At a scheduled 5 pm meeting this afternoon, the Johnston School Committee is expected to award a contract for natural gas service to Direct Energy, a local subsidiary of Britain-based Centrica. The expected vote follows the installation of new gas-fired boilers and water heaters at Johnston High School last spring. Johnston Town Councilors provided $500,000 in town funds toward the replacement of the boilers, the first major update to the system since the high school opened in 1963, and local officials secured another $200,000 in grant money to cover the costs for the project. School …

  After the selections for President and U.S. Senator and Representative, below the ballot slots for town council and school committee — on the third page, in fact, of the 2012 ballot for Johnston voters — are three referenda questions that could have a major effect on the town. [Need info on this year's election? Check out the JohnstonPatch Election Guide.] The first, Question 8, asks voters to decide whether the office of Mayor should be limited to two, four-year terms. Question 9 covers $4 million in bonds to fix local roads, and Question 10 seeks $1 million for open space preservation. …

  If you haven’t yet registered to vote, head over to Johnston Town Hall and get it off your to-do list.Today is National Voter Registration Day, and thousands of local, state and national organizations have mobilized to make sure millions of people don’t miss the chance to cast their vote in this year’s elections.Six million people didn’t vote in the 2008 elections because they either did not know how to register or because they missed the voter registration deadline. The voter registration deadline for Rhode Island is Oct. 7. Mail ballots may be requested up to Oct. 16. Here’s information …

  For this year's election, scheduled for Nov. 6, all eligible voters will be required to show proof of identification at their polling place — and there's still time to register and obtain a Voter ID card. The accompanying video (running time 1 min.) provides a summary of how to get a free Rhode Island Voter ID card through the office of Secretary of State Ralph Mollis. For more information on the Voter ID card, including whether you need one and how to get one, call the secretary of state's office at (401) 222-2340, TTY 711; email to elections@sos.ri.gov; or visit the Voter ID card web page…

  At tonight's Johnston Town Council meeting, councilors are expected to consider two bond items totalling $5 million to repair roads and preserve open space. Tonight's session is scheduled to begin at 7 pm at Johnston Municipal Court. According to tonight's agenda, which is attached to this article, the council is expected to vote on adding a $4 million bond item to the November ballot "for the design and construction of roadway improvements" at various sites around town. The second bond item, valued at $1 million, would provide funding to the Johnston Municipal Land Trust to purchase land …

How To Find Them: The General Assembly website offers this list of all House members. Members from Johnston include Rep. John Carnevale (Dist. 13), a member of the House Finance Committee; Deputy House Majority Leader Peter J. Petrarca (Dist. 44); and Reps. Stephen Ucci (Dist. 42) and Deborah Fellela (Dist. 43). Locate Your Rep: In order to see which Representative is in your voting district, visit the Secretary of State's Voter Information Center. Enter your street address and ZIP code or town (if you don't know your ZIP code), and the database will list all of the elected officials in your …

In one of the final contests of the 2012 Presidential race, Rhode Island holds its primary vote on Tuesday, Apr. 24. Schools in Johnston will be closed, since many of them are polling places in town. Here's a quick run-down of tomorrow's primary, including where you can find your local polling place: Where do I vote? Rhode Island Secretary of State Ralph Mollis's office mantains a Voter Information Center polling place search web site, where voters can find where to vote. Johnston is in Congressional District 2, so all voters will have the same ballot, which the Secretary of State's office …

The selection of a new Human Resources Coordinator is among the agenda items for tonight's Johnston School Committee meeting, scheduled for 7 pm at N.A. Ferri Middle School. Committee members have three separate votes scheduled for the appointment, according to the agenda for the public portion of the meeting, which will follow an executive session beginning at 6 pm. First, the board is expected to make the formal appointment; next, members will take a vote on a new contract for the candidate; and finally, the committee is expected to consider a resolution that would provide the new …

Starting with the 2012 election season — including the Apr. 24 Presidential primary in Rhode Island — all eligible voters will be required to show proof of identification at their polling place. Although the deadline to register to vote for the Presidential primary has already passed, those seeking to vote in the September primaries and November elections still have time to register and obtain a Voter ID card. The accompanying video (running time 1 min.) provides a summary of how to get a free Rhode Island Voter ID card through the office of Secretary of State Ralph Mollis. For more …

Tomorrow night at 6 p.m. at Ferri Middle School, the Johnston School Committee is scheduled to hold its second budget workshop on its proposed $49.52 million spending plan for fiscal 2013. The draft budget presented at the first budget workshop, held Mar. 15, is attached to this article. Supt. Dr. Bernard DiLullo conducted a line-by-line review of the budget last Thursday, and committee members decided to withhold any suggestions for cuts in the spending plan. According to the budget document released by the school administration, the fiscal 2013 proposal currently seeks an additional $585,…

The Johnston Town Council is scheduled to hold a second vote tonight on an ordinance that would prohibit traffic on Barnes Avenue, and consider floating new municipal bonds to restructure the town's long-term debt. Tonight's council meeting — the agenda for which is attached to this article — is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Johnston Municipal Court. Last month, Mayor Joseph Polisena requested the parking ban in front of Sarah Dyer Barnes Elementary School after a neighbor Arthur Iannelli testified in January about the potential danger of parents parking in the roadway and blocking it. The town…

Among the scheduled items on tonight's town council agenda is a proposal to ban parking on a portion of Barnes Avenue, near Sarah Dyer Barnes Elementary School. The Johnston Insider recently profiled resident Arthur Iannelli, who told the town council at its January meeting that buses arriving at the school up to an hour before dismissal — in addition to parents parking on both sides of the one-way street — are causing a potentially unsafe situation. Tonight's proposal would make a change to town Ordinance 220-73, adding Barnes Avenue to a list of streets where parking is prohibited. [Link …

The Johnston School Committee is scheduled to consider several coaching appointments — including one for a coach who was denied a previously-vacant position — during its meeting at 7 p.m. tonight at Ferri Middle School. A copy of tonight's agenda is attached to this article. At its Oct. 18 meeting, the school board voted 5-0 to deny the junior varsity coaching position to Carmine Giarrusso, who is on tonight's agenda for consideration of the middle school girls' basketball coach vacancy. Several other positions — including newspaper advisors for the high school and Ferri Middle Schools — are …

School Supt. Dr. Bernard DiLullo is scheduled to give an update to the work to replace the boilers at Johnston High School at tonight's scheduled school board meeting, to be held at N.A. Ferri Middle School. The public session is set to start at 7 p.m. A copy of tonight's agenda is attached to this article. At a special joint session of the town council and school board on Oct. 21, each panel approved contracts for replacement of the two aging boilers and removal of asbestos insulation and an oil tank. (See a view of what the boiler room looked like on Oct. 24.) During its budget hearings in …

Town Building Inspector Ben Nascenzi is scheduled to give an update to the Johnston Town Council on recent work at the Apple Valley Citgo Food Mart on Greenville Avenue at tonight's scheduled meeting. The public session is set to begin at 7 p.m. at the municipal court. A copy of the agenda for tonight's meeting is attached to this article. At issue is whether the gas station's owner, Mohammed Amer, has complied with town orders to replace a fence he took down last year, leading neighbors to complain; plant new grass in a 10-ft. buffer zone on the property; and move a guardrail that had been …

Ordinances that would change the physical requirements for Johnston Fire Department positions and set new guidelines for hiring and promotions in the police and fire departments are among the items on the agenda for tonight's scheduled Johnston Town Council meeting. A copy of the agenda is attached to this article. The five proposed ordinances were introduced at last month's council meeting; tonight is a public hearing on the proposals, after which a vote by the council is expected. The session is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the municipal court.

The Johnston Retirement Board is scheduled to consider a bid by TD Bank to manage the town's pension funds tonight at 6 p.m. at the senior center. Appointed in April by Mayor Joseph M. Polisena, members of the pension review panel are also expected to review proposals by Dahab Associates and Segal Advisors to serve as investment advisors to the town. Johnston currently has some $42 million in its pension fund for retired firefighters and police officers. Municipal employees are enrolled in the state's Municipal Employees Retirement System (MERS). A copy of the agenda for tonight's meeting is …

The town council is scheduled to hear a zoning change request by the owners of Briarcliffe Manor on Old Pocasset Road at tonight's meeting, scheduled to 7 p.m. at the Municipal Court. A copy of the agenda for tonight's meeting is attached to this article. Last week, the town's planning board gave preliminary approval to a proposal by Briarcliffe for a new two-story assisted living facility, and voted 5-2 to support the zone change that the council is scheduled to consider tonight. Residents who live near the nursing home have protested the move, saying it would not fit with the residential …

The Johnston Zoning Board of Review is scheduled to meet tonight and consider an application by Stop & Shop for a permit to place a gas station at the current site of Newport Creamery on Atwood Avenue. Last month, the town's planning board approved the proposal to tear down the restaurant and replace it with a gas station. The agenda for tonight's meeting is attached to this article. Watch JohnstonPatch for coverage of this meeting, and click on the green "Keep me posted!" link below to receive e-mail notifications when follow-up stories are published.

The Johnston School Committee is scheduled to revisit plans for a new bus contract at its meeting tonight at 7 p.m. at Ferri Middle School. A copy of tonight's agenda is attached to this article. At its March 8 meeting, the school board approved plans to consider a multi-district contract for bussing. Also on the agenda is a decision on continuing the co-op hockey team agreement between Johnston and North Providence High Schools. The J/NP squad won the Division III state title earlier this year. Watch JohnstonPatch for more on this meeting.