FALL RIVER Bill Desmarais says he’ll settle for backwards.
“Instead of step one, two, three it’s three, two, one. But that’s OK as long as it gets done,” the senior vice commander of the Fall River and Greater Fall River War Veterans Council said.
Desmarais was referring to the recent volunteer-driven creation of a shady and cool picnic ground on the banks of the South Watuppa Pond adjacent to the former Dave’s Beach, which closed in the early 1970s.
The ribbon cutting for the single-acre, city site at the bottom of Jefferson Street to be known as Fall River Family Picnic Grove is scheduled for noon on Saturday, July 31.
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“I’m said, ‘Are you OK. Do you need help?’ He was non-responsive.”
He was about to return home to call 911 when an ambulance and fire truck turned the corner. Relief filled him, then confusion. The trucks stopped up the street. He started walking toward them and found a second man six houses down.
“He is out, too. Unresponsive, lying flopped over.”
That’s when he noticed a third man, this one lying right in the middle of 109 Avenue near 96 Street. That’s who paramedics were working on.
The number of deaths from overdose have been climbing, not just in the inner city but across Edmonton. These three lived this time, but O’Hara’s walk continued to be eventful.
FALL RIVER Thanks to the revitalized Building Blocks Program under Mayor Paul Coogan s administration there are two less extremely blighted properties in two Fall River neighborhoods and some pretty happy residents.
“This should have been done a long time ago,” said Lawton Street resident Antonio Quental. “There were rats and animals living in there, especially in winter. It feels like it s been like that for 10,000 years.”
Quental has lived across from 230 Lawton Street, a bungalow that was abandoned for years and determined by city inspectors that the structure could not be saved.
Funding for demolition or rehabilitation
The city, through the Community Development Agency, has again partnered with the Abandoned Housing Initiative Receivership program through the state Attorney General’s office. The program, which provides loans for property rehabilitation or demolition, was first introduced during former Mayor Will Flanagan’s tenure with nota