Saturday, August 11, 2012

No Town Council meeting on Monday

Tom Gentz will be celebrating Flag Day instead
By Will Collette

Monday, August 13, is an official state holiday, V-J Day, also known as Victory Day. Rhode Island, alone among the states, still sets aside the second Monday in August to commemorate the end of World War II with the surrender of Japan.

State and local government offices in Rhode Island – including Charlestown Town Hall – are closed, though federal offices remain open.



So there will be no Town Council meeting on Monday, its usual day, even though the Council held its routine agenda meeting on August 8.

Town Council President and CCA candidate Tom Gentz notified the Planning Commission of the change in date for the Council meeting during their August 2 meeting, explaining that August 13 was Flag Day.

Actually, Flag Day is June 14, but this is to be expected from Gentz who is, after all, a recent transplant having spent most of his adult life as a health insurance executive in Massachusetts.

Gentz worked for Central Mass Healthcare, CIGNA, Aetna and Blue Cross-Blue Shield in Massachusetts. Presumably, that’s where he learned his jolly manner, nimble logic and compassion for humanity – all necessary qualities for an insurance executive[1].

Now if you asked Gentz about Patriot’s Day (no, not the New England Patriots, but the original Revolutionary War ones), he could probably tell you all about that. That’s held on the third Monday in April.


[1] For those who are keeping score on my “civility,” I am being ironic.