Town of North Providence, Rhode Island
North Providence Town Hall • 2000 Smith Street • North Providence, RI 02911 • (401) 232-0900
The Trash & Recycling contractor for the Town has cancelled Trash Pickup for Monday, 2-18-19 due to the predicted snow storm. The rest of the week will work like a Holiday Schedule, Mondays pickup will be on Tuesday, Tuesdays pickup will be on Wednesday and so on…
Trash Pickup will be on a Regular Schedule the week of February 18th.
Presidents’ Day is NOT a holiday for trash collection purposes.
Ahlborg Memorial Day 5K and Kids Fun Run with Mickey
Monday, May 27th, Memorial Day, at 12:00 pm
For more information and to register please visit:
http://www.racewire.com/register.php?id=10261
The Washington Trust Company recently opened its newest branch at 1588 Mineral Spring Ave. Mayor Charles Lombardi was on hand for the opening ceremonies to cut the ribbon.
“We thank Washington Trust for choosing North Providence” ~ Mayor Charles Lombardi
See the article in The Valley Breeze: Washington Trust opens branch in NP
Town highway workers save big money, turn three used box trucks into plows
By ETHAN SHOREY, Valley Breeze Managing Editor
NORTH PROVIDENCE – When Jimmy Grimes, head of the North Providence Repair Division, approached Mayor Charles Lombardi to say that the department needed some new plow trucks, Lombardi said no.
“Build them yourselves,” Grimes recalls the mayor telling him.
Read the full story in The Valley Breeze
Before
After
City of North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi
Water utilities have reduced lead exposure by installing corrosion control treatments. In recent years, public health and regulatory agencies have focused on replacing lead service lines to reduce lead exposure in drinking water which, in children, can result in neurological and developmental damage. This means addressing complex issues that require the involvement of the community and significant cost. Most lead service lines are owned partially by the water utility and partially by property owners.
North Providence, with mostly moderate to low income families, has more than 500 lead service lines. Under the leadership of Mayor Charles Lombardi, the city has leveraged federal HUD funding through the state Office of Housing and Community Development. These funds, which municipalities typically invest in low income neighborhoods, in North Providence were used creatively to get $270,000 to replace privately-owned lead service lines. The city will replace the publicly-owned lead service line for every private line replaced. North Providence knocked on doors to get residents to participate. This led to replacing about 40 lead service lines. Then the city held public forums and now plans to replace about 100 lines in 2018. Under Lombardi’s vision, a creative solution was found and important public health changes made. Challenged by daunting numbers of lead pipes, North Providence is an inspiration to other communities wanting to eliminate lead pipes and protect their children.
Original Article Located on the Environmental Protection Agencies Website
Video of the ceremony on YouTube
NOTICE OF INTENT TO REQUEST RELEASE OF FUNDS
September 28, 2018
Town of North Providence
2000 Smith Street, North Providence, RI 02911
On or about October 9, 2018, the Town of North Providence will submit a request to the Rhode Island Community Development Block Grant Program operated by RI Office of Housing & Community Development for release of Community Development Block Grant program funds under Section 105(a) of the Housing & Community Development Act of 1974, as amended, to undertake the Fogarty Center’s Employment First Program with the Rewiring Element. The Employment First Program’s Rewiring Element will upgrade existing electrical wiring to enable a computer training area for the Employment First Program, at the Fogarty Center 220 Woonasquatucket Ave. Estimated funding for the Employment First Program project is $100,000.00, which includes $20,000.00 for the Technical Services component, which includes the rewiring element.
Rewiring Element of the Fogarty Center’s Employment First Project (.pdf)
NOTICE OF INTENT TO REQUEST RELEASE OF FUNDS
September 7, 2018
Town of North Providence
2000 Smith Street, North Providence, RI 02911
On or about September 18, 2018, the Town of North Providence will submit a request to the Rhode Island Community Development Block Grant Program operated by RI Office of Housing & Community Development for release of Community Development Block Grant program funds under Section 105(a) of the Housing & Community Development Act of 1974, as amended, to implement Tri-County Community Action Agency’s ADA Bathroom Renovation, Resurfacing & Fascia Repairs project for Tri-County Community+Health Center at 33 Maple, North Providence. Estimated funding is $80,000.
Tri-County Community+Health Center at 33 Maple Full Document (.pdf)
On or about September 18, 2018, the Town of North Providence will submit a request to the Rhode Island Community Development Block Grant Program operated by RI Office of Housing & Community Development for release of Community Development Block Grant program funds under Section 105(a) of the Housing & Community Development Act of 1974, as amended, to undertake the St. Mary’s Home for Children Energy & Resiliency Project (E&R Project). E&R Project will replace critical elements of existing substandard heating and cooling system for the year-round special education school and one residential facility in the 3-level George N. Hunt Campus School and Mauran House (CS/Mauran House), 440 Fruit Hill Ave. This is the first critical step in St. Mary’s long-term strategy to decrease energy costs, use renewables & become resilient. Estimated funding for the E&R project is $283,796.
George N. Hunt Campus School and Mauran House (CS/Mauran House),
440 Fruit Hill Ave. Full Document (.pdf)
New Recycling Service: Free Curbside Collection of Used Textiles and Small Household Items
Starting on September 10th, the Town of North Providence will begin offering a convenient new recycling service for residents: Curbside collection of used textiles and small household items. The service will be provided by Simple Recycling (www.simplerecycling.com) and will be free to the town and free to residents.
How It Works
In the weeks before the program launches, Simple Recycling will send informational mailers to residents who receive recycling collection from the Town of North Providence. The mailers will contain free Simple Recycling bags. When cleaning out closets or disposing of unwanted clothes and small household items, residents can place them in the bags. Residents can then place the bags at the curb or alley near their recycling container on their normal recycling collection day. Simple Recycling’s trucks will pick them up, free of charge.
When Simple Recycling collects bags from a residence, the collection worker will leave replacement bags at the curb. If a resident has a lot of material to get rid of, and doesn’t have enough bags, then that’s no problem. It’s OK to use regular trash bags that are clearly marked for Simple Recycling. Residents can also contact Simple Recycling for more bags here.
Benefits for the Environment
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), more than 84% of old clothes, shoes, belts, handbags, and textile items end up in a landfill or an incinerator?1 In fact, the average person in America throws away more than 85 lbs. of textile items each year.2 Textiles make up more than 6% of all the residential and municipal trash in the US.3
Clothing and textiles require a lot of resources to make, including water, fertilizer, and pesticides for growing natural fibers like cotton, as well as petroleum to make synthetic fibers. When we reuse and recycle textiles, it conserves the resources used to make them. In fact, collecting one ton of clothing conserves far more than a ton of the “embedded” resources.
The Simple Recycling service is designed to keep those items out of the trash, which is good for the environment.
Types of Items Accepted
Simple Recycling will collect a wide range of used textiles and small household items. The list of accepted items includes:
For More Information
For more information about the Simple Recycling program, residents can call our Recycling Coordinator, Robert Nascimento at 401-719-1610 or visit our website https://northprovidenceri.gov/public-works/recycling-refuse/
November 10, 2017
I write to apprise the taxpayers, residents and all stakeholders in our community of North Providence of the status of pending arbitration with the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 13 (“FOP”) to construct a responsible and balanced labor contract.
As some of you may know, the Town and FOP are operating under the terms of a labor contract that expired June 30, 2016. Long before that expiration date, the Town and FOP began negotiations on February 24, 2016. Less than a month after negotiations began, on March 22, 2016 to be precise, the FOP jumped the gun and filed for what is known as interest arbitration, a process by which a 3-member panel of arbitrators will decide and establish the terms of a labor contract to commence July 1, 2016 and end June 30, 2017. Simply stated, before substantive discussions on the respective Town and FOP proposals for that contract took place, the FOP opted for the expensive and time-consuming interest arbitration process. Notwithstanding that premature tactic, the Town demonstrated its good faith and continued to negotiate with the FOP for at least 5 more sessions through late January of this year.
Regrettably there is impasse, as the FOP refuses to concede rights that the Town previously won in Superior Court litigation. For example, as far back as October of 2010, following the ruling in that litigation, the FOP also had agreed that the Deputy Chief, a key managerial position in the command staff would become non-union. The FOP also agreed back then to eliminate a provision in the labor contract impeding the Town’s right to modify its organizational chart. Disturbingly, in the face of the Town’s court victory, and the FOP’s 2010 specific agreement to concede rightful and critical management prerogatives to the Town, the FOP has now reneged on its promises.
And so, we are now mired in the expensive and protracted process of interest arbitration, which compels the Town to expend sizable amounts of money in legal fees, expert witness fees, arbitrator fees, stenographic fees and other costs of this contested evidentiary proceeding. We have had eight days of trial and there is no end in sight in this calendar year as further hearing dates are scheduled in November.
I present these facts to not only underscore the expense of this adversarial arbitration process, something the public surely has a right to know, but to let you know that I am committed to the principle of managing our police department in the best interests of the public, operationally and fiscally. That said, I am desirous to achieve a cost-effective and reasonable compromise with the FOP. For example, in an effort to reduce the number of contested issues in arbitration, at the urging of an officer in the FOP, I offered to increase the private detail rate of our police officers to $45 per hour, a rate that is more comparable to surrounding communities. In return, I simply asked that the FOP agree to what it had previously agreed to, i.e. exclusion of the Deputy Chief Position from the union and the ability of the Town to select the best qualified candidate for Deputy Chief, whether from within or outside the North Providence Police Department. This good faith offer on just these two issues pending in arbitration was rejected.
It seems plain to me that there is no genuine interest or appetite by the FOP leadership or its representative to forge labor peace and craft a meaningful compromise. As long as it persists in such an unreasonable posture, I will plod ahead with arbitration. I cannot and will not surrender management or non-delegable responsibilities and duties of the Town to the FOP. Hopefully sensible minds will eventually prevail.
Very truly yours,
Charles A. Lombardi
Mayor
Return to Top ▲
