MARCH 21-27, 2013
Serving Smithfield, Scituate, Foster and Glocester
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Observer
the valley breeze &
Sounds of Rivalry
Sweet Visit to the Past
Musicians play to win in Ponaganset
High School Battle of the Bands. PAGE 6
Smith-Appleby House hosts maple
sugar demonstration. PAGE 8
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Day of appreciation
Whew! Right-on-red
turns are barred at
Putnam-Pleasant
View intersection
By GERRY GOLDSTEIN
Valley Breeze & Observer
Correspondent
gerryg76@verizon.net
Valley Breeze & Observer photo by Elise Manahan
Members of the Korean War Veterans Association met at the Glocester Senior Center on March 13 to
receive certificates of appreciation from the United States Department of Defense in honor of the 60th
anniversary of the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War. Rhode Island Korean War Veteran
Chapter 3 member Bob Pruefer, of Johnston, who served in the United States Air Force, smiles at a joke
made by Lt. General Reginald A. Centracchio during the certificate of appreciation ceremony. See more
photos on page 10.
SMITHFIELD – By "fixing" something that wasn't
broken, the state has gummed
up traffic in Greenville Center
and should reverse its action,
the town's Traffic Safety
Commission was told at a
recent meeting.
The commission agreed,
voting to ask the State Traffic
Commission to once again prohibit right turns into the westbound lanes of Putnam Pike
from Pleasant View Avenue
when the Pleasant View light
is red.
Until recently, right turns on
red were completely barred
there, but the state now allows
them except from 7 to 9 a.m.
and 3 to 6 p.m.
An unintended consequence,
according to town resident
Dwight D. Darling, has been
to eliminate gaps in traffic on
Putnam Pike that had allowed
vehicles coming north on nearby Greenville Avenue to turn
left onto Putnam Pike.
There is no signal light at
See TRAFFIC, Page 9
More accolades for Smithfield's fantastique teacher, Dempsey
By GERRY GOLDSTEIN
Valley Breeze & Observer
Correspondent
gerryg76@verizon.net
SMITHFIELD – If you
see French teacher Margarita
Dempsey around town today,
congratulate her for being the
crème de la crème.
She's been named "Teacher
of the Year" by the Northeast
Conference on the Teaching
of Foreign Languages, an association of educators representing 14 states from Maine to
Virginia.
Rhode Island's foreign language Teacher of the Year
in 2012, Dempsey has been
teaching French and Spanish at
Smithfield High School for 21
years and "represents the best
that a teacher can be," according to accolades she received
with last year's award.
Her newest honor comes
from an association that's the
largest of its kind in the country and represents educators
in all languages at all levels
of teaching from kindergarten
Awarded as
Smithfield's #1
Hearing Practice
©2013 Breeze Publications Inc.
through college.
As this year's
winner she's
eligible to
compete for
national Foreign
Language
Teacher of the
DEMPSEY
Year next fall.
Dempsey, 59
and a resident of Greenville,
was chosen at the group's
annual conference in Baltimore
earlier this month, attended
by some 1,000 educators who
convene for professional development and interaction with
colleagues.
A graduate of Skidmore
College, where she majored
See DEMPSEY, Page 11
