Valley Breeze

©2014 Breeze PuBlications inc. Flip For Competition OSSG Classic this weekend at Twin River event center. PAGE 15 eVerYtHinG iriSH Pawtucket's St. Patrick's Parade steps off on Saturday. LIVING Serving North Smithfield, Blackstone and Woonsocket Breeze ThE VALLEy FREE valleybreeze.com @ FEBRUARY 27-MARCH 5, 2014 By SANDy SEOANE Valley Breeze staff Writer sandy@valleybreeze.com LINCOLN – Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Michael Lewis has a message for those traversing the state's shoddy and weather- worn roads: Get used to it. Roads and bridges across the state, Lewis told The Breeze this week, aren't likely to get fixed anytime soon, because the department's funding sources are drying up and new poten- tial sources of revenue – like the proposal to increase the Sakonnet River toll to around $5 – seem to lack the political support to become a reality. RIDOT, he said, currently has $66 million in projects across the state ready to go this spring and no funds to start them. The department's major source of funding, the federal Highway Trust Fund, is expected to run out in 2014. A primary source of HTF money comes from federal gas taxes, which have not been raised since 1993, while construction costs have skyrocketed. DOT typically gets $200 mil- lion a year from that source, money used for everything from bridge repair to litter cleanup. That means projects, such as improvements to the intersection of Mendon Road and Diamond Hill Road in Woonsocket, will not be going out for advertising until Congress agrees on a new plan to nourish the account. And repairs scheduled for 2015, like construction on the historic Stone Arch Bridge in Slatersville, could also be delayed if a resolution is not quickly found. "They'll act at some point; the question becomes when," said RIDOT Deputy Director Phillip Kydd. "The Highway Trust Fund goes belly-up this summer unless Congress acts." It's a national problem, but Rhode Island's system for fund- ing transportation only com- pounds the issue. Unlike some Transportation projects on hold while state awaits federal action By SANDy SEOANE Valley Breeze staff Writer sandy@valleybreeze.com NORTH SMITHFIELD – With nine months left in his term on the North Smithfield School Committee, member George Hemond resigned this week saying the town is operat- ing amid a "political contest and media circus." In a letter submitted to Town Clerk Deborah Todd on Friday, Feb. 21, Hemond says that although the school district has experienced improve- ments in student test scores and graduation rates, other efforts have met with "limited suc- cess" that he blamed on "the results of a number of votes on issues presented to the School Committee over the past three- plus years." His deci- sion prompted regret from Chairman Robert Lafleur who praised Hemond's "common sense approach to deciding issues" that he said "is very much lacking in town govern- ment." When contacted by The Breeze this week, Hemond declined to comment further. Hemond retired from FM Global as assistant vice president of staff underwrit- ing in 2007 and ran unop- posed for the school board seat in 2010. In 2012, he ran for town administrator against incumbent Paulette Hemond resigns from School Committee hEMOND Valley Breeze Photo By Bill MurPhy LyNN and ROGER CROTEAu, of North Smithfield, dance at the Woonsocket Mardi Gras Festival last Saturday. The event was held at the St. Ann Arts & Cultural Center. The couple's daughter, Brittney Croteau, was a Mardi Gras Princess. See more photos on page 7. Mardi Gras memories see PROJECTS, Page 8 see hEMOND, Page 11 "Like" us on "Follow" us on (401) 762-2422 • D R D AVE W ARD . COM 460 S OUTH M AIN S TREET • W OONSOCKET , RI 02895 PLEASE D R D AVE W ARD If you don't have good dental health, you don't have good health. We're here to help. Our consultations are FREE. We'll be raffling off $25 gift certificates to som e great local restaurants every 1/2 hour from 10:00 a.m .-2:30 p.m . Website D esign D em os • Place a Classified ad Visit Our Booth at Expo & Homeshow Buy Local Saturday, M arch 8th 9 a.m .-4 p.m . at St. Ann's Art & Culture Center 84 Cum berland Street, (Rte. 122) W oonsocket

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