Dave Richards' Weekly Column in The Woonsocket Call
Dave Richards for July 27th......
--There are some things which grow old and useless. And there are some
things which grow old, but keep re-inventing themselves to stay relevant and
useful. Such a thing is the Summer Festival at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs'
parish. It all gets under way tomorrow afternoon at 5 when their festival
kitchen, Cuisine Ronaldo, opens for another year of yummy delights. Then at
6pm the midway, booths, and rides open and away we go for another year. I'm
sure there's not one person who grew up in our area reading these words who
doesn't have their own sweet memory of going to Park Square as a youth and
having a great time. Like you, I remember taking The Fabulous Denise there
when we were teenage sweethearts and those memories are so special to us.
Especially since we've been married now for nearly 37 years!
--Most of you probably know that I run a radio station and that a lot of the
money I earn to keep it going comes from advertising. There have been a lot
of radio and TV ads which are informative and honestly portray the sponsors
product or service so you can make a choice. Those are the kind of ads I
write for our sponsors. But there have always been the 'other' kind of ads.
They are sneaky and manipulative. And lately there seems to me to be far
more of the bad kind of ads on national TV and far fewer of the good ones.
We're going through a cycle now where I don't trust national ads at all. You've
got, for example, the two cell phone service providers, Verizon and AT&T.
Verizon says they have 3G cell service over more of America. AT&T counters
with ads inferring that Verizon is telling lies and that they, AT&T, cover
97% of America. But AT&T doesn't say that they cover 97% of America with 3G
service (because they don't), so they have mislead the audience by inferring
they do and Verizon doesn't. In my opinion, it's a bold-faced lie. But these
two companies aren't the only ones. Have you seen the ads for the insurance
companies? They are so clever and fun to watch, with their spokespersons and
spokes-animals and such. But it's what they don't say that will get you in
the wallet. It's all about price, price, price in the ads. But they don't
tell you that the only way they can offer those low premium prices is if
they deny claims if you have a misfortune. Remember, "there is nothing in
this world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little
cheaper. And those who buy by price alone are this man's lawful prey." Buy
local.
--I'm very curious about something I've observed while navigating the
construction on Diamond Hill Road. I'd like to know where the granite
curbing has gone. Most people don't have any reason to know that there are
two general types of curbing used in construction to divide roads and the
sidewalks. One type is curbing made out of cut granite stone. Granite
curbing is what was originally used in building the Diamond Hill Road we
know today and it has lasted many decades and would last many more decades.
If it was still there, that is. What I've seen is that the granite curbing
has been dug out and trucked away and replaced with curbing made of cheap
concrete.
I'm no expert on road construction, but in front of my house is a sidewalk.
It was constructed 'on the cheap' when the town repaired a bridge on my
street using some federal money. You see, after the bridge was finished the
feds asked the town where the sidewalks were. The town was caught by
surprise. They didn't know there were strings attached to that federal
money, but there were. There is a regulation that any town that uses federal
money must make the whole street handicapped accessible, and that means new
sidewalks suitable for those powered scooters. So the town made the cheapest
sidewalk they could and used concrete curbing. In less than 3 years the
curbing in front of my house began to crumble and already looks rather
shabby.
Concrete curbing just cannot stand up to the rigors of New England weather.
Granite curbing can and does. The contractor hired by the state DOT to
reconstruct Diamond Hill Road has removed the granite curbing and installed
concrete curbing. And I want to know what they did with the good stuff. Did
they sell it to another community? To another state? Who's going to pay to
replace the new concrete curbs in 3 to 5 years when they crumble? That's a
lot of questions. And I don't like the answers I'm imagining. I happened to
ask those questions in front of Woonsocket City Council President John Ward
yesterday. He was as intrigued by those questions as I am, and he said he'd
look into it. Stay tuned for further developments.
I think Woonsocket is getting the shaft. What do you think? Comments to
dave@onworldwide.com or mail to Dave Richards, WOON Radio, 985 Park Avenue,
Woonsocket, RI 02895-6332. Thanks for reading.
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