Rise & Shine! Your Newport County guide for Aug. 30
Rise & Shine! I’m Scott Barrett, managing editor for The Daily News, and today is Aug. 30, the 242nd day of the year — 123 days remain in 2022. On this day in 1980, American singer-songwriter Christopher Cross hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his yacht-rock single “Sailing.”
Here & Now
• They never really saw it coming.
Rob and Pat Connerney, along with two others, were aboard their 30-foot sailboat competing in a regatta when a larger powerboat approached from behind at a high rate of speed. The Connerneys and crew members Ed and Meredith Adams, all Middletown residents, could only brace for the contact as they were little more than sitting ducks on Narragansett Bay.
The powerboat, estimated by Rob Connerney to be traveling better than 30 knots, collided with the sailboat, ripping off the bow and rendering it disabled. Had the powerboat arrived a fraction of a second later, the consequences could be been devastating.
“We came within 6 feet of getting killed, the four of us,” Rob Connerney said.
Is there a problem with boating safety and a general lack of communication on Narragansett Bay? Late last week, I spoke with the Connerneys as well as others in the sailing community to explore these questions. Read my story here.
• Coming up on Wednesday night, the Middletown Planning Board will hold a public hearing on a proposed mixed-use development that would include more than 60 units dedicated to those in the low- to moderate-income brackets. I have a preview of the meeting here.
• The Newport Pell Bridge ramp realignment project could increase the amount of water flooding into the Prescott Hall Watershed by nearly 3 million gallons. What's being done in an effort to curb the issue? Reporter Savana Dunning writes about it here.
• After some discussion last week, the Newport City Council voted 5-2 in favor of a resolution to ask the city solicitor for advice on drafting an ordinance to regulate electric bicycle rentals. Savana Dunning has the recap here.
• Taking over for a legend isn't easy, but that's the position Dillon Sheridan finds himself in as the first-year coach of the Tiverton High football team. How will his fare in his rookie season? Sports reporter Steve Rogers answers that and other burning questions surrounding the Tigers here.
• A District Court judge on Monday spared the congregation from eviction that for a more than a century has called Touro Synagogue its spiritual home on technical grounds — a defective date in the filing. Read more here.
• Some Portsmouth students are back in classrooms today, and the Portsmouth Police Department is using a three-pronged approach to enforce traffic laws. Learn more here.
• Rhode Island’s average gas price fell 13 cents from last week to $3.95 per gallon, the first time since February it dropped below $4. That's 48 cents lower than a month ago, 89 cents higher than a year ago and 10 cents higher than the national average.
• The Music on the Lawn series at St. John's Church wraps up tonight with the MSD Quintet and Doug Woolverton. Learn more here.
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Born today
Andy Roddick (athlete), 40
Cameron Diaz (actress), 50
Michael Chiklis (actor), 59
Lewis Black (comedian), 74
Warren Buffett (businessman), 92
Weather report
Low tides: 3:42 a.m., 4:05 p.m.
High tides: 10:28 a.m., 10:42 p.m.
Sunrise: 6:08 a.m. Sunset: 7:23 p.m.
Water temperature: 73.2 degrees.
Municipal meetings
Tiverton
Harbor Commission, 9 a.m.
Economic Development Commission, 9 a.m.
Local obituaries
Today is …
National Beach Day
National Harper Day
International Whale Shark Day
Trivia Tuesday
When Portsmouth High School was under construction in the early 1960s, it was built onto an existing school that had opened a few years earlier. What was the name of that school? Send guesses to sbarrett@newportri.com.
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This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Rise & Shine! Your Newport County guide for Aug. 30, 2022
