Foster going fiber optic

FOSTER — High-speed Internet will be readily available throughout town before the end of the year and fiber-optic TV service by spring of next year, Verizon officials announced this week. Nearly two-thirds of the town is still without high-speed Internet and digital TV. Residents in the 397 telephone exchange –– the southern third of town –– received those services from the telecommunications company last year. But residents in the 647 telephone exchange –– which account for the majority of households –– have long been without the technological advances. It has prevented people who would otherwise work remotely from home from doing so, say local officials. Verizon crews were at the intersection of Routes 6 and 94 upgrading telecommunication lines as about 20 officials from the company and assorted state and local officials came out to the South Foster Fire Station for the company’s official announcement.

Rocky Point ruling

WARWICK — The odds that roughly 41 shoreline acres of the former Rocky Point amusement park will remain forever unspoiled and accessible to the public increased dramatically this week when a federal judge approved an agreement that would give the City of Warwick unencumbered title to the land. Acting on a recommendation from Magistrate Judge David L. Martin, senior U.S. District Judge Ronald R. Lagueux entered a written order allowing the U.S. Small Business Administration to sign over the deed to the city and use roughly $4 million in local and state money paid for the coastal parcel to satisfy primary creditors from the Rocky Point bankruptcy.

Water park moving forward

WEST WARWICK — With the tweaking of three ordinances dealing with financing mechanisms, the Town Council Tuesday night happily emphasized its commitment to 7th Wave, the $150-million indoor water park and resort that a Nebraska developer plans to build in the West Warwick Business Park. The town is providing nearly $18 million of the financing for the project through what is known as Tax Increment Financing bonds. Under TIF, the property tax bill on the development site remains at a base level for a set period — in this case, 22 years — and the bulk of tax increases that normally would accrue is used to pay down the bonds. The developer, Dial Family Resorts, will receive the nearly $18 million in TIF money from the First State Bank, in Gothenburg, Neb., said Karen S.D. Grande, the town’s bond counsel. Dial has secured the bulk of its financing from commercial lenders. On Tuesday night, the council adopted amendments to measures designating the project site a TIF zone, establishing the tax stabilization schedule and authorizing the issuance of the bonds.

Opposition to wind turbine

BARRINGTON — Critics of a plan to build a wind turbine at the high school are adding zoning concerns to their list of objections to the project, which town officials say they want to relocate to a piece of town-owned land on Brickyard Pond at the end of Legion Way. But the Town Council president counters that those concerns are groundless because the town is not bound by its own zoning bylaw. That objection, and some others raised in the debate so far, would make it virtually impossible to erect a large turbine anywhere in Barrington, even though most critics claim to support alternative energy. The town has until the end of the year to close a deal on the turbine if it wants to take advantage of a $2.1-million interest-free loan being offered by the IRS. Officials are checking to see if the IRS will endorse shifting the location from the school to Legion Way. The council is seeking proposals for both sites. They will be opened on Aug. 18. The zoning objections have been raised — but not aggressively — in earlier Town Council and School Committee meetings. But now William R. Landry, a lawyer representing Kathleen A. Shafer, who lives near the high school, and her neighbors, have written to the town vowing to sue in Superior Court if Barrington officials try to declare that zoning rules don’t apply to the high school site.

EPA files Superfund liens in Cumberland

CUMBERLAND — The U.S Environmental Protection Agency has filed Superfund liens on three properties in town that are part of the Peterson/Puritan Inc. Superfund site. The liens will allow the EPA to recover the costs of cleanup of hazardous materials at the sites, according to a release from the agency. The properties are all located north of the intersection of Mendon Road and Ann and Hope Way and south of Broad Street, according to the EPA and town records. Land owners were notified by EPA of their liability for the contamination on the sites. The owners were also given the opportunity to finance or perform remedial actions, which they either failed to respond to or denied, according to the EPA.

shredding company focuses on diversity

CRANSTON — Everything and nothing. That’s Peter Perry’s standard response when asked what he likes most and least about his job as a paper sorter. But Perry’s view seems to be the norm inside the walls of 21 Palmer Ave. — home to Better Shred, a document-shredding business started this January by CranstonArc, a nonprofit organization that provides vocational training and recreation to developmentally disabled adults and children. At Better Shred, 11 men and women with disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy or deafness work alongside six non-disabled adults to sort and shred paper. They earn more than $8 an hour and pay taxes on their earnings. The business makes them self-reliant and its revenues reduce CranstonArc’s dependence on federal and state grants and community fundraisers. The shredded paper is consolidated into 1,200-  to 1,500-pound bales and sold to be recycled.

Zoning bylaw dispute in Fall River

FALL RIVER — The long-running dispute over whether North Street property in Somerset once owned by Arthur and Eleanor Gagnon was properly developed is going to run a bit longer. After 4½ hours of action in Superior Court this week, Judge Merita A. Hopkins announced that the two parties in the dispute — the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals — would meet for “mediation discussions” in hopes of reaching common ground on the portion of the zoning bylaw that prompted the controversy. Although four members of the Planning Board attended court and the conferences, no Zoning Board members were present. Hopkins said that if a resolution isn’t reached by Sept. 19, she will spend that day hearing evidence and ruling on the case. The issue is in court because the Planning Board is appealing a Sept. 15, 2005, decision by the Zoning Board, which unanimously ruled that Building Inspector Joseph Lawrence properly issued permits for four homes on the properties, despite questions of whether such permits were proper for land designated as being in the Water Resources Protection District.