New assessments
coming
Chariho war
council
Quarry quandary
Feud expands,
escalates
UFO spotted in
southern RI (I’m not making this up)
By
Will Collette
Date of the tax
valuation notices
Expect
to get notice from Tax Assessor Ken
Swain
about the new valuation on your home that will be used as the basis for
calculating your property tax bill this summer. Town properties underwent their periodic review this past summer and the results will be “mailed to each property owner on or before March 30, 2014,” according to Swain.
Zillow.com shows almost no
change in the average Charlestown home value between summer, 2011 when the last
revaluation took place, and the summer of 2013. Charlestown home values hit bottom
during 2012, according to Zillow, but have been rebounding ever since.
If
Charlestown’s new numbers reflect Zillow’s, we may see very little change in
the overall value of taxable property in town’s tax base, but that probably
will not be the case on a property by property basis.
Your
taxes for next year will be the product of your new assessed property
assessment multiplied by the tax rate. For the six years the CCA Party has
controlled the budget, they
have raised taxes every year, even in years where we ran large
surpluses. This is an election year and I suspect that will be a factor in what
they decide to do with our taxes.
Charlestown edges closer to war with Hopkinton, Richmond
This feels a lot like the months leading up to the first World War - 100th anniversary this summer - and the conflicts in the Balkans that caused it. Yeah, I know, nobody reads or even cares about history anymore. But for those that do, don't these events seem like the prelude to the assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand?
Charlestown,
Richmond and Hopkinton, the three towns that joined to form the Chariho School
District have had a long history of acrimony and suspicion. Like most political
disputes, Chariho’s issues seem to revolve around money and power. Each town
wants the school system to be excellent, but they don’t want to pay for either
the teachers or technology that brings about excellence. Each town wallows in
its victimhood, claiming it is put upon by its Chariho colleagues.
 |
| Archduke Ferdinand and Councilor Dan Slattery - is there a hint of a resemblance? |
CCA
Party Councilor Deputy Dan Slattery has started hyperventilating whenever
there’s even a hint that the other towns want to “reopen the Act.” If this
continues, I would urge the town to install an EKG monitor and blood pressure
cuff at Slattery’s seat in the Council chambers and station an EMT nearby.
Richmond
Council members said they felt Charlestown’s reaction to ideas about changes to
the Chariho Act were based on a misunderstanding about what Richmond and
Hopkinton were thinking. They also expressed resentment that Charlestown
challenged their right to explore any legislative change.
Hopkinton Council Vice-President Sylvia Thompson said “We have an opportunity to go and talk to Richmond and say ‘join us. We have had a problem for decades. Will you consider joining us on our issues, and we’ll join you on yours?’”
Charlestown Councilor Slattery is on record as
declaring that any effort to “reopen” or change the Chariho Act would be
tantamount to an act of war which would lead Charlestown to secede
from the Chariho School District to either fend for itself or make a new
alliance with either Westerly or South Kingstown. Despite the costs and
consequences.
Another
reason to make a big deal about quarries
 |
| Fire at Stony Creek Quarry. Photo from Peter Sachs' drone |
One
of the legitimate concerns about quarry sites is how they conveniently provide
a dumping ground, legally or illegally. The local Copar quarry operations are
financed by Phil Armetta who was once one of Connecticut’s largest waste
dumpers until he had to divest those businesses while doing federal jail time.
Upon his completion of his federal sentence, Armetta told news reporters he
intended to get back into the trash business. That was right at the time he
hooked up with Sam Cocopard to start Copar. Copar is in the process of turning
an old quarry site in Lisbon, CT into a major
waste disposal site.
RIDEM already found illegal trash (e.g. refrigerators) on Copar’s Bradford site.
It’s
not unusual for quarries to be used to dump waste. Happens all the time. It’s a
convenient use of a big hole in the ground once the valuable mineral deposits
have been extracted.
On
January 30, 800 residents of Branford, CT, outside of Norwich, CT, were told to
evacuate over concerns that a fire accidentally started by quarry workers might spread to the mine’s cache of explosives. Workers
were burning large piles of cardboard and the fire got away from them and into
a large amount of densely packed rubber and metal cable.
A
drone owned by volunteer firefighter Peter
Sachs was flown over the blaze to
determine how close the flames were coming to the explosives. The drone video
showed the flames were far enough away from the explosives to allow firefighters
to go back into the site to attack the fire which was expected to smolder for
days.
You
can read the report on the Facebook Page of
the Branford Professional Firefighters Local
2533 Facebook page
.
.
Neighbors’ feud
makes headlines, sparks court action
My
sympathies go out to the Dowdell family, whose 13-year long feud with their
neighbor Peter Bloomquist became a colorful
feature story in the Providence Journal.
 |
| Charlestown battle ground: Bloomquist at 17 Cherokee and the Dowdells just above it in this Google Earth screen shot. |
After
responding to numerous complaints from the Dowdells, Charlestown Police
arrested Bloomquist for disorderly conduct. In December Bloomquist sued the
town in state Superior Court, claiming the police intervention was an abuse of
power.
Charlestown
lawyer Mark DeSisto (who actually represents Charlestown’s municipal insurance
company) has since gotten Bloomquist’s lawsuit moved to federal District Court.
Click here
to read the petition to move the case to federal court and Blooomquist’s
initial lawsuit where he claims CPD abused his rights.
Incidentally, that court
record is one of the types of records Charlestown has been trying to refuse to
give to Progressive Charlestown.
Tangentially
related:
I spotted a UPI
story
out of San Francisco about a start-up on-line service called nefariousjob.com. For a price of
between $1,800 and $10,000, this company says it will make the enemies of its
clients miserable.
According
to Nefarious Jobs CEO John Winters (who told UPI that’s not his real name), "Anyone who has been wronged, hurt,
abused, cheated, scammed, stabbed in the back can come to us and we will do our
very, very best to make the life of that person who has wronged you completely
miserable…. We do not do anything physical whatsoever, however, the truth is
our ally. If a person has been scamming people, if they've been abusing people,
if they have an extensive criminal record, we will post it. We will start an
offshore web site and we'll detail all their nefarious deeds and we'll make
sure everyone in their circle of friends knows it."
UFOs in the skies over southern Rhode
Island?
You can see a write-up on whatever it was they say they saw, plus a grainy photo, by clicking here. The presence of space aliens would explain a lot about what goes on in South County.