Charlestown
snapshot found in department reports presented at Town Council meeting
By
Will Collette
While
waiting for the Clerkbase video to be posted for Monday’s regular Town Council
session (Clerkbase access has become increasingly erratic lately), I read the
array of reports filed by town department heads with the Council.
None
of these reports were actually discussed – they were all simply accepted and
filed under the Council’s “consent agenda.” But nerd that I am, I find
interesting insights into Charlestown’s life and culture in those reports.
Interesting
numbers are always found in Town
Clerk Amy Rose Weinreich’s monthly report. For example, she reveals that
Charlestown has had its first civil union ceremony performed since the state
adopted a very restrictive civil union statute that was largely rejected by
marriage-equality advocates. Mazel tov to the happy couple. Here’s hoping that
one day soon they can in fact get married with all the civil rights that
entails.
According
to Amy’s report, Charlestown foreclosures now stand at 13, with none reported
in October or November (great news, truly!). Unless there is a surge in
December, it looks like Charlestown will not come near last year’s record total
of 17 foreclosures entered into the town’s official record, even though Zillow.com
still reports a significant
number of distressed properties scattered throughout Charlestown.
Negative Population Growth
Our
Family Planning Commissar, Ruth Platner, is no doubt pleased at Amy’s numbers
for births versus deaths. So far, the Charlestown death rate is running about
20% higher than its birth rate (50 versus 42), which has got to be helpful to
Platner’s Negative
Population Growth Strategy.
The
2010
Census figures for Charlestown showed that Charlestown had lost population,
especially
among children under 18, whose numbers dropped by 12%. Charlestown’s last
update to its Comprehensive Plan (2006) projected Charlestown population to
reach 8,642 by 2010, up from its 2000 total of 7,859 full-time residents. Not
only did Charlestown not hit 8,642,
but our tally dropped to 7,827 people who call Charlestown home.
Like we said,
the Y-Camp was a dump
Tax
Assessor Ken Swain’s report shows that Frederick and Joanne Cindrich
applied for – and the Town Council subsequently approved – a property tax
abatement of $1,236.90 on the old abandoned Westerly YMCA campground. Subject
of the unpopular
and controversial Y-Gate caper, the campground is strewn with derelict
buildings and was far from being the pristine wilderness portrayed by Planning
Commissar Platner, Town Council boss Tom Gentz and the Charlestown Land Trust.
The
Cindriches cited the poor condition of the buildings as well as its zoning
status as open space/recreational as the rationale for the abatement. Clearly
the town agreed. Belatedly. And granted the abatement. This is as clear an
admission as we’re likely to get that the Town Council knew they’d be
overpaying for the property when they voted to expend nearly half a million
taxpayer dollars to acquire not the property itself but a superfluous easement
on it.
Town recycling
declines
Town
Public
Works Director Alan Arsenault reports on his department’s response to
damage from Hurricane Sandy. Also included in his report is the sad news that
Charlestown’s overall recycling effort is falling short and overall recycling
in town is declining.
We’ve written about this subject before – for a town that
claims to be very environmentally oriented, we seem to only care about open
space and not about other important environmental issues, such as waste reduction and
recycling. This report adds evidence to that argument.
There
might even be a tie-in between Charlestown’s declining recycling and the
aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Lots of unwanted – and otherwise expensive to
dump – household items ended up at the town transfer station as “storm damage.”
Big lines to dump lots of stuff that looked old but not water-damaged.
Busy Parks and
Recreation Department
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| Last year's Charlestown bon fire as it gets going |
Parks
and Recreation Director Jay Primiano presented a chock-full report. He reported
that while both of Charlestown’s town beaches lost a lot of their sand and
dunes to Hurricane Sandy, our new beach pavilions survived largely unscathed. (Hope
the blue shingles at Blue Shutters made it.) Jay reported on lots of ongoing
and upcoming activities, such as the monthly “Supper Table” dinners being
provided by St. Andrews Church at the Charlestown Community Center.
Jay also
noted the upcoming and always popular New
Year’s Eve bonfire, organized by “Frankie Pallets” Glista.
We’re
hoping that this year, Frank arranges the pallets to look like an animal that
symbolizes Charlestown (suggestions, folks? Turkey? Groundhog? Ostrich?) like the Gävle
Goat in Sweden. By the way, as of today, the Gävle Goat is still intact.
Finally,
I don’t mean to slight our new
Charlestown Police Chief, Jeffrey Allen, but his report
on Charlestown’s law and order stats show no significant changes in either
criminal or police activity. Which I suppose is fine since Charlestown doesn’t
have a whole lot of criminal activity going on, except perhaps among the challengers
who ran for State Representative.