1998

Whose mall is it, anyway?
January 23
The mall is being built, it's pretty clear from that gigantic web of rafters and concrete slowly growing downtown. But the replacement of Fleet bank's loan to developer J. Daniel Lugosch III by another loan from the Japanese bank Nomura -- a bank that reported a $286 million loss for the first half of this year -- made Richard P. Morin wonder how good an idea it is to count on the Far East for one of Rhode Island's biggest projects.

For Nomura, a company known for taking risks, the deal was akin to investing in a Third World country -- their only interest was to make money. Fleet, of course, is also an international player. Still, [Fleet] certainly has proved to be a supporter of Rhode Island over the years, with offices and jobs here and hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in local charities and causes. As a result, the decision to switch banks has caused a ripple of concern among some mall observers.

Creature feature
February 20
Bill Rodriguez looked behind the masks to the heart of Erminio Pinque's fanciful creations.

For the past decade, a local fixture at least as bizarre as the Big Blue Bug alongside Route 95 has been loudly, if unobtrusively, breaking loose from its moorings and getting on the move. We've known them as the Big Nazo Bowling Alley Band, blasting out knock-down-drag-out rhythm 'n' blues (they opened for SpinalTap at Great Woods). They are led by signature Big Nazo (as in naso, Italian for nose) Quasimodo, whose hump is formed by the puppeteer's head. And they're as big and brash as their names. Edna Silverfish. Leslie Putzbucket. Dr. Sal Monella. The Big Nazo Puppet Studio creations are a varied lot.

Down in the dump
March 13
Someone at the T.H. Baylis chemical company dumped and abandoned thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals in Warwick, and someone at the company stored enough chemicals in decaying drums to potentially cause a cloud of cyanide gas. And yet, despite mounting clean-up costs, damaged land, and no fines issued, Steven Stycos reported how the state might end up helping the owners of the company, Sanitas, get out of their financial trouble.

As a result, taxpayers are on the hook, financially -- first for the $800,000 spent on a federal cleanup and perhaps now for a million more in cleanup costs to build the train station. More disturbing, Rhode Island's acquisition of the contaminated site [in order to build a train station], would free Sanitas of one of its remaining liabilities, which would put the company (which never filed for bankruptcy) in a stronger position to borrow money and acquire new businesses.

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