Town Council preview

For once, the agenda will run pretty much as published

By Will Collette

Clean up your property....or else!

I had gotten used to preparing an actual Town Council agenda to reflect the true order of business. For most of the Council’s meetings over the past two years, the Council routinely switched items around so that the agenda’s, as published, were impossible to follow.

But this month, only one agenda item, #8e, a discussion on aquaculture permits in Quonochontaug Pond, has been moved up to the front of the agenda. Since there is only that single deviation from the published agenda, you should be able to follow along from the published agenda.

This January meeting looks to be pretty light with few very controversial matters up for discussion.

There will be some discussion of Hurricane Sandy follow-up. Several of the town staff reports are loaded with detail on work town staff performed to deal with the storm and its aftermath.

Town Councilor Dan Slattery (CCA) has two items on the agenda, both related to his desire to chastise beach property owners who haven’t completed storm clean-up. Click here and here. Very bold move on Slattery’s part, I must say, since beach property owners, especially those from out of state, provide the CCA with most of its funding.

The discussion about shell-fishing in Quonochontaug Pond might provide some sparks. The Town Council already hampered local aquaculture through Ordinance #350 passed last year. The shell-fishers were collateral damage in a neighbor vs. neighbor feud that Town Council Boss Tom Gentz (CCA) resolved in Solomon-like fashion by giving one neighbor in the dispute everything she wanted – a ban on parking on Town Dock Road, which was also where the shell fishers needed to park.

Gentz: We don't need no steenkin' shell-fishing

Now, at Gentz’s invitation, the Salt Pond Coalition, another key CCA constituency, has been invited to speak against a proposed commercial oyster farm. 

I guess Charlestown isn't ready for something like the Matunuck Oyster Farm and restaurant.

Within the materials submitted with this agenda item (click here) is the basis for a compromise that would have the oyster co-op use a different spot in the Pond.

The Council plans to discuss the manner in which appointments are made to town boards and commissions. There are no accompanying materials provided on that subject, other than a copy of Town Clerk Amy Weinreich’s memo to commission heads informing them that the discussion is on the agenda.

Council boss Gentz also wants to start the ball rolling for the town to construct a bike path leading to Charlestown Town Beach. That’s a nice idea, except that the land to construct the path will have to be carved out of the front yards of people along the route. Gentz wants to “start the conversation” and thinks one solution would be to lop some unspecified amount off the tax assessments of property owners who give up some frontage for this proposal.

It’s all about priorities.

The Council will also discuss a resolution supporting Chariho’s request for legislation that would exempt school districts from having to pay to send students to charter schools unless those charter schools deliver better educational results than the regular school.

The bulk of the Town Council’s agenda are “consent agenda” items that will not be discussed, but simply voted on as a bloc.

Among the ones that interested me:

Negative Population Growth. According to Town Clerk Amy Weinreich's report, Charlestown had a net loss of three people in 2012 - deaths numbered 50 compared to 47 births. 

Peter Herstein (CCA) will be appointed to the Planning Commission, filling the vacancy created by George Tremblay’s (CCA) movement from Planning to the Town Council. Herstein came in 6^th in the voting for Planning Commission, one position out of the money. He will become Second Alternate. 

At the December Council meeting, Frank Glista (D) who also ran for Planning, recommended that Herstein be appointed since he was the next highest vote-getter. In Progressive Charlestown’s 2013 Predictions, we predicted this would happen, but forecast that Herstein would be carried off by a golden eagle before he actually got to serve. We’ll see what happens before February’s Planning meeting.

The Affordable Housing Commission will add three new members to replace resigned members. Realtors Sandy Puchalski and Cecelia O’Brien and retired URI Extension instructor Ernest Morreira were picked.

Ron Areglado (CCA) will be appointed to the Chariho School Committee to fill the vacancy created by Jim Sullivan’s resignation. Areglado is a long-time school principal and had a short stint at the Charlestown Elementary School, now abruptly retired. 

Areglado aggressively campaigned against Chariho and pushed for Charlestown to secede from the regional district, even though the cost of secession to Charlestown have been around $25 million (Providence Journal, Aug. 17, 2000, no link). 

Naturally, his animus toward Chariho makes him a perfect candidate to represent the CCA Town Council majority on the School Committee. I guess this is his consolation prize for getting his ass kicked by the voters last November when he ran as a CCA candidate for Town Council.

Fair trade

Charlestown’s “tank” is outta here! Among the matters on the agenda, but not up for discussion, is new Police Chief Jeff Allen’s move to get rid of Charlestown’s armored personnel carrier, a.k.a. “The Tank.” Former Chief Jack Shippee was a master at scrounging for free stuff that Charlestown could use and came up with the tank, a couple of former National Guard military Humvees, a couple of ATVs and lots of other stuff. 

Though Chief Shippee got the tank for free, and even hustled a free airlift and mechanical work to get the vehicle operational, the tank is costly to maintain. Plus, there’s no likelihood of an armed insurrection though with all of the anonymous gun nuts around, you never know. 

Anyway, Chief Shippee told me before he left that he was looking to unload the Tank.

And now it looks like Chief Allen has done just that. Charlestown is going to give it to the Cranston Police where they can use it the next time religious wars break out. In return, Cranston will give us 144 orders of NY System wieners, all the way, and two cases of hair spray.

Goodbye, Tank. You were fun to ride.