Rants and Raves

Idling Worship And A Blue-Red Town

What to love and loathe about living in East Greenwich this week.

RAVE: I just read that a school bus company used by the East Greenwich school district was fined for idling. In case you didn’t know, idling is limited to five minutes in Rhode Island (it’s only three minutes in Connecticut – though with the parking lot that I 95 seems to morph into in the Nutmeg State, I can’t believe they can get away with less than a 60-minute idle prohibition). The companies will pay a $35,000 penalty and perform environmental “projects” valued at $131,000. I am not sure what the latter means and don’t want to even hazard a guess, though a sugarplum image of bus monitors pirouetting down the streets picking up road litter is making me smile right now. Frankly, I can’t say I am all that shocked about this whole idle …

•  9 Comments
• Photos (1)

Alan Clarke

7:31 am on Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Well this expands the fines over a wider field. But it still doesn't negate the notion that if diesel fumes are bad, they are bad for us all. Idling diesel engines are no different than diesel engines that are actually performing their tasks. How often do we see a large truck spewing out clouds of soot as it climbs up a hill, etc.? And semi's often are left idling at truckstops as cross-country …   more ›

Sen. Whitehouse Meets Residents At Community Dinner [VIDEO]

The largely friendly crowd gets treated to free pasta and meatballs and that Rhode Island specialty: one-on-one time with your U.S. Senator.

Sara Cronin of East Greenwich decided to attend Sunday night’s “community dinner” with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse for one main reason — that she could. In Rhode Island, it’s not improbable that you can meet both of your U.S. senators. “In such a small state, it’s great to have the opportunity to get so close and personal with your senator,” said Cronin, who brought her two children, Jackson 12, and Megan 11. “In most states, you don’t have that opportunity. I think it’s great for kids to learn about their government and be able to meet their senators. I wanted my kids to come and learn.” And indeed the turnout was good in the cafetorium at Cole Middle School — more than 100 people were there from towns including EG, Warwick, West Warwick, …

•  5 Comments
• Photos (6)
• Videos (1)

Rants and Raves

Don't 'Kick Me'! & Woo Hoo Planning Department

What to love and loathe* about living in East Greenwich this week.

RANT: Excuse me while I remove the “Kick Me” sign from my back. Oh boy, did I light a forest fire with my rant last week. Contrary to expectations, I am loving the public discourse, diatribe, dialogue, discussion, what have you, that it has generated. However, some of the comments seem to have taken what are essentially a couple of hundred of my words and, from that, written an (erroneous) picture of who I am, all of my views, my mental health, my economic status, my convictions, my life habits, my politics and my ethics. So I feel there are some things that need to be stated — or reiterated — for the record. Or, at least, for my public record. I’ll try to keep each point short and simple (and, hopefully, sweet) to avoid further confusion…

•  4 Comments
• Photos (1)