Last modified: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 12:12 AM EDT New playground for Attleboro's Willett School BY GEORGE W. RHODES SUN CHRONICLE STAFF Thanks to the generosity of a local charity and two businesses, the children at Willett School are getting a new playground. Augat Charitable Foundation, Lowe's home improvement store and William Walsh Contracting Co. have teamed up to provide cash and in-kind services for the new recreation area. Walsh demolished the old equipment last week and will prepare the site for the new apparatus. Augat and Lowe's have contributed money to buy the new equipment. Willett parents and staff along with volunteers from the YMCA and Lowe's are slated to assemble and install the new equipment on April 5. Mayor Kevin Dumas had to work late on his birthday last week, but it wasn't a total loss. He got a birthday cake and song from the city council just as he was about to address the panel on a proposed ordinance that would require the hiring of paramedics for future firefighter jobs. It was a long night for councilors and the hearing didn't get under way until well after 9 p.m. Just as it began, Public Safety Chairman George Ross brought a birthday cake with a single candle out of the council office and presented it to the mayor. City councilors and members of the audience then sang "Happy Birthday" to Dumas, who turned 32. Ross, who is seldom at a loss for words, had some ready for Dumas as he was about to blow out the single candle. "I know what you're going to wish for-more money," he said. Mayor Kevin Dumas said last week that his passion for city improvements began at a young age. During an interview about the history of revitalization in the city, he revealed that long before he learned to drive he was distressed about the lack of street signs, and so he took matters into his own hands. He fashioned some makeshift markers, loaded them into his little red wagon and went off to install them, he said. "I made my own and put them in my wagon and nailed them to telephone poles so people would know how to get to our house," Dumas said. "That was before I knew protocol." Several years later when he was in high school and became aware of protocol, he approached then-city councilor Bob Duffin for help in putting up proper street signs. Dumas said he wrote a letter to Duffin, who got the matter approved and the signs installed. Duffin later stopped by Dumas' house to make sure his young constituent was pleased with the job. Dumas was. And he appreciated the fact that Duffin reported to him personally that the work was done. "I was thrilled that he came to the house," Dumas said. GEORGE W. RHODES can be reached at 508-236-0432 or at grhodes@thesunchronicle.com. And one final story. Dumas said he was rummaging around in the old post office one day to find out what was stored there and he found a pack of old photographs of the city's first urban renewal project. He keeps the pack filed away in his office and brings it out to show how far the city has come. One of the photos shows the building that stood on the corner of Park and Pine streets where city hall now stands. He doesn't know who took the photos, but many of them are dated.