What’s Inside
BORN FREE
THURSDAY, December 2, 2010
Vol. 38, No. 48
Residents Rogers Down, Moses to Go Weigh in on Carey School Development
SEAL WATCHing
By Tom Shevlin
nature P. 8
Table of Contents 02840 10 CALENDAR 14 CIN CALENDAR 12 CLASSIFIEDS 22 COMMUNITY BRIEFS 4 CROSSWORD 21 EDITORIAL 6 NATURE 8 POLICE LOGS 5 REALTY TRANSACTIONS 7 RECENT DEATHS 22 RESTAURANTS 12 TIDE CHART 8 www.Newport-Now.com Twitter.com/newportnow Facebook.com/newportnow
(Photo by Meg O’Neil) It was an Aquidneck Island showdown this week with only one team able to move on to the State Championship game. The fourth seeded Middletown High School Islanders fought hard to win the Division III State Semi-Final round over the first seeded, previously undefeated Rogers High School Vikings, with a score of 20-14, on Tuesday, Nov. 30 at Toppa Field. Although the Vikings scored the first touchdown of the game a minute and half into the first quarter after a fumble recovery, the Islanders scored their 20 points before Rogers scored their final seven points in the fourth quarter. Penalties late in the game plagued Rogers, with a 4th and 30 pass attempt that ended up in the hands of Dylan Atibagos, Middletown junior. The change in possession allowed Middletown to take a knee with 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter, giving the underdog Islanders the victory. Cheer on the Islanders on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 3 p.m. at Cranston Stadium as they take on the second seeded Moses Brown Quakers for the Div. III State Championship game! Also, get to the stadium earlier and cheer on the Portsmouth High School Patriots as they take on Bishop Hendrickson on Saturday, Dec. 4 at noon, for the Div. I State Championship game.
40 years for Christmas in Newport By Katherine Imbrie Fortieth birthdays aren’t always the happiest of events, but this one sure is. The month-long, city-wide festival called “Christmas in Newport” is celebrating its 40th this year with a calendar full of events, old and new, that combine to make the dark days of December sparkle from now through New Year’s. After so many years, of so many beloved holiday events, it can be easy to forget how the whole celebration of Christmas in Newport began. And what better time than a birthday to look back and remember? It all began with the arrival in Newport in 1968 of Navy wife Ruth Myers. Myers hailed from North Carolina, and even after living in Newport for decades, she never lost her soft Southern accent, says friend and current “Christmas in Newport” president Kathy MacKnight. “She could be mad at you, but you didn’t feel that bad about it because of the way she would say it.” A famous anecdote in “Christmas in Newport” lore is how board member Dave Leys once put up a sign in his Long Wharf store window advertising it as a “Christmas in Newport” booster. “Now Dave,” admonished Myers, “we just don’t do that.” Of course, he took it right down. No commercialism! That has been one of the defining characteristics of Christmas in Newport from the beginning. Every event on the calendar must either be free or must support a charitable cause. “That was really important to Myers,” says MacKnight, “and that has never changed. It’s part of what makes Christmas in Newport so special.” Another thing that mattered a great deal to Myers was a simple, traditional look, a look that she felt complemented the historic doorways and streetscapes of the city. That look is achieved, in large part, by using clear lightbulbs to simulate the look of candlelight, the candlelight that Myers remembered from her Carolina youth and from her years at the Winston-Salem
Ruther Myers as she appeared on the cover of NTW’s Dec. 4, 1986 edition, Christmas in Newport’s 25th Anniversary Academy. “The Academy had a strong Moravian influence,” says MacKnight. “Simple candles, evergreens, white lights – and she never forgot that.” As a result, each year since 1971, Newport’s historic streets have been made magical by the simple effect of illuminating them with bright, clear bulbs. Not everyone follows the program, but most do, says Dave Wolfenden, who handles publicity for Christmas in Newport. “There are some colored lights creeping in here and there, and she (Myers) would have been unhappy about that. But things change. I remember when there used to be white lights down the whole center island of America’s Cup Boulevard. I was never able to find out who used to put them there. It wasn’t the city or the state. Anyway, now they’re not there anymore. But the wharves (Bannisters and Bowen’s) decorate with white lights.” In the beginning, Christmas in Newport was a
two-week festival. It became so beloved and so successful that it soon expanded to fill the whole month of December, beginning with a ceremonial cannon salute on Dec. 1 over Washington Square. “That is a date that we have learned not to mess with,” says Wolfenden with wry humor. “Last year, we decided that we would have the official opening on Nov. 30 instead of Dec. 1. Well! the weather was awful – rain, cold. So it has become a standing joke that Ruth (who died in 2006 at age 95) wasn’t happy about us changing the date, and – you know – don’t mess with Mother Nature! So it’s cast in stone now that Christmas in Newport will always be Dec. 1 to 31.” Even though Myers didn’t grow up in Newport, as a Navy wife, she came to love the city, and she and her husband came to live in the city after he retired in the 60s. “She was well-connected already in Newport, having been here with the Navy,” recalls MacKnight. “She knew a lot of people, and in those days, the Navy wives mostly did not have jobs, so they had more time to devote to volunteering.” Myers and a friend, fellow Navy wife Dede Elster, who lived on the Point, started the tradition of house tours that continue today as the primary fund-raiser for the Christmas in Newport nonprofit organization. Right after Christmas each year, Dec. 26 to 28, several historic houses are open for candlelight tours. “It’s a perfect time, because everyone has people visiting for the holidays, and this has become a special tradition for them,” says MacKnight. “I volunteer for it every year, and it’s wonderful to see some of the same faces, year after year -- out-of-towners as well as locals who look forward to finding out which houses will be on the list. It’s always nine houses: three different houses on each of three days, for $3 each.” (Once they’re firmed up in a week or so, the addresses will be posted on the website, www.christmasinnewport.org). The house tours are among the oldest events
See CHRISTMAS on page 24
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Paige Bronk knows the Carey School well. As a father, he sent two kids through the school. Now, as the city’s director of planning, zoning and redevelopment, he’s tasked with overseeing it’s redevelopment. “Personally, I’m really familiar with this building,” Bronk said during a public meeting to discuss the fate of the school on Monday. Closed, as part of the school department’s ongoing school recongifuration plan, Carey School occupies a prominent location in the city’s Yachting District with frontage on both Carey Street and Narragansett Avenue. The city officially received it in 2009, and since that time has made sure the property was safe and otherwise suitable for redevelopment. With roughly 40 people in attendence, the majority of which said
See SCHOOL on page 3
AIPC Transportation Study By Tom Shevlin Could planners finally be close to settling in on a plan to reconfigure the so-called road to nowhere? Working with state transportation officials, the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission is preparing to roll out a new vision for the Pell Bridge interchange that could help to one day dramatically reshape the city’s North End. The plan, which is still very much in the conceptual stage, is nonetheless being looked at as a possible design solution to a project which state and local officials have grappled with for years. According to Paige Bronk, the city’s director of planning, zoning and development, the current plan is the closest that state and city planners have gotten to reaching an agreement on a final project. On Thursday, Dec. 9, the AIPC will be hosting a transportation study workshop in Portsmouth to discuss the group’s efforts to date. Of the dozen or more projects the group has identified as priorities for improving the flow of traffic around the island, the Pell Bridge reconfiguration ranks at the top. Chris Witt heads up the AIPC’s transportation study efforts. While cautioning that the design put forth by AIPC engineers VHB Associates is only meant as a conceptual project, he did say that the ultimate goal of the effort is to seek out state and federal funding to bring some of the study’s concepts to reality.
See ROAD on page 7