pb update

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

RE/MAX Real Estate in new location on Bradford Street

RE/MAX Real Estate is now located in the old Striper Moon spot on Bradford Street in the brick Tavares Building. (old water company location) They are advertising many Bristol homes under $300K in the window. Bristol Looms is still located in the back of the building on the second floor.

Deborah Gist new education commissioner for RI

Deborah Gist is the new RI Commissioner of Education. She started this job on July 1, 2009 and was appointed by the RI Board of Regents. She is sincere, energetic, curious and so far very active in the East Bay. To my knowledge she has visited this area twice for listening tours and once to quell fears of the H1N1 virus surrounding the death of Bristol's Victoria Sousa.

She was recently the focus of a public forum in Warren set up as one of five across the state of RI to solicit ideas from citizens and to explain her goals and plans for education reform. She has questioned the idea of teacher seniority being the only method of advancement in our schools noting that placing emphasis on teacher excellence, innovation and performance should not be overlooked. Her statewide tours are part of information gathering for a Federal grant application called 'Race to the Top' - where millions of dollars in grant money if received can be used to aid RI education reform. If you would like to share ideas with Ms. Gist please go to her website. For more about her priorities and to view a short video, go to the commissioners website at:http://www.ride.ri.gov/Commissioner/

Bristol Holiday Preview Stroll this Friday night

Don't forget that almost all of Bristol's downtown shops will be open this Friday evening from 5 - 9 pm opening the season for Holiday shopping and the start of the Bristol Snowflake Raffle.(Read more about this a few entries down) This just came in from the Beehive Cafe. They will be open until 10 pm Friday evening serving yummy Hot Desserts. Here are the details:

THIS FRIDAY November 20th is the annual BRISTOL HOLIDAY PREVIEW NIGHT when all are invited to stroll around town and inspect all the beautiful things on display in our downtown shops for the Christmas Season. Most of the retailers put out wine and nibbles etc so it can be a merry evening. The Beehive Cafe is doing their HOT DESSERT NIGHT. A great time to rest weary feet and have a scrumptious dessert. They will be open until 10pm. Here's the dessert menu.They will have soup too!

Pumpkin Creme Brulee

Local Apple Streusel Tart

Chocolate Pecan Cinnamon Buns

Warm Plate of Cookies with milk

"affogato" - hot espresso poured over homemade vanilla ice cream with mocha sauce

Pear Crisp

$ 7.95 per person

Monday, November 16, 2009

New art gallery to open in Bristol

A new art gallery owned by Nancy Pitchard is coming to Bristol at 423 Hope Street and will be opening fairly soon. It will be called The Bristol Art Gallery and is located on the south (left) side of the main Belvedere Hotel/Condos entrance. It's a gorgeous space for showing art. Clean with high ceilings and plenty of light. Details to follow.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Bristol's DBMA Snowflake Raffle

Something BIG is happening to Bristol businesses this month. It's called the Bristol Snowflake Raffle. There are huge cash prizes. Every time you spend $25. at any participating business (almost ALL of downtown Bristol) you get a FREE raffle ticket. (Buy an appliance from Gils and you'll get tons of raffle tickets!) The raffle begins this Friday, November 20 the day of DBMA's Holiday Shopping Preview and runs thru December 20 - the last Sunday before Christmas. The event is sponsored by the Downtown Bristol Merchants Association (DBMA) and supported by 60+ local businesses including the East Bay Newspapers and the Town of Bristol. The idea was brought to DBMA's attention by Bristol business owners and residents, Susan O'Donnell and Nick Kearney from Sue Casa and Striper Moon. They are the event organizers. Thank you Susan and Nick for your persistence in bringing this terrific idea to Bristol and thanks to all the participating businesses, sponsors as well as the Bristol Economic Development Commission in helping to make this happen.

First prize? $3000. with second and third - $1000 and $500 respectively. The drawing will be the Sunday before Christmas, December 20 at 6 pm on lower State Street. Ticket holders must be present to win. SHOP LOCAL and WIN!

Look for the large circular snowflake image in windows of participating businesses!

Friday, November 13, 2009

New Noise Study group to meet

The newly formed Bristol Noise Study group will hold its first meeting on Tuesday, December 1 at Town Hall at 7 pm.

This group is going to have its work cut out for itself...Luckily it is a large (15 total) and hopefully will divide up into smaller working units. All people who applied were given appointments. (No new names will be taken.) They are:

Nathan Calouro, Christy Nadalin. Peter Wilbur, Joe Antinucci, Tom Pasqual Jr.

David Raposa, Mike Ferreira, Stephen Barker, Karen Binder, Anthony Buono, and Richard Ruggeiro.

Town Council members David Barboza and Ray Cordeiro as well as Bristol Police Chief (or a designee) and Ed Tanner, Town Planner will also be members. The first meeting will be spent creating a mission statement, identifying goals, electing officers and possibly working off a document Ken Marshall spoke of from Rutgers University in NJ as a framework that can be modified for specific towns. (It includes the use of noise meters.) Mary Parella brought up the possibility of creating a map of Bristol noise hot spots. In the long term, the Bristol noise study group may be the beginning of the formation of a RI state wide noise ordinance. This group will be dealing with all forms of noise: Boom boxes, loud motorcycles, trucks and cars, radios, leaf blowers, cannons, bands, blasting, idling engines and celebratory events to name only some. It is hoped that their work will be completed by May 15, 2010.

Join Colt-Andrews and 'Novel Idea' Booksellers on Holiday Preview Night, November 20

Please join Colt-Andrews School Holiday Bazaar and a 'Novel Idea' Booksellers on Bristol's Holiday Shopping Night to Shine - November 20 starting at 5 pm downtown for holiday cheer and a Christmas book signing about saving a talking seal inspired by Ryder Ferris, Colt Andrews student and Bristol resident. (Son of Nina Murphy and Bart Ferris) Click on images once to enlarge.