NAP- Neighborhood Alliance of Pawtucket

You also have the return of the Winter Farmers Market...A Nice reminder of the quality and variety of food from our farmers and that you can get year round even in Pawtucket- Winter Farmers Market in Pawtucket Saturdays til May 29th 11-2pm

http://www.projo.com/opinion/editorials/content/ED_bus3_01-03-10_9NGUMLV_v42.3f8e27a.html

This speaks of the nonsense of crossing the Mass line with the busses and spending 300 thousand bucks for a shelter 2 minutes away? How long has this been hurting many states with common borders.?

Editorial: Buses and state lines

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, January 3, 2010

The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority wants to help people in Rhode Island get to the commuter-train station in South Attleboro. Great idea. (The station is on a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority line to Boston.) As part of the plan, RIPTA will extend the Broadway/Benefit bus route. Also a good idea.

But the bus is going to let all passengers off several blocks short of the train station.

A bad idea.

Why would RIPTA do this? Because federal law forbids bus systems that receive federal aid to cross state lines. Thus, RIPTA will end the bus line near the tippy-top of Pawtucket (on Benefit Street), which, if you consult a map, is a short walk to the South Attleboro station. To make this extension feasible, RIPTA is designing a bus turnaround in Pawtucket that would cost $300,000.

Now wait a second. The walk from the turnaround to the train station, estimated at two minutes, is not a terrible thing for most commuters on a spring day. But it can be very difficult in a snowstorm. And it might make the service useless for disabled people. One of the key missions of public transportation is to help those who can’t drive get around.

It’s been suggested that RIPTA work with GATRA (the Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transportation Authority) to provide service between the station and downtown Pawtucket. That approach would make more sense than spending $300,000 to almost create such a connection.

But why-oh-why should there be a federal law that denies money to bus systems that cross state lines? Rhode Island and much of southeastern Massachusetts are all part of the same metropolitan area, the 37th largest in the U.S. Travel between the Attleboros and Seekonk and Pawtucket and Providence should be seamless.

We urge — no insist — that our representatives in Washington work on changing (or getting an exemption to) the law that inhibits public transportation links among communities in multi-state regions. Forcing buses to end at state lines that are more meaningful on maps than in people’s daily lives is simply not rational.

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http://www.valleybreeze.com/Free/MAIN-1-6-PAW-Soup-Kitchen-saved

Cumberland businessman rescues Pawtucket Soup Kitchen

PAWTUCKET - A Cumberland businessman has come to the rescue of the Pawtucket Soup Kitchen, granting an end-of-the-year donation to help secure a new director there.

John Pinkos, owner and president of textile manufacturer Texcel Inc. on Meeting Street in Cumberland, has donated a sum of more than $30,000, helping to avert the planned closure of the soup kitchen last Friday, Jan. 1.

"It's an immediate need and it's in our community," Pinkos told The Breeze when reached at his office. Pinkos declined to state the exact amount of his donation.

After hearing the news of Pinkos' generosity, the Pawtucket Soup Kitchen's board of directors voted unanimously last Thursday to reverse an earlier decision to shut down the kitchen due to the lack of a new director.

Rather than giving the money to a national or statewide charity, Pinkos said the money has been reinvested back into the local community.

Following the donation, Pinkos has now agreed to serve on the board of directors for the Pawtucket Soup Kitchen, an opportunity he said he's "very excited" about. His wife has served for some time as a volunteer at the soup kitchen on Walcott Street. The couple are Providence residents.

Pawtucket Soup Kitchen founder Ernie Marot had been planning to retire after 18 years on Jan. 1, but has now agreed to stay on through Jan. 15 as board members proceed with a search for a new director.

Pinkos' donation supplies the "Christmas miracle" soup kitchen volunteers were hoping for even as they announced last month that the organization would cease operations at the start of the new year. They now have enough to pay a new director's salary for one full year from the date he or she starts.

This is not the first time Pinkos has come to the rescue of a local charitable organization. In 2007 The Valley Breeze reported that the philanthropist, who regularly deflects attention away from himself and back to the work of the organizations he supports, had helped keep the food pantry of the Lighthouse Christian Church afloat. Two years ago he approached the owner of the Cadillac Mills complex where his business operates and inquired about putting the food pantry in vacant space at the mill.

Pinkos would then step forward to pay the lease for the food pantry.

"You don't normally get to see (charity work) in action," Pinkos told The Breeze at the time.

Marot, whose passion for helping others drove him to establish the Pawtucket Soup Kitchen in a community where the need was great, has run the six-day-a-week operation since its inception in 1992. At 81 years old he has "been a saint beyond compare," according to board member Maggi Rogers, as he's kept the kitchen running non-stop with no compensation to show for it.

That same commitment level should not be expected of a new leader, said Rogers.

"The next director has the right not to give over his entire life for the betterment of mankind," she said.

A months-long search for a full-time director had been hampered by a lack of funding for the position, according to board members, but they're confident they now have the funding - and the needed list of qualified applicants - to move the process forward.

Several "qualified candidates" have applied for the director position, say board members, and Pinkos' donation now gives them the luxury of selecting the best one available.

In addition to cooking and serving meals to as many as 80 or more people at the kitchen, Marot has also headed up efforts by soup kitchen volunteers to deliver meals each week to those who can't reach the kitchen. He travels several times a month to solicit more than $20,000 a year in funds from donors. Like Marot, a new director will have the free use of a car through the soup kitchen.

The Pawtucket Soup Kitchen, located in the basement of St. Joseph Church at 193 Walcott St., serves dinner daily at 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, with brunch served at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Board members have said the goal is to create a lasting funding structure for the Pawtucket Soup Kitchen so they can afford to pay a director beyond this year. Part of the job description for a new director will be to find new sources of funding through grants, additional donors and fund-raisers.

"We want to make sure things are done right, that this is a self-sustaining operation when we're through," said Rogers. "We've never funded a salary position before."

Anyone interested in applying for the director's position at the Pawtucket Soup Kitchen should call 369-4298.