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March is Women's History Month!

Rhode Island City Appeals For Funds To Get Trash Cans

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And our last word in business is: Crowd Funding.

Central Falls, a former mill city in Rhode Island, has turned to the Internet for donations to fund a government project.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now this is a town that was so broke a couple of years ago, it could not keep its only library open or pay full pension benefits to firefighters and policemen. It had to file for bankruptcy.

MONTAGNE: Central Falls has seen a slight recovery since then - and it has a new young mayor. Twenty-eight-year-old James Diossa hopes to update the local park with one-of-a-kind steel trash cans and recycling bins.

MAYOR JAMES DIOSSA: Currently, we have this plastic structure that is easily tipped over and all the trash just goes all over the park, making the park not attractive.

MONTAGNE: The new high-quality steel bins the city hopes to obtain will be anchored into a concrete base making them less likely to fall over.

INSKEEP: So far citizens have committed only $390 to the project. But they may just be getting started. The goal here is just over $10,000.

And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.