Nicole Brown of Walpole has all our sympathy for the lingering finger injury she suffered four years ago in a run-in with a chain-link basketball net. We have to look askance, however, at the bill state Sen. James Timilty, D-Walpole, has filed to outlaw metal nets at public playgrounds. Injuries can still occur when a player gets a hand tangled in a nylon net.

On the flip side, we're less than impressed with the argument that the metal net ban would present Boston and other large, multi-playground cities with inordinate costs for replacing multiple nets. Nylon basketball nets can typically be purchased for a couple of dollars each and some outfits offer them for less than a dollar per.

One of finest passes

We don't know how many fires, traffic accidents, heart attacks and the like that the late Stephen Mayer responded to, but it was a significant number. Mr. Mayer, inset, was an Attleboro firefighter for 36 years.

Likewise, we can't say how many ankles he taped or sprains and breaks he dealt with, but that too was a significant number. Mr. Mayer was a valued member of the AHS football bench from 1988 to 2001, serving as the team's trainer. As for the youngsters whose aches, pains and injuries he mended, they were like part of the family to Mayer, who had known many of the boys through his work as a coach in a variety of youth sports.

Firefighters and police are often called "Attleboro's finest." Mr. Mayer, with his devotion to the health and safety of citizens, and his bighearted concern for the city's youngest athletes, was a living example of where this nickname came from. We were deeply saddened to learn that he died Nov. 5, of cancer. He was 56.

One forward, one back

It was a good news/bad news week for the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority. On the good side, work has begun on a new driveway to the MBTA commuter parking lot off Wall Street, an early step in the riverfront redevelopment project. On the flip side, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has declared the ARA misspent $95,700 from grants awarded for job creation. Repayment can be avoided by spending on items that are allowed by HUD.

Numbers of note

$9.82. Property tax rate, per thousand of evaluation, adopted by North Attleboro selectmen, an increase of 75 cents from this year.

600. Number of jobs North Attleboro Selectman Paul Belham reported have been lost at the North Attleboro Industrial Park this year.

45-1. Odds reported this week against landing a Christmas season job with Bealls Outlet Stores.

$3,951. Amount pledged to the Norfolk Police Department, as of Wednesday, for care of Buddy, an 11-month-old puppy whose leg was broken with a baseball bat in a case of animal abuse.

$31,000. Amount Bill Bowles estimated he spent on his race for state representative against George Ross. Ross's final estimate was not yet available. $1,000. Welcome home bonus presented to David Roy of Attleboro and nine other veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at a ceremony Monday at the Statehouse. Another 17,000 Bay State vets have been approved for the bonus; more are eligible.

$10,000. Shopping spree won by Cathy Malloy of Foxboro on Monday in the Patriot Place Grand Opening Sweepstakes.

$2,000. Grant the Medical Foundation of Boston has awarded North Attleboro Middle School to fight tobacco use among students.

532. Three-string score tallied by Maria Alix of North Attleboro at North Bowl on Tuesday, two days after her 95th birthday.

60. Number of men expected to be serving their best dishes on Friday at New Hope Inc.'s annual Gourmet Guys fund-raiser at the Attleboro Elks hall, starting at 6:30 p.m.

$495,000. State grant awarded for maintenance of 110 acres of undeveloped property behind LaSalette Shrine, Attleboro, which is placing a permanent conservation easement on the property.

Kudos to:

Duane German, inset, executive director of the Attleboro YMCA, who has been named to manage training of YMCA executives for the national organization.

Michael Andrade, executive director of the Arc of Northern Bristol County, based in Attleboro, on receiving the national Arc's Outstanding Professional Achievement Award.

Wheaton College, for being named eighth, on the strength of its placement of students in Fulbright Scholarships, on The Chronicle of Higher Education's Top 10 lists of liberal arts colleges.

Members of the Norton Middle School boys' and girls' basketball teams, who are conducting a walk-a-thon today to raise $2,200 to pay part of the coming season's expenses.

To Karan Takhar, 17, of North Attleboro, inset, a student at the Wheeler School in Providence, for qualifying for a semifinal round on the Jeopardy TV show. Karan was the second-place finisher in the 2005 National Geographic Bee.