Pshaw's...Ruptured
rails…Aquaculture grows…Squid squabble…Seaweed count…Beaches are clean…Chariho
report card
By Will Collette
Shaw’s Market in Westerly will close by August 3
Shaw’s
has been in trouble for a while. This is their second recent round of store
closings. Last June, they eliminated their customer savings
card program. It is tough for conventional
supermarkets, especially those that provide their workers with decent wages and
benefits, to stay alive in markets where there are Wal-Mart
Superstores whose low prices come from low wages and almost no benefits – with
the associated costs passed on to taxpayers.
Commuter rail to
Boston will be disrupted every Friday in July and August
The Associated Press
reports
that Amtrak’s work on its tracks around New England will disrupt the MBTA’s
rail service between Rhode Island and Boston on Fridays in July and August.
This will affect many of the trains running out of Wickford Junction where
passengers will have to rely on bus shuttles that will take them back and forth
to the train station at TF Green Airport.
Rhode Island
Oyster Aquaculture featured on NPR
 |
| The hard-working Perry Raso |
Over the
weekend, All Things Considered did a nice feature on Rhode Island’s growing
aquaculture industry, featuring Perry Raso, owner of nearby Matunuck Oyster
Farm.
He’s grown the business to 100 workers. Click here to read the
story. Click here to hear the NPR
broadcast.
Oyster farming
not only creates jobs, but also helps to clean up our coastal ponds. And we
enjoy delicious, local oysters served up in local restaurants, including Raso’s
terrific eatery.
 |
| CCA Party Treasurer Leo Mainelli |
Expanding
aquaculture has started to draw opposition from local “aqua-NIMBYs,” such as the
CCA Party’s Treasurer Leo Mainelli. After all, who wants to see working people
out in the ponds while you're sipping mint juleps on the veranda of your coastal
estate?
If you really
want to make Leo and the Aqua-NIMBYs crazy, grow your own. Click here for tips
from Roger Williams University on how to get a recreational aquaculture license. Seriously.
Squid get to
sleep with the fishes
 |
| Baby squid at the Charlestown Breachway (photo by Carlos Pedro) |
In the last
minute rush to adjournment, the RI Senate never got around to passing the House
bill to make RI-style fried
calamari the state’s official appetizer. The bill, co-sponsored by Reps. Donna
Walsh and Teresa Tanzi passed the House by a wide margin, but was never put on
the Senate calendar for final passage. Even though I am a huge clam cake fan, I
also really like fried calamari (and think the new Sea Goose
restaurant
has the best in the state, although I just had them at the Hitching Post and
they were excellent).
The bill’s
sponsors point out that the bill was aimed at boosting tourism as well as Rhode
Island’s vaunted position as the top source for
squid on the East Coast.
The bill’s prime
sponsor, Warwick Rep. Joe McNamara was pretty bitter about the bill’s failure
to pass, calling it “petty politics.” He told the
Providence Journal,
"They [the
Senate] used symbols out of Godfather I and left the dead squid on the desk to
send a message to the House of Representatives which I think is extremely petty
and unfortunate.''
Seaweed census
happening
Since kelp do
not have opposable thumbs, URI and Roger Williams students will be filling out the
census forms for
Rhode Island’s coastal seaweeds, documenting all the varieties of
native and invasive species.
The state
received a federal grant for this project. The idea is to document the impact
that climate change is having on the health of the coast line using the
infiltration of invasive seaweeds as one measure.
Seaweed
aquaculture
is yet another matter of controversy for Charlestown, with the town turning
thumb’s down
on a proposal by Walrus &
Carpenters Oysters
before the Coastal Resources Management Council to grow edible seaweed in
Ninigret Pond.
Charlestown
beaches are clean
According to the
newly released survey of beaches by the Natural Resources Defense Council, all
of Charlestown’s beaches were clean throughout the 2012 summer season. The
extent of NRDC’s research is pretty impressive, although as they say in
investing, “past performance is no guarantee of future results.” To read the
entire RI section of their report, click here.
Charlestown
Elementary up, Chariho down
 |
| Areglado and Chambers |
New rankings of
schools by the RI Department of Education show Charlestown Elementary School
maintaining one of the highest rankings in the state and a ranking of
“commended.” Unfortunately, the other schools in the Chariho District slipped
in the rankings.
Chariho Superintendent Barry Ricci told the Westerly Sun “We’re the victims of our own success. We
established a high baseline and it’s always difficult to keep performance at or
above that level….We had a school that had the highest classification last
year. This year, its classification is ‘warning.’ How can a school with the
same teachers and students fall that much?”
I’m sure with Donna
Chambers and Ron Areglado representing Charlestown on the School Committee,
they’ll quickly get to the bottom of it.
