(light music) - [Michelle] Tonight, hatch and release: bringing fish to Rhode Island's, lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams.

- Ask anybody, they'll tell you the first fish they caught, they'll remember it, 'cause they were praised and it was exciting and they couldn't believe it.

- [Pamela] And from Newport Socialite to suffragette, we explore the evolution of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont.

- She defined herself as a warrior.

- [Pamela] Then we meet one woman whose art helped her through the painful struggle with her husband's Alzheimer's disease.

- [Sara] It gave me a way to express how frustrated I was and somehow that relieved the frustration.

- [Michelle] Finally, what we've learned from the Washington Bridge draft report and the cost of Pawtuckets soccer stadium with Ted Nesi.

(bright music) (bright music continues) Good evening and welcome to Rhode Island PBS Weekly.

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

As spring approaches, Rhode Island's anglers are eager to cast their lines.

- But before they do, tens of thousands of fish have to make their way into the state's streams and ponds.

It's a program that dates back to the 1870s when there wasn't enough fresh water fish to meet the growing interest in recreational angling.

Tonight we go behind the scenes to see what it takes to hatch and release some of Rhode Island's catch of the day.

Long before anglers reel and trout, this is where you'll find them.

Tank after tank filled with tens of thousands of them.

At the Lafayette Trout Hatchery in North Kingstown, Rhode Island fish and wildlife employees are raising rainbow trout, brook trout and sebago salmon, a type of landlocked Atlantic salmon.

- This is our nursery area, our hatch house, where the fish start out their lives.

- [Michelle] Christine Dudley is the Deputy Chief of Freshwater Fisheries at the State's Department of Environmental Management, known as DEM.

Inside this hatch house, they're raising 250,000 trout.

Once they're about 18 months old, they'll be released into ponds, lakes, streams, and rivers throughout the state, - We are providing something for anglers to go after and enjoy, and we're providing them many different areas where they're easily accessible.

- If not for the work that happens inside of the state's three trout hatcheries.

Dudley says fishing enthusiasts wouldn't have enough trout to catch.

Why is it best to raise trout from the state's perspective?

- Trout indicate cool, clean, highly oxygenated water, so they're in pristine areas, that makes it a type of fish that is attractive to people.

- [Michelle] And lots of people are eager to get them.

Rhode Island has about 25,000 licensed fresh water recreational anglers, many fish specifically for trout.

Dudley says the state buys eggs, for instance, of rainbow trout, which aren't native to Rhode Island.

Brook trout is the only native trout species in the state.

Fish and wildlife workers also spawn some fish themselves.

- We take the eggs from the female, the milk from the male, mix that together so that they're fertilized, and then they go into trays, fertilizing trays, and they're incubated there.

- [Michelle] And once those eggs hatch- - They're small little fish, and they have their egg sack yolk right on their stomach.

You'd see it right on their stomach, and they're living off of that.

- [Michelle] These baby fish, known as fry, are then placed into tanks.

- They're on an automatic feeder.

They're fed 24/7.

- [Michelle] Their food is high in fish meal and fish oils, which Dudley says allows them to grow faster and bigger.

- They're weighed every day so that we can calculate how much feed they need to grow.

And then when they get to a fingerling size, which is your finger size, they go out to our raceways outside.

- [Michelle] By the time the fish are 18 months old, Dudley says they're generally ready to be stocked.

On this cold day, we followed along as employees scooped up hundreds of fish from the hatchery and set out to stock ponds in Northern Rhode Island.

It's a big lift.

These are heavy nets that can carry about two dozen fish.

- The truck is pretty high up, so they have to be lifting fish one to another person into the truck.

They have to have oxygen going in the truck.

So at the hatcheries themself, getting prepared to go out is difficult in any kind of weather.

(truck rumbling) - [Michelle] Including a snowy morning.

When state workers arrived at little Round Top Pond in Burrillville, they used a chainsaw to break through the sheet of ice covering the pond.

Then, it was time to stock it with rainbow trout and brook trout.

Occasionally, there's an audience.

- We even have people that follow the truck.

I mean, we have people, they probably call on their phones, "The truck has left the hatchery," and they will follow the truck sometimes.

- [Michelle] Stocking in the winter months can be a grueling part of the job, working in below freezing temperatures and trying not to slip on the ice.

(chainsaw buzzing) But Kenneth Fernstrom, a senior biologist with DEM, says it's also rewarding.

He shared a story of an angler who recently caught a 15-pound rainbow trout at Peck Pond in Burrillville, which was stocked by the state.

- We gave someone a product and made someone happy.

Like how many people have a job that makes people happy?

- There are a few fish that are bigger fish that they call them breeders, but they're not all fish that you take eggs from.

But they're big fish.

And they try every time they stock to put a few of them out around the state.

And boy, that fish is really something.

He's gonna be bragging about that forever.

(chuckles) - [Michelle] The people who work here enjoy sharing what they love about the job.

- A part of my job is raising the eggs to fry.

That's like you watch 'em birth and they hatch out and they start feeding.

You get to see something from stock to finish.

- [Michelle] And like Fernstrom, Dudley is passionate about getting more children interested in fishing.

- Most people that fish will tell you the first fish they caught and they will remember it always.

My first fish was a brown Bullhead.

I caught with my grandfather.

I was five.

I would not touch it because it was slimy and it was flopping around.

But he said to me, "Look what you did.

Wow, you caught this fish."

And that appreciation is what a child gets.

That's pretty powerful.

- Up next, in honor of women's history month, we revisit the legacy of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont.

She was the Gilded Age socialite who made waves by doing the unthinkable: becoming a vibrant voice in the fight for women's right to vote.

- Her friends called her a bulldog, related her to a bulldog, both because she was short in stature and quite stout, but also because of this power that she exuded as a personality.

- [Pamela] A personality that would help forge a change in the status of women in society from all walks of life, multimillionaire Alva Vanderbilt Belmont was an elite member of Newport's Gilded Age and a suffragette.

- Alva was an absolute firecracker, iron willed, imperious.

She was intent in her early years on gaining social power on rising up in the ranks of high society.

In later years, she was intent on gaining political power.

- [Pamela] Alva was born to privilege, the daughter of a wealthy cotton dealer in Alabama, she lived in Paris and New York, educated by tutors until her father lost his fortune during the Civil War.

- And it's at this point that Alva becomes intent on avenging her father's fall and marrying a Vanderbilt in order to kind of regain her foothold in society, which she had lost.

- [Pamela] She married William K. Vanderbilt, grandson of railroad and shipping tycoon Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.

With his inheritance, they decided to throw a lavish costume ball at their glittering new mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York, where Alva would dress as a Venetian renaissance princess.

- And she invites all of high society, except Carrie Astor, the daughter of Mrs. Astor.

- [Pamela] Socialite, Caroline Astor had snubbed Alva and had to make amends in order to secure an invitation.

- I hope this isn't a bad moment.

- Not at all.

Won't you sit down.

- A scene from the HBO drama, "The Gilded Age" is loosely based on the two high society matrons.

- Indeed, she's no longer invited.

Is that correct?

- [Pamela] In real life, there was drama when Alva divorced her husband on grounds of adultery, shocking people in her social circles.

Alva went on to wed Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, the son of another wealthy family.

For 12 years by all accounts, the Belmonts shared a happy life together.

And then in 1908- - Alba's beloved husband, her second husband died very suddenly and she was left bereft.

She was feeling adrift.

She was looking for purpose and looking for a challenge.

And at that moment in her life, suffrage presented itself.

- [Pamela] Alva was electrified by lectures on women's suffrage in New York.

After meeting with leaders in the movement, Alva was galvanized.

And she had a knack for promotion and image.

To the horror of her neighbors, she decided to use her Newport Summer cottage, Marble House, to make a splash for her new found cause.

- So she wasn't afraid to flock convention.

- That's right.

You know, many women suffragists prior to Alva were much more modest.

But Alva, she was intent on garnering public attention.

She was intent on spreading the word as far and wide as possible and on bringing in as many people as she could into the movement, including African American women and working class women.

This went against the domestic ideal of femininity at the time.

- [Pamela] Alva starts courting the press, allowing journalists to document her fashions, home designs and parties.

With the press in tow, she holds the first major convention for women's suffrage.

Even Newport Summer resident, 90-year-old Julia Ward Howe, who wrote Battle Hymn of the Republic, attended in her wicker wheelchair and spoke at the event.

Alva used the mystique of Marble House to draw a thousand people to her home.

- [Nicole] This was the first time that any of the Newport mansions had been open to the public, had their doors flung open.

There was a mile long traffic jam in Newport with visitors lining up to enter the house.

- [Pamela] She charged a dollar for admission to the grounds and $5 for entry into the mansion itself, all proceeds promoting suffrage.

Her opulent, extravagant lifestyle was on full display.

Her French inspired dining room, the marble staircase, her collections from Europe.

- This was really the first time that the public got a glimpse of life inside the Newport mansions.

Someone asked her, "Why are you opening Marble House to the public?

Why not just quietly give money to the cause?"

And she said, "To do that, if I were to just give money, that would just be like giving a dog a bone.

What the cause needs is a warrior."

And she defined herself as a warrior.

- [Pamela] And she was, marshaling change through another strategy: mass merchandising.

- We have examples here of China that Alva commissioned from John Maddock and Sons, a British manufacturer for use at the 1914 suffrage convention called The Conference of Great Women at Marble House.

- And she made sure they got the message.

- Absolutely.

- [Pamela] Alva would sell the dishes to raise money, something the Newport Preservation Society continues today.

The dinnerware debuted at Alva's second Marble House convention for suffrage in 1914.

- And on that occasion, she spoke from the speaker's lectern, as did her daughter, Consuelo Vanderbilt too, who came back from England where she had married the the Duke of Marlboro.

So Consuelo herself at this point is a major celebrity in a major draw.

And the two of them together spoke on the issue of women's suffrage.

- Do we know anything about that speech?

I mean, were they fiery?

- Oh, they were fiery.

In fact, they commanded the crowds that day.

For a woman to speak, especially speak about politics publicly in this period, it was breaking convention.

- [Pamela] She took her cause even further building this Chinese tea house right behind her Newport mansion.

Asian art was in vogue during the Edwardian period, but there was more meaning to this structure.

Inside the Tea House research is now underway into the inscriptions and imagery connecting Alva to the suffrage movement of Chinese American women.

Alva went on to co-found the National Women's Party.

By 1916, the group had organized what would be the first protest outside the White House.

Something Williams says was a watershed moment.

- This was when suffrage becomes fashionable.

In fact, there was one San Francisco writer who said that these celebrity women, these gilded suffragists in this period, mainly Alva, they helped to transform suffrage into the hobby of American women.

It's thrilling and it's inspirational.

Alva was an inspiration.

- We now turn to a story about art and love.

Back in September, contributor Dorothy Dickey first introduced us to a Massachusetts artist, whose work took a dramatic turn when her husband began to lose his way.

- [Sara] Art is essential to my life.

I'm visual and it's important for me to express myself through art.

- [Pamela] For Sara Holbrook, being able to express herself through her art took on a whole new meaning more than a decade ago.

- My husband, Foster Aborn, he was the love of my life.

Probably about 12 years ago, he drove home in a snowstorm and he forgot where he was going and he called his doctor the next day and said that this was not usual.

He was worried about his memory.

And at that time he had mild cognitive impairment.

They said not to worry.

And he was still fine for a long time after that.

- [Pamela] Holbrook specialized in watercolors, but was curious about photography and enrolled in a class.

- I fell in love with photography, and then it was crucial when my husband was ill, because I didn't have time to paint.

You know, that takes a lot of time and concentration.

If he took a nap or something, I could do my art in stages, which is important.

I would take a background photo and then I would take a photograph of myself.

I had to be dressed as I needed to be for the photograph and I had to be in the right position.

And that was always a little difficult to figure out how to do that.

But that worked.

And then I put it on the computer and scaled it down and then printed it out and I cut it out and I pasted it onto the background photo and then I rephotographed it.

That was my process.

- A process that later turned out to be a mirror image of what she was experiencing.

- I entitled my work "99 Problems," because that also reflects what I was dealing with as a caregiver for somebody with Alzheimer's.

As somebody's trapped and couldn't get out, as a spouse, you're stuck.

The hardest part for me was not getting any sleep.

I was always on alert, because he would wake up in the middle of the night and leave the house.

So I had to be ready to try to persuade him to come back.

Or I'd have to follow him outside and walk around and call the police sometimes if I couldn't persuade him to come back.

Police knew him pretty well.

How I dealt with it on the worst days was by knowing that I loved him, and that he was a worthy human being, even if I was frustrated.

- [Pamela] But Holbrook says humor often eased her frustration.

- You don't know whether to laugh or cry when you look at my work, but you get it.

This is called "Rinse Cycle."

It was a very, very bad day.

It just shows intense frustration.

So we both love Paris, and that was my place for shooting with my camera.

I just felt so alive there.

And in October, 2019, I was walking around Paris with Foster.

I had been taking photographs and I saw some people gathering.

They were these life-size cutouts of people and I was just fascinated.

I wanted to take a photograph and it wasn't long at all, but I turned around and Foster was gone.

And after an hour of looking, I came back to the hotel, and Foster was there with this lovely young man.

And the man said that, and he in fact was a researcher in Alzheimer's, and Foster found him in the whole city of Paris and went up to him and asked for help.

Absolutely amazing.

I kept him far longer than anybody said that I should have, you know, at home, because I loved him, you know, and putting him somewhere just didn't seem right.

But eventually I had to do it.

We were really close to one another, you know, and even when he was in memory care, we had fun.

I danced with him when I go in, you know, it's still very intimate.

- [Pamela] Foster Aborn passed away in April of 2023.

But memories of him still live on in Sarah Holbrook's art.

- [Sara] My understanding of Alzheimer's is it's really a different process for everybody, but it is usually very frustrating for the caregiver.

It's just your favorite person has become somebody else, basically.

And that's very hard to digest.

If you're an artist, you're driven to do something artistic.

It gave me a way to express how frustrated I was and somehow that relieved the frustration and art's terrific that way.

- [Pamela] Holbrook says she finds some comfort in knowing that her art has helped other people in the same situation.

- Even though they didn't do the art, for me, it was a joy to do the art.

But people looking at it, I think, feel that it gives them license to own that frustration as well.

I hope my art shows the love that I have for my husband, but also shows that it's the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with in my life.

It was a long journey to be with somebody with Alzheimer's, because this is really a strange one.

You know, when people's minds go, it's difficult.

I've just been coping, you know, I don't know how I'm doing, it's just gonna take time.

I will deal with it at some point and be on another project.

(bright music) - Finally tonight in this episode of Weekly Insight, WPRI 12's politics editor Ted Nesi and I discussed the continued closure of the Washington Bridge and the very costly Pawtucket soccer stadium.

Ted, it's good to have you back.

I wanna break down how much this new soccer stadium in Pawtucket is costing taxpayers.

But first let's talk about the Washington Bridge.

The westbound side remains closed, and as we sit here, we still don't know if that bridge will need to be torn down.

- No, Michelle, lawmakers are saying they continue to be assured by the Department of Transportation and Director Peter Alviti that they'll make an announcement by mid-March about the fate of the bridge.

I do think at this point, most, the vast majority of people I speak to at the State House thar are involved in politics think the bridge is going to have to be replaced, but that is not official yet.

- Well, and one of the reasons that people think that is because of this leaked draft report that came out by an engineering firm that's studying the bridge.

You and your colleagues at WPRI 12 were the first to report on this.

I wanna read a small section of that.

It says, quote, "The repairs and strengthening required are significant, have limited viability, and have significant risk associated with them.

To fully eliminate these risk and improve inspection, maintenance, and repair access would require the demolition and replacement of the superstructure, and potentially a full bridge replacement."

Ted, when you hear that, it's hard to imagine a situation where the bridge is not torn down.

- Exactly, Michelle, right?

It's hard to imagine what engineering firm is going to want to be the dissenting voice as these multiple reports start to flow in and say, "No, the bridge is fine."

Just a few minor repairs and it'll be okay."

You'd be taking a lot of risk on.

I also think people found, even though we all know the bridge has some problems, that's obviously apparent, I think seeing that report and the level of concern of those engineers talking about pieces of the bridge could have just dropped off onto Gano Street- - Wow.

- Where a lot of people are driving, or into the Seekonk River, and this was new to me, could hit the foundation that the closed westbound bridge shares with the newer open eastbound bridge damaging both.

So I think seeing the level of concern that these engineers had when they really took a close look at the bridge is only gonna add to these questions about, are the inspections enough, and does the state have a full handle on the bridges?

- And meanwhile, of course, drivers are dealing with longer commute times and varied commute times.

The state has said, "Look, we do plan to add two more lanes to the eastbound side," but that's still several weeks away.

- Yeah, I think we're looking at by the end of April, they think that'll be done.

And it's interesting in part, Michelle, that timing, I think, because that means we're talking about those new lanes coming online well after we're expecting a decision on the fate of the bridge.

And again, it's just hard to think they'd be doing that kind of significant fix, if they didn't think the bridge was gonna be out of commission for quite an extended period of time.

- Let's turn to the soccer stadium under construction in Pawtucket.

I think a lot of people say, "Look, this is reminiscent of the 38 Studios debacle," and the numbers are alarming.

So Rhode Island taxpayers are being asked to pay $132 million to fund $27 million of construction.

How do these numbers make sense?

- Yeah, you don't have to be Warren Buffet, I think, Michelle, to know that's not a great financial deal for the taxpayers.

I was struck by, Bloomberg News's National Bond Reporter was so surprised by these terms that he actually filed a story, and he pointed out that the amount Rhode Island is having to pay to borrow this money is equivalent to what the government of Pakistan has to pay to borrow money.

So really pretty onerous terms here for the taxpayers.

- Which begs the question, why wouldn't the state say, "Hey, instead of agreeing to expensive borrowing terms," let's look for a cheaper way to get this $27 million to fund the construction."

Which, by the way, is only of the soccer stadium, not everything else surrounding it.

- That's exactly right.

I think it's politics, Michelle.

I think, state officials who wanted this deal certainly didn't have confidence that if they put the bond on the November election ballot, which would've been a much cheaper way to borrow, 'cause it's seen as more safe, that the voters would've gone along and actually approved it.

Then another option could have been, you could have asked the General Assembly to just appropriate the $27 million, just a straight line item in the budget.

But of course, I don't think state lawmakers wanted to take an affirmative vote to put $27 million into the stadium.

So what did they do?

They came up with this kind of arcane financing mechanism where the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency borrowed the money, but with the promise that state tax revenue would be used to pay back the bond.

And they said, "Well, it should all come from the part of Pawtucket around the stadium.

But if that isn't enough money, the governor will ask the General Assembly to find more money and backfill the bond and make sure they get paid."

So these bond holders are getting quite a rich return for a bond that looks pretty safe, frankly.

- It's no wonder that people are skeptical about how government obviously uses taxpayer money, and this stadium is set to open next year.

- Yeah, and I think your point about 38 Studios is a good one.

There is understandably some PTSD in Rhode Island about how these bond deals come together at the State House.

And so I think that's also feeding into people's concern about this.

- We'll be monitoring it.

Thanks so much, Ted, I appreciate it.

- Good to be here.

- Thanks.

That's our broadcast this evening.

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We'll be back next week with another edition of Rhode Island PBS Weekly.

Until then, please follow us on Facebook and X and you can always visit us online to see all of our stories and past episodes at ripbs.org/weekly or listen to our podcast on your favorite streaming platform.

Goodnight.

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