Summer days are a condition of extremely delicate balance between the retreating armies of the sun and the advancing hosts of the North. In a sense, the days are a period of truce.

Source: New England Historical Society 

Kaladesh Game Day at Green Dragon Comics

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

Saturday at 1 PM - 6 PM Where: Green Dragon Comics  401 Putnam Pike, Rt.44 Unit 1, Harmony,RI Game Day is a Free play! bring your own legal standard deck -The first 30 people get a game day promo card -The top 8 get another game day promo card on top of the first card - First place gets both cards plus the game day playmat PHONE 1-401-949-2076 FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS

October Pumpkin Event

Poste by Wayne G. Barber

Burrillville Foliage

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

Redevelopment in Overdrive on Main Street Pascoag, RI

Posted by Wayne G. Barber &  Photos by Wayne G. Barber & Facebook Share

 The pace has certainly picked up in the transformation of downtown Pascoag, RI

The rear warehouse buildings for the former Hurst furniture were demolished for the off street parking of the 13 apartments to be constructed above the new commercial spaces on street level.

 In this photo the large green building is totally leveled and gone and the next section to the right will be next for the wrecking ball.

Underground utilities will be also updated, Tenants will now have the option of  Gas, Water, Sewer, Drainage, Sidewalks,

Across the main street construction crews on a rush to finish the building to occupy the old Opera House property which burned down years ago. This parcel will feature a bridge over the river to the health clinic, post office, market. The first floor tenants will be a X-Ray facility and other health related services to compliment our growing Northwest Fogarty Clinic and Dental division 25.8 % of Northwest RI residents are serviced by this facility.
 Joe Garelick and Neighbor Works have found the formula to obtain all the Federal Funding for these types of multi million dollar projects and are also building the large apartment complex on South Main street along with the new housing project off Reservoir Road in Pascoag. The face of the village of Pascoag will forever be up-dated from our historic past and the population will continue it's growth.

Source: www.mynwri.blogspot.com 

Did You Know ?

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

October 12, 1492:
 Running low on drinking water after a five-week voyage from the Canary Islands, the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria entered the Caribbean Sea.
   On this day, “a lookout on the Pinta, Rodrigo de Triana (also known as Juan Rodríguez Bermeo), spotted land about 2:00 on the morning of 12 October, and immediately alerted the rest of the crew with a shout. Thereupon, the captain of the Pinta, Martín Alonso Pinzón, verified the discovery and alerted Columbus by firing a cannon. Columbus later maintained that he himself had already seen a light on the land a few hours earlier, thereby claiming for himself the lifetime Pension promised by Ferdinand and Isabella to the first person to sight land.”

Town & Country Plaza Open for Business

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

Our Plaza is fully leased for your shopping pleasure.

Town & Country Laundromat,

Tim Turners' Custom Tatoo's and Wood Carvings

Smiling Moose Organic Café and so much more.

Mr. Nice Guy Smoke Shop and Gifts

Thrift Shop & Collectibles Store, Jamie Fortier

Burrillville Historical Society Event Today !

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

Burrillville Historical & Preservation Society

October 8 at 9:05pm ·

Our 15th Annual Open House will be held this Saturday on October 8th from 9-3 pm.

  We will also have a giant YARD SALE, book sale and bake sale featuring homemade pies. Come and see our historic farm tool exhibit and photos and browse through some of the archives. Come and learn about the town's historical cemeteries. There's still time to sign up for the BHPS sponsored trip to England which departs April 2017.

Amended - Energy Facility Siting Board Meeting Notices

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

The Energy Facility Siting Board (Board) has posted notices to schedule and/or cancel meetings regarding Invenergy Thermal Development LLC's application to construct the Clear River Energy Center in Burrillville, RI  – Docket NO. SB-2015-06 as follows:

• Cancel public comment hearing scheduled for Monday, October 3, 2016 at 6:00 PM in the Burrillville High School Auditorium, 425 East Avenue, Harrisville, Rhode Island. View the full notice here.
• Schedule an open meeting for Monday, October 3, 2016 at 2:00 PM in Hearing Room A of the Public Utilities Commission Offices, 89 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick, Rhode Island. (The agenda for this meeting has been amended. See the amended agenda here.)
• Cancel final hearing scheduled for Thursday, October 13, 2016 at 9:00 AM in Hearing Room A of the Public Utilities Commission office building, 89 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick, Rhode Island. View the full notice here.
• Schedule a hearing, to hear oral argument regarding motions before the Board, for Thursday, October 13, 2016 beginning at 12:00 PM in Hearing Room A of the Public Utilities Commission office building, 89 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick, Rhode Island.

Second Fossil-Fuel Power Plant Proposed for Killingly

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

Two schools, a lake and a river are all within a mile of the proposed facility.

KILLINGLY, Conn. — As residents of Burrillville, R.I., campaign against the construction of a nearly 1,000-megawatt power plant, only 30 minutes away in this Connecticut town a similar fight is taking place. NTE Energy, a Florida-based company, has proposed to build a 550-megawatt, gas-fired electric generating plant in the borough of Dayville, near the town’s industrial park, where an 840-megawatt gas-fired energy center already operates.
Killingly, in the northeastern corner of Connecticut, shares borders with both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. A number of Killingly residents have joined together under the cause Not Another Power Plant (NAPP) to resist the development of the proposed fossil-fuel facility.
NAPP supporters are concerned that the new power plant would introduce water, air, noise and traffic pollutants to the area and threaten neighbors. At its closest point, the power plant would sit less than a mile from Killingly Intermediate School and the Goodyear Early Childhood Center. The town’s central and high schools are located a mile and a half from the site. Alexander Lake, a 215-acre body of water, is within a mile of the site and the Quinebaug River runs less than 300 feet away, within a watershed that extends into western Rhode Island.
NTE Energy was founded in 2009 as an energy-technology business focused on “renewable development.” The company is currently building two natural-gas power plants, in Kings Mountain, N.C., and Middletown, Ohio, and is planning to build and operate three more gas fired plants, besides the one in Connecticut.
The Killingly Energy Center will meet energy demand in New England and will fill “the void left by retiring coal and oil facilities,” according to NTE's David Groleau. Gas would be drawn from the Algonquin transmission pipeline, though construction of an additional line that crosses the Quinebaug River would be necessary. A million-gallon diesel tank would be utilized in the event that natural gas is unable to meet demand for power — “no more than 720 hours a year” and only in peak energy seasons, according to a May NTE technical report.
The Florida company would invest $500 million to develop the fossil-fuel plant in Killingly.
Though it began discussing the Killingly Energy Center in late 2015, NTE first introduced the project to the town on March 22. In May, residents living near the proposed site were invited by NTE and the town of Killingly to an information session. When local resident Carolyn Johnston first received the flier, she was distraught that she and her neighbors had been denied say in the project.
“I think we get to say something about this,” she recalled thinking. She later learned that the flier was distributed to only 300 local residents. “If you’re going to send an invitation to taxpayers to tell them this what they have to look forward to in town, it should have been sent to everybody,” Johnston said.
Lake Road resident Jason Anderson read the flier and initially “thought the power plant was going to be next to the other power plant,” he recalled. Anderson later found out that the plant would be built closer to the residential side of Lake Road — 600 feet from his home.
Fliers that were distributed to local residents described NTE as a company that “constructs, owns, and operates power plants,” though it was later revealed that the the energy company doesn’t yet operate any facilities.
“If we can’t trust them right from the get go,” Jason Anderson said, “how can we trust them to build something of this magnitude?”
One of his concerns is the possible congestion of traffic in the residential portion of Lake Road when water and gas lines are being installed. If they are built on the east side of the plant, vehicles would be redirected down Route 101 and through a very slim stretch of Lake Road, where corners can only accommodate one lane.
“How would that affect access to our houses?” Anderson asked.
NAPP supporters have frequently attended monthly town meetings of the Planning and Zoning Commission, Town Council and the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission to present their case. They have raised concerns about the clustering of plants; the decreased value of real estate; the inability of current water systems to shoulder the waste emitted from the plant, especially when running on diesel; the toxicity of burning diesel, and the concentration of pollution close to the plant due to the relatively low height of the stacks (150 feet).
“There were always going to be outraged citizens,” Johnston said, “but I really think what has made the difference is being a group. I think it is going to make a difference.”
Their petition has gathered more than 1,000 signatures.
Representatives from St. Augustine, Fla.-based NTE have also attended monthly Town Council meetings, and have encouraged the participation of residents during the application process. The town of Killingly has taken no official position on the development of the plant, but has helped facilitate an open dialogue between residents and NTE since the company first proposed construction.
Killingly town manager Sean Hendricks said the only concern is that the town remains as safe as possible and that “every resident who wants to share their opinion has their voice heard.”
In the 2010-2020 Plan for Conservation and Development for the town of Killingly, the Planning and Zoning Commission pledged to “increase protected open space and protected agricultural lands from the current 7.2% to at least 21% of the Town’s land area.”
The hope was to minimize the “fragmentation of natural areas” and retain “open space and forest connectivity as Killingly grows.” In the same report, the Planning and Zoning Commission mentioned an evaluation to expand Killingly’s industrial park, and were considering an area “northeast of Interstate 395’s Exit 92” — the proposed power plant has been plotted for an area of zoned residential land southwest of the highway.
At a Sept. 22 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, NTE chief operating officer Mark Mirabito said the development of the land in question was understood to be part of the town’s vision. One member of the commission noted that it was at one point the town’s vision to industrialize the area of forest, but when a consultant was hired to research the idea he “came up with discouraging news.”
Apparently, the portion of Lake Road where the power plant is proposed received a “very, very low grade” for potential development.
Like other major power plants in the area, the energy produced by the proposed facility would be sold to the ISO New England, making it nearly impossible to monitor the plant’s effect on local electricity prices.
“The way it works,” Mirabito said at the Sept. 22 meeting, “is that the facility here could help supply need elsewhere.”
A Planning and Zoning Commission member asked if the company considered developing “closer to where the actual power is required.” Mirabito answered that NTE “did look generally at a very high level but quickly narrowed in on Connecticut,” because of the accommodating infrastructure and “constraints” in other parts of the New England that “could make a project like this more challenging.”
A map of energy sources within a 30-mile radius of Killingly shows seven major operating plants: Millennium Power Plant in Charlton, Mass., gas fired, 360 megawatts; Ocean State Power in Harrisville, R.I., gas fired, 560 megawatts; Rhode Island State Energy Center in Johnston, R.I., gas fired, 583 megawatts; ANP Blackstone Energy in Blackstone, Mass., gas fired, 578 megawatts; NEA Bellingham Cogeneration Facility in Bellingham, Mass., gas fired, 386 megawatts; ANP Bellingham Energy in Bellingham, Mass., gas fired, 578 megawatts; and Milford Power LP in Milford, Mass., gas fired, 178 megawatts.
Childhood asthma rates in Windham County are two times higher than the national average — 18.9 percent, compared to 9.4 percent nationally — and more than 10 percent higher than other counties in Connecticut.
“Anyone who lives where particle pollution levels are high is at risk,” according to the American Lung Association. Particulate pollution is a mixture of tiny solid and liquid particulates ejected from smokestacks and tailpipes. Gases such as nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide are also released when fossil fuels are burned at high temperatures.
When breathed regularly at “low levels,” these gases “may cause permanent mental or physical problems,” as well as induce asthma development and other respiratory conditions, according to the American Lung Association.
The Goodyear Early Childhood Center is only three-quarters of a mile from where the plant would be built. Westview Health Care Center, a rehabilitation and nursing care facility, is 2.5 miles from the proposed site. NTE chose the site in question because of its distance from Killingly’s “higher density residential areas.” The company didn’t mention the proximity to schools or the elderly care facility in its technical report.
NTE’s Groleau reported that the air-quality analysis was completed following the guidelines of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Given “worst-case assumptions,” Groleau said the modeled impacts of the Killingly Energy Center were “well within all applicable ambient air quality standards” and ensured “protection of air quality and the most sensitive individuals.”
NTE took a regional view when considering the increase in pollution, according to Groleau.
“While it’s easy to imagine that these plants are collectively contributing to a decline in Killingly’s air quality,” he said, “the exact opposite is true.”
Most of Connecticut’s air pollution, he said, comes from upwind coal- and oil-burning power plants in the Midwest and South, and from mobile emissions from cars and trucks.
Interstate 395 runs 1.3 miles from where the NTE fossil-fuel power plant would be built, between the Westview Health Care Center and the town’s industrial park, compounding the level of pollution that is already present in the area from the existing power plant and 14 manufacturing facilities.
Killingly ranks within the 15 lowest-earning communities in Connecticut, with a per capita income of $25,124 and a population of 17,370. In 1994, the EPA put into effect a law stating that every state must identify lower-income communities that are vulnerable to development projects with “disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects,” so that all groups of people are guaranteed the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards.
As a distressed municipality, Killingly qualifies as an environmental justice community, therefore, major developers must submit an application to the Connecticut Siting Council before their plans are approved. After the NTE application was submitted to the council on Aug. 17, the town of Killingly was given a 65-day window to raise concerns about the project.
For a town such as Killingly, the prospect of new development inspires hope of new jobs and needed tax revenue. The Killingly Energy Center would be a substantial taxpayer, though the projected tax revenue hasn’t yet been released. In its application to the Connecticut Siting Council, NTE stated that an average number of 240 “direct onsite construction jobs per year” would be created during the “peak years of construction” — 2018 to 2019. More than 25 operating jobs would be created in the long term, after 2020, according to the Florida company.
The town of Killingly is expected to file its recommendations with the Connecticut Siting Council by Oct. 14. The council has scheduled a public meeting Oct. 20 at Killingly High School.
Source: AVERY LAMB/ecoRI News contributor

Austin T. Levy Film Today

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

The World Premiere Showing of the 2016 Documentary,

"The Amazing Life & Times of Austin T. Levy" on Saturday
night, October 1, 2016,  SOLD OUT!!...

Many thanks to all who have supported and encouraged
the production of this film over the past 3+ years.

A second SPECIAL SHOWING will screen at the Assembly
Theatre in Harrisville, RI on Sunday, October 2, 2016.

Tickets NOW AVAILABLE:
Call 401-568-8449

Book Sales at Harrisville and Pascoag Public Libraries Today !

Pascoag Library, Church Street, Lower Level

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

Jesse M. Smith Library

Fall Book Sale
Saturday, October 1st
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Friends Only pre-sale sale
from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.
Purchase a membership at the door!