Crime, Affordable Housing Stories Attracted Most Readers in 2013

News stories on crime and mayhem always attract readers. It’s no different on Barrington Patch, where the top stories of 2013 included plenty of police and fire department incidents and arrest reports.

The recent story about nuns at the Carmelite Monastery thwarting a mariuana delivery is an example. It topped readership that day.

And stories about two teens driving too slow in Barrington before being busted for marijuana possession and a young man skinny-dipping in Wood’s Pond garnered a lot of attention in 2013 as well.

But the top stories of all of this year in Barrington, according to our readers, were the following:

An incoherent teenage boy was found wandering around the Alfred Drowne neighborhood in West Barrington after an apparent evening of binge drinking on the beach. Click here for the whole story.

A family returned to its home in the Hampden Meadows neighborhood after a vacation to find that some teens lived and played in their home while they were away. Click here for that story.

A Barrington man was among eight men from throughout Rhode Island charged with possessing and circulating child pornography. Click here for that story.

Affordable housing stories also received significant readership in Barrington in 2013, especially those concerning the proposed "Palmer Pointe" development off of Sowams Road in the Hampden Meadows neighborhood and the proposed "Residences at the Preserve" condo development in Nockum Hill.

The former was approved by the Planning Board despite persistent opposition that has resulted in a lawsuit being filed by a citizens group organized to stop the development. Click here for that story. 

The latter was rejected by the Planning Board in 2012, but has been appealed to the State Housing Appeal Board, which is still considering the appeal. Click here for the most recent story on that appeal.  

Barrington also got significant attention by readers all over Rhode Island when it began its two-year ban of plastic grocery bags in January, 2013.  A recent survey done by Roger Williams University students indicates that most people favor the ban and they continue to shop the same way they did before the ban. Click here for the story on the survey.

Barrington launched its own Municipal Court in 2013. Barrington attorney Francis “Frank” Connor was selected to be the first judge to fill the two-year terms of office. Click here for that story.

The RI transportation department launched another bridge replacement project in Barrington, with RIDOT Director Michael Lewis saying that the state agency has a lot to make up for in Barrington. Click here for that story. 

Perhaps the most followed school stories in Barrington in 2013 were those that followed the quest for all-day kindergarten. A plan to add all-day K by next September is in the works after the School Committee was thwarted in getting additional money for all-day kindergarten at the Financial Town Meeting in May. Click here for the superintendent’s plan for kindergarten in Barrington.