SNA

Participants gather inside the fence on the North Main Street side.

About 75 people turned out Sunday, June 12, at the North Burial Ground to explore the cemetery and celebrate the adjacent park’s recreational potential.

Sponsored by the newly formed Friends of the North Burial Ground and Randall Park, events included a tree planting, an overview of the historical relevance of the cemetery, nature walks amid the varied flora and fauna as well as a discussion of the impact of the Blackstone Canal. In addition, live music was provided by Otis Read, Al Tringali and Mike Dee, and attendees participated in a march led by Met High School student re-enactors of the 14^th Rhode Island Regiment of Heavy Artillery (more than two dozen soldiers from the regiment are interred at the cemetery).

Expertise was provided by Dr. Fran Leazes and other members of the North Burial Ground Project at Rhode Island College (www.ric.edu/northburialground), local naturalist Greg Gerritt and Ranger Chuck Arning from the National Park Service. A new picnic table was built for the occasion by the Groden Center, the organization that runs the burial ground greenhouse as part of vocational training for autistic adults. The picnic table sits in Randall Park, just inside the pedestrian gate at Rochambeau Avenue and North Main Street. Future events are being planned for the cemetery and park.

For more information, or to join the Friends, go to www.facebook/northburialground or email northburialground@gmail.com.

Rhode Island College Professor Francis J. Leazes, center, with beard, leads the historical tour.

Met High School student re-enactors of the 14th Rhode Island Regiment of Heavy Artillery, directed by Rob Goldman, led a memorial march.

Lois J. Overton Wortham and friends gather at the sign expressing the feeling of her constituents.

The retirement of a treasured postal carrier is an event worth celebrating, decided the patrons of Lois J. Overton Wortham, so they got together on the shared driveway between Amy Cohen and Anne Holland’s houses on Summit Avenue Saturday to do so. Lois is calling it quits after 15 years. Thanks to contributions from 67 neighbors they were about to gift Lois funds for her long-delayed dream of art classes at RISD.

Supporters of Lois gather in the shared driveway on Summit Avenue to wish her well.

SNA activists, from left, Shanna Pearson, Emily Spitzman and son Emmett Waugh staff an information table at Flatbread Pizza.

Martin Luther King Elementary School in Providence is to be the beneficiary of a fundraiser that was held at Flatbread Pizza, 161 Cushing St., June 7 sponsored by SNA and the Mentor Tutor Internship Program at URI. Proceeds from the sale of every pizza will go to help provide enrichment at the East Side school. The amount is still being tallied.

Help the kids at Martin Luther King Elementary School by eating pizza – dine-in or take-out – from 5pm to 10pm June 7 at Flatbread Pizza Company, 161 Cushing St. on College Hill. A portion of the sales will go to providing enrichment activities for the MLK students.

Mayor Jorge Elorza speaks to the meeting of the SNA board and public guests.

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza brought his campaign for long-range fiscal planning to Summit Monday evening.

Speaking to about 20 members and guests at the regular monthly meeting of SNA’s board of directors at Summit Commons, 99 Hillside Ave., he said, “I am truly committed to getting our house in order.”

Elorza said the city is facing a long-term challenge of a structural deficit where expenses are growing faster than revenue because of unsustainable past commitments. He cited compounding cost-of-living-adjustments made by previous administrations that did not make the required payments to retirement funds for decades. “Current employees are not the problem,” the mayor said.

The city has hired outside consultants, he said, to provide an extensive list of options to resolve the problem, but bankruptcy is not one of them. “Technically, you have to be insolvent, so we may not qualify” under state and federal law, Elorza explained, and “Providence has a lot to work with.”

Responding to a question about selling the city water supply system, Elorza said privatizing it was not an option but “regionalizing” it on the model of the Narragansett Bay Commission was, but would have to be a “very complicated” process.

The mayor said the “basket of recommendations” offered by the consultants include: long-term planning; creating a capital budget and investing in infrastructure; making taxes and fees more competitive; and addressing unsustainable legacy costs.

He said the city needed to rebalance its relationship with its nonprofits by seeking payments in lieu of taxes at parity with a standard rate of valuation. He also said “we need a grand bargain with union leaders and retirees” for a one-time lump-sum payment to make sure pensions are there when needed.

The mayor said more details are contained in his current budget proposal which may be examined online at openbudget.providenceri.gov.

Elorza declared that “we have a tremendous crisis but also a remarkable opportunity” to solve the city’s financial problems, but “once we face this challenge, I truly, truly believe Providence will be among the next great cities.”

The mayor makes a point at his presentation.