Next question: For how long?
The Westerly
Sun reports that Charlestown and Whalerock developer James Barrows closed
the deal for the town to buy the controversial property, site of the proposed
wind turbine project, for $2.114 million. The deal was completed Wednesday
afternoon.
According to Cynthia Drummond’s report in the Sun,
the deal was closed even though the contingency on the deal, the issuance of
complete and final approval for Barrows’ proposed carve-out of a two-house-lot
subdivision, had not been completed.
Barrows’ had given the town the ultimatum that the deal had to go forward in August without a town vote, even though Town Council Boss Tom Gentz had promised voters would have the final say.
Barrows also stipulated in the draft closing agenda document that the deal would not be consummated until he received all necessary approvals and permits to build two homes on approximately five acres carved out of the 81 acre site.
Clearly, Barrows was so eager to finish the deal
that he decided to skip
the part about getting the final approval for his subdivision.
We’ll have to see what the final closing documents
say about what assurances Barrows received that he won’t get screwed on the
subdivision deal since he no longer has any leverage to compel the town to
grant the final approvals he needs.
Boss Gentz pushed the deal through on August 22nd,
citing Barrows’ ultimatum, and withheld
over 300 pages of documents giving the fine points of the deal until the
following day.
At the August 22nd meeting, Gentz also
introduced a new plan where Charlestown would effective give away this property
to a non-profit group, preferably the Charlestown Land Trust.
For the past month, Gentz has had town lawyers and
staff exploring ways to accomplish this give-away without having to put the
question up for voter approval as required by Charlestown’s Home Rule Charter.
I’m glad the town has completed this transaction to
buy the land. I have been pushing this deal since 2011 even though many of the
hotter heads among the Whalerock opposition were dead set against making any
deal with Whalerock’s developers, especially Larry LeBlanc.
However, it’s hard for me to imagine doing this
basically good deal with more
missteps than Boss Gentz has taken, including hiding key documents,
breaking his promise to give voters the final say and now, trying to re-create
the bad experience the town had last year during the
scandal over Gentz’s plan to spend almost a million dollars in public funds
to buy the Westerly YMCA’s abandoned camp ground.
We own the Whalerock land and that's a good thing. It is a good piece of
land that could become a beautiful natural and historic site. Now that we have
Whalerock behind us, let’s get used to that idea and come up with some positive
and constructive town policies on the use of the land and on green energy.