UPS & DOWNS

Thumbs up to ‘Wild Bill’ Nickerson’s remarkable American-flag styled roofing project, profiled this week in The Call and The Times. Nickerson re-shingled the entire roof of his home on Putnam Pike in Glocester with the red, white and blue Stars and Stripes. From conception to completion, the proj- ect was a labor of love – inspired by Nickerson’s late wife Josey – and it showed in the finished product. We won’t be surprised to see imitators pop up around the region as news of the project continues to spread.

Thumbs up to everyone in Rhode Island who is putting pressure on the General Assembly leadership to clean up its act regarding ethics reform and legislative grant reform. Gov. Gina Raimondo, the state Republican party, and the state’s largest newspaper, the Providence Journal, have all stepped up the pressure on Democratic legislators and their leadership. We’d like to join the chorus supporting sweeping ethics reform as supported by Raimondo and government watchdog groups such as Common Cause, and we second the Journal’s opinion that the time has come to either revamp or do away with the scandal-plagued grant program.

Thumbs down to the North Smithfield Town Council’s resolution last week against the regionalization of emergency dispatching services. We praised the dispatch plan in this recently because it makes sense not only as a cost-saver, but because it would likely improve safety and efficiency. But like so many recent issues in the town, it’s hard to tell if this vote was made after a careful consideration of the town’s best interest, or if it was driven by a mixture of politics and personality conflict. We hope North Smithfield voters are paying close attention to these events as we move toward election season.