After bash, city looks forward - The Woonsocket Call

A2 THE CALL FROM PAGE ONE
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Bash
on Main Street with her two small children
said Friday afternoon when asked about the
large scaffolding covered with panels of art
depicting scenes of Woonsocket history. “I
didn’t really take a good look at it,” the
woman said before moving on with her kids.
Ashley Pelletier, 25, of Smithfield, said she
also did not attend the Anniversary celebration
Thursday but knew the Arch was made for the
event and had watched it being put together as
she came to the city each day.
“It looks pretty neat,” Pelletier said.
The arch is expected to remain at the junction
of Main and Blackstone streets for at least
another week and for those who had attended
the Block Party, it might be a fitting tribute to
all the work that went into planning it.
Ronnie Chaplin, 56, a 1975 graduate of the
high school, can see the arch from the window
of his apartment on Main Street and said it
shows how much work went into the putting
on the one-day city celebration.
“I thought it was very well planned and
very well orchestrated and fun for everyone
involved,” Chaplin said. “It gave a good representation
of the city what we are all about
and what we should be all about,” Chaplin, a
patient advocate.
The gathering of city residents Thursday
night showed the strength of the city’s diversity,
its ability to bring together a mix of different
cultures and different ethnic groups,”
Chaplin said.
That was an improvement over the days he
when he was a young black teenager growing
up in the city and you belonged to one group
and someone else belonged to another, he
said.
Chaplin’s late mother, Mary (Dandy)
Chaplin Watson, had also been aware of the
difference in the city in those days and 50
years ago this week had joined other black
representatives of Rhode Island in the March
on Washington, D.C. where the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a
Dream” speech on his belief that everyone in
the nation would someday enjoy freedom and
equality.
“She was from Woonsocket and you know
that March was really all about getting to
where we are today,” Chaplin said. The city
was a different place back then, and in some
ways, with all the businesses open on Main
Street and the opportunity for jobs, it was better
off than it is today with its economic crisis
, he said.
But in other ways, the city’s has improved
from where it used to be, and that change has
come in a world that is even more competitive
and economically challenging, according to
Chaplin.
The Arch could be viewed a symbol of the
city moving forward, Chaplin said, for that
reason he hopes it remains a bit longer.
“At night, it is all lit up and it is really a
Faire
at multiple birds of prey, wolves,
and many different types of felines
such as Bengal tigers, snow leopards,
and ligers to name a few.
Many contests and special
events will be held over the course
of the fair such as a “Beard and
Photo by Ernest A. Brown
The crowd builds on Main Street as the Block Party gets under way Thursday evening in a view
from the fourth floor of the Woonsocket Call.
pretty thing and I think they should make it as
some type of permanent gateway into the
city,” Chaplin said.
The Arch may not get that permanent status
just yet, but Albert G. Beauparlant, basking a
bit on Friday in the success of the Block
Party, said it will remain on display a while
longer due to the interest in the structure.
Mayor Leo T. Fontaine has also received a
letter from a couple who would like to be
married under the Arch and there was plenty
of additional talk about “what do we do with
the Arch,” on Friday, Beauparlant said. “Some
people want to keep it up until Autumnfest,”
Beauparlant said.
The fountain that had flowed from the top
of the scaffolding structure was taken down as
part of Friday’s clean up work and the
Blackstone Street blend under it reopened to
traffic. Beauparlant said he plans to tighten up
all the art panels for the next few days of display
and is already working on holding a thank
you cook out for all the volunteers and supporters
of the block party next to it next week.
What was making him feel best on Friday
was the knowledge everything had gone well
on Thursday with very few glitches. The police
department, which had put on 20 additional
patrol members to provide security for the
event both in the large crowd on Main Street,
made only one arrest during the event, according
to Police Department Det. Jamie Paone. A
city man was arrested during the evening after
he jumped into the pool located at the bottom
of the Arch’s waterfall and initially refused to
Moustache Contest” with awards
for longest beard, most creative
beard, and most renaissance beard.
A “Game of Thrones” day where
fans of the books or the show can
compete for prizes in a trivia competition
will also be held.
However, it is the daily joust on
the “Tournament Field” that is by
far the most popular of the many
Faire events as knights on horseback
compete in the medieval competition.
Many Faire visitors attend the
event in medieval costume, or costumes
are available to rent inside
the Faire, but sneakers, boots or
sturdy footwear is recommended.
The Faire runs from Aug. 31 to
Oct. 20. on Saturdays and Sundays
get out.
The man subsequently got into a scuffle
with responding patrol officers and was
charged with disorderly conduct and simple
assault, according to Paone. Autumnfest will
typically have several disorderly conduct or
refusing to move incidents when it is underway,
and as a result Paone said the
Anniversary bash could be viewed as having
gone very well with all the people that showed
up at Main Street for the late afternoon and
nighttime celebration.
Beauparlant said his best memory of this
year’s Block Party’s came as the event closed
after 11 p.m. and he and his wife took a golf
cart ride up and down the venue’s course. The
couple’s daughter Ashley had been born after
the city held its 100th Anniversary Block Party
in 1988 and Beauparlant said that made the
ride 25 years later one that would be hard to
forget as the couple talked about the past 25
years. “People were coming up to us saying
thank you Mr. Beauparlant for coming back to
make this possible and that was really a memorable
moment,” he said.
The people who came to the event were the
real stars in Beauparlant’s mind because of
how they took pride in their city and were
respectful of each other as the celebration took
place. “It was amazing how clean the street
was because everyone used the trash bins that
had been put out,” he said. Some estimates,
including those from the police department,
projected as many as 32,000 people visited the
half mile stretch at some point during the
from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. as well as
Monday, Sept. 2 and Monday, Oct.
14. No pets are allowed on the
Faire grounds. Guns are prohibited
and “weapons” worn as part of a
costume are subject to certain
rules.
Tickets can be purchased online
or at the gate. Only cash is accepted
at the ticket gate. Admission is
block party’s run from 4 p.m. to 11. The
biggest potential threat to the smooth operation
of the event was averted just before the bands
started playing and the city’s Building
Inspector Leo Cote and the electrical inspector
discovered the power generators brought into
supply electricity to the stages needed to be
switch from a three-phase construction setting
to a single-phase for the event. The needed
changes were made in time as a result of the
inspectors help, he said.
The success of the event for Main Street
businesses, especially the restaurants such as
Chan’s, Vintage, Ciro’s, New York Lunch,
Tandoori, the Cakery and others in the food
court near Domino’s who all ran outdoor services,
could prompt the city to put on a smaller
size Block Party again next year, he noted.
“I am optimistic that there is a 90 percent
chance a smaller block party will be held on
Main Street next year,” he said. Beauparlant
himself hopes to be busy with other projects
such as his work with the city’s new
Redevelopment Agency to bring new businesses
and opportunities for employment into
Woonsocket. “I want to work on a road map
for the city to move forward,” he said.
The event Beauparlant, his co-chair Linda
Plays and all of the members of the
Anniversary Committee, its volunteers and
major sponsors created is not likely to be forgotten
quickly as Estelle Turgeon offered
Friday when found looking up at the Arch over
Main Street. “I was here and it was wonderful,”
she said. “Kudos to everyone who
worked on this. It’s just too bad that we don’t
have more of them.” Her late parents had operated
Wilfred’s Seafood in the city for many
years and would have been impressed by how
so many people worked together to make the
celebration a success.
“They would have been flabbergasted by
all of this and it would have reminded them
when Main Street was the city’s main business
district,” she said. “It was just a nice gathering
for everyone who came down to Main Street,”
she said.
Dan Peloquin, a local architect and volunteer
at the Stadium Theatre next to the Arch
also had high praise for the Block Party.
“Everything went smoothly and everyone
seemed to be enjoying themselves,” he said.
“We didn’t see anything we didn’t want to see
and everyone seemed to want to have a good
time, from young to old,” he said. The celebration
also was important for Main Street in
that it called plenty of attention to the businesses
that are still here, from River Falls,
Vintage and Ye Olde English at Market
Square to Chan’s and Ciro’s and the small but
growing cluster of businesses near the
Stadium.
“Anybody who came down here Thursday
night I think was impressed with what they
found despite all of the financial concerns we
have experienced over the last several years.
“It was a night for music, entertainment and
meeting old friends,” he said.
$28 for adults and $16 for children.
Group tickets can be purchased for
25 adults or more at a discount.
Parking is free.
If you go: From Providence take
195 East to I-495 North to Route
58 & follow signs to the gates.
Estimated driving time is 45 minutes.
Visit the Faire's website at
kingrichardsfaire.net.
Doctor
course of forty days...a total
of 312 Adderall 30 mg pills
were prescribed.
“In my opinion, it can be
stated with a reasonable
Lottery
RHODE ISLAND
The Numbers
7-2-7-5
MASSACHUSETTS
Mid-day number —
7-2-4-0
Last night’s number —
8-5-4-0
degree of medical certainty
that the medical care provided
by (Mashali) was substantially
below the standard of
care. His prescribing practices
were dangerous.”
Patient B, another female,
had violated her narcotic
contract with Mashali, which
means she was using too
much of a prescribed drug or
that there was evidence of
non-prescribed substances in
her system. Nevertheless,
Mashali prescribed her a
month’s worth of opioid
medication at a time.
Patient D, a male, died in
the spring of 2011, about
four months after Mashali
accepted him as a patient,
with three different kinds of
opiates in his system, oxycodone,
oxymorphone, morphine,
plus alprazolam, a
tranquilizer. Mashali was
prescribing him drugs even
though his initial toxicology
screen came back positive
for amphetamines and
cocaine, the reviewer said.
“It seems unlikely that any
pain clinician (or any clinician
of any specialty) would
prescribe opioids for a
patient on the same day that
a tox screen came back positive
for both amphetamine
and cocaine,” the reviewer
concluded. “The judgment
here is quite poor, and
despite (Mashali’s) assertion
that he would monitor the
patient at bi-weekly intervals,
the patient was not seen
again for four weeks.”
Another of Mashali’s
patients – Patient E, a female
– initially came to him for
Suboxone, a drug used to
wean addicts off heroin. She
died in the fall of 2012 with
a cocktail of opioids and
sedatives in her system,
including methadone;
diphenhydramine, a sedative;
oxycodone; carisprodal, a
muscle relaxer; bupropion,
an antidepressant; and
promethazine, a sedative.
The reviewer excoriated
Mashali for giving the
patient four times the supply
of Suboxone than the normal
protocol, and continuing the
regimen despite positive
screens for methadone,
which hadn’t been prescribed
to her, as well as the street
drug Ecstasy. The review
said, “In my opinion, this
standard of care would place
any patient at risk.”
Patient F, also a female,
died in 2011 with ethyl
alcohol, the painkiller fentanyl
and other drugs in her
system. The reviewer said
the case was “particularly
disturbing” because the
woman had a long history
of opioid, cocaine and alcohol
abuse. Despite Mashali’s
awareness of her history of
abuse and repeated stints in
rehab, “he continued to give
increased doses of opioids
often for a month’s worth of
pills at a time.”
The disciplinary board, an
arm of the state Department
of Health, suspended both
Mashali’s license to practice
and his controlled substances
registration, calling him “an
immediate threat to the
health, welfare and safety of
the public.” Mashali, who
has retained a lawyer,
according to health officials,
is entitled to an administrative
hearing within 10 days
to seek the repeal or amendment
of the order.
The disciplinary panel
instructed Mashali to make
arrangements for the continued
care of his patients with
a properly licensed physician.
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Syria
chemical weapons in its twoyear
civil war would be a "red
line" that would provoke a
strong U.S. response.
So far, only France has
indicated it would join a U.S.
strike on Syria.
Without widespread backing
from allies, "the nature of
the threat to the American
national security has to be
very, very clear," said retired
Army Brig. Gen. Charles
Brower, an international studies
professor at Virginia
Military Institute in Lexington,
Va.
"It's the urgency of that
threat that would justify the
exploitation of that power as
commander in chief — you
have to make a very, very
strong case for the clear and
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gathering danger argument to
be able to go so aggressively,"
Brower said Friday.
Obama is expected to
launch what officials have
described as a limited strike —
probably with Tomahawk
cruise missiles — against
Assad's forces.
Two days after the suspected
chemicals weapons attack
in Damascus suburbs, Obama
told CNN, "If the U.S. goes in
and attacks another country
without a U.N. mandate and
without clear evidence that can
be presented, then there are
questions in terms of whether
international law supports it;
do we have the coalition to
make it work?" He said:
"Those are considerations that
we have to take into account."
Lawmakers briefed on the
plans have indicated an attack
is all but certain. And Obama
advisers said the president was
prepared to strike unilaterally,
though France has said it is
ready to commit forces to an
operation in Syria because the
use of chemical weapons cannot
go unpunished.
The U.S. does not have
United Nations support to
strike Syria, and U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Kimoon
has urged restraint.
"Diplomacy should be given a
chance and peace given a
chance," he said Thursday.
Expected support from
Britain, a key ally, evaporated
as Parliament rejected a vote
Thursday endorsing military
action in Syria. And diplomats
with the 22-nation Arab
League said the organization
does not support military
action without U.N. consent,
an action that Russia would
almost certainly block. The
diplomats spoke anonymously
because of rules preventing
them from being identified.
Both Republican George
H.W. Bush and Democrat Bill
Clinton had U.N. approval for
nearly all of their attacks on
Iraq years earlier. In the 2003
invasion, which was ordered
by Republican George W.
Bush, 48 nations supported
the military campaign as a
coalition. Four nations — the
U.S., Britain, Australia and
Poland — participated in the
invasion.