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| First day with trucks in Station 8 - photo by Doran Bercovici |
For the slow time of year, February was a busy month and we could hardly keep up here at Progressive Charlestown. We're not even getting this written until March 4!
Read on past the break for a review of the high points of February as we saw them.
New Cross Mills Fire Station
This one caught us by surprise and we didn't even report on it. Sorry. The Cross Mills Fire Department (Charlestown Fire District) moved into their new station during the evening of February 28. They are getting everything organized inside and they plan to hold a formal dedication and open house when the weather gets warmer. We hope to give you better notice of that event.
I got my own tour a couple of days ago and I'm very impressed. This new station will serve the town well for many, many years to come. And the decision to build it during the poor economic times saved a lot of money.
The weather
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| Charlestown Beach Feb 28 - click to enlarge |
But Parks & Rec's loss is ... Parks and Rec's gain as the construction of the new beach pavilions is zooming far ahead of schedule.
Charlestown Land Trust gets funds to buy YMCA land
At the February Town Council meeting, the Council authorized issuing open space bonds to give the Land Trust $476,000 to match state funds and donations to purchase the old YMCA camp on Watchaug Pond. Technically, the town will be buying a conservation easement for the land. All of the writers here opposed that plan to varying degrees, and there were a range of opinions among town residents.
Ninigret Pond dredging
Necessary maintenance of the sedimentation basin and navigation channel started in February and will be completed at the end of March. We wrote about it here and here.
Beach Concessions
Charter Revision Advisory Committee holds hearing
During February, CRAC released their proposals for changes to the Town's Charter and held a public hearing on February 27. They received a lot of feedback that was probably difficult to hear, but it seems like they listened closely and are studying the criticisms in depth.
At Progressive Charlestown, we view this as important because most voters trust the process enough to approve any such changes that make it to the ballot. That makes it important to have sufficient review of proposed changes to fully understand their impact.
February Town Council Meeting
Besides the YMCA land purchase funding, this meeting tackled several other contentious topics. We gave a play-by-play report here and followed that with other articles.
The new "Dark Skies" lighting ordinance was scheduled for its hearing and possible approval at that meeting. Because of the long agenda, that hearing was carried over to the March meeting. It's a good thing too, because we found out that numerous revisions are still being made although the formal posting for review was in January.
And we gave the They didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition Award to the Chariho School District for the public flogging they received in lieu of a serious discussion.
Speaking of Dark Skies
While we favor the concept, we have expressed doubts about the specifics and the way of achieving them. We published an article encouraging thought on alternatives to yet another ordinance.
Peeps®
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| Peepers |
