Busy agenda for Wednesday Town Council meeting

Council meets at Town Hall, commencing at 7 PM Wednesday, June 15

In earlier articles, I detailed several controversial issues that will come before the Town Council on Wednesday. These include:

Agenda Item #7. Larry LeBlanc’s land on Route 1 (potential site for wind turbines, affordable housing, a casino, Charlestown school, a nuclear power plant, anthrax factory or open space). Should the town buy the land and end the controversies? Larry’s first offer: $3 million. Current appraised value: $825,000.

Agenda Item #8A. Charlestown’s dark skies as a natural resource. What do we need to do to protect it?

Agenda Item #16. Jim Mageau’s $20,000 demand for reimbursement of his legal defense against assault charges. Is the town legally obligated to repay Mageau under the state indemnification statute?

Agenda Item #18. Request for Private Lawyers paid by the town for six past and present town officials being charged by Council member Lisa DiBello for engaging in a retaliatory conspiracy against her. Is the town legally obligated to cover their costs under the state indemnification statute?

Two other agenda items caught my eye:

Agenda Item 8f. Reactivate the Beach Structure Committee. Now that Charlestown voters have done the right thing and approved the $1.2 million bond to build permanent sanitary facilities at our two town beaches, work needs to start quickly so they will be in place by next summer. Under this agenda item, the Council will decide whether to have the committee continue to exist so they can oversee the actual bidding, contracting and construction of the plan they devised and the voters approved. This is a perfectly logical idea since they put the plan together, have worked with the architect and are dedicated to successful completion of the project. I’ll be looking forward to see how many whacky opponents rise to challenge it.

Agenda Item 8d. “Drive Like Your Kids Live Here (DLYKLH)” campaign. I was intrigued by this item, inspired by Rep. Donna Walsh’s work to make our roadways safer. What I found was that this DLYKLH isn’t so much a “campaign” as it is a “marketing campaign.”

The “campaign” is a one-year old Connecticut-based LLC owned by Petulia Pugliares and her husband Davide. It is an internet mail order marketing company for road signs bearing the “Drive Like Your Kids Live Here” slogan ($10 each for corrugated plastic, $45 for aluminum), as well as t-shirts, hats, decals, bumper stickers, key chains, etc.

Petulia Pugliares has gotten a lot of news play for her company in Connecticut newspapers. She tells the media that her inspiration came from walking with her husband through their Wethersfield CT neighborhood and seeing the speeding cars, whereupon she remarked to her husband, “`This is ridiculous! People wouldn't drive like this if their own kids lived here.'" And so the inspiration for the slogan and signs was born.

The slogan certainly is catchy. It’s also trademarked by the Pugliares. I think that if Charlestown wants to put money into traffic safety hardware, we’ll get more bang for the buck from red light cameras (starting with one at West Beach Road and Route One).

Author: Will Collette