Sunday, March 9, 2014

Charlestown Tapas

Ten tasty tidbits of Charlestown news
By Will Collette

Bill (left) in happier days
DiLibero gets a gig

Charlestown’s former Town Administrator William DiLibero will be heading down to Texas on March 28th where a new job as City Manager for South Padre Island awaits him. Readers will remember Bill’s tumultuous service in Charlestown where he made a rapid fall from grace – applauded by the Town Council for his great service – to being forced to resign due to the “Kill Bill Campaign” waged against him by the CCA Party.

Bill says South Padre has “2,300 residents, 1 million visitors, $2 billion in commerce and $2.50 per thousand tax rate. They liked my experience in managing through storms, project management skills, and my thoughts on improving economic development.”

I wish him well.

Quonnie Crime Wave

Charlestown Police Chief Jeffrey Allen told the Westerly Sun that least nine vacant summer houses, mostly in Quonochontaug, were hit by bandits who stole copper pipes and fittings from crawl spaces under the properties and from outdoor showers. Crooks presumably sell the valuable metal as scrap at the current going rate of $2.85 a pound.

These crimes are hard to spot since the houses aren’t occupied for months at a time. CPD expects more reports of copper thefts when the beach property owners show up as the weather warms.

I’m surprised the Charlestown Town Council isn’t calling for volunteer crime fighting patrols to protect the homes of the people who provide the Charlestown Citizens Alliance with the bulk of its campaign funding.

Dead man found on Quonnie Beach ID’d

On March 8, a kayaker spotted a body on the beach at Quonochontaug Breachway. According to a statement from CPD, “the kayaker reported the body shortly after 8 a.m. in the area of the Quonochontaug Breachway. Officers arrived and found a man on the beach, partially in the water, and a vehicle stuck in the sand nearby. The death remains under investigation but is not considered suspicious.” The Providence Journal reported the body was that of Joseph W. Huston, 53, whose last known address was 65 Marietta St., Providence.

Charlestown ranked in the lower half of municipalities with distressed homes

According to a new Zillow.com report, Charlestown ranks #27 among Rhode Island’s 39 cities in towns for the percentage of homes that are “underwater” – where the value of the property is less than what the homeowner owes on it. The report says that 12.821% of Charlestown’s homeowners are underwater, compared to Central Falls where 43.5% of homeowners are underwater, giving the city the dubious distinction of being worst in the state.

Richmond was ranked #19 with 19.5% underwater, but the worst town in our area is Hopkinton, ranked at #7 because 31.48% of its homeowners are underwater.

Zillow also broke out the stats for some of our local villages showing Bradford and Ashaway at over 22%. Read the Zillow report here.

Very cool thing for soldiers with housing issues

The RI Association of Realtors has a Troop Support Task Force that has raised around $10,000 it will distribute to military service personnel and their families for housing problems. Up to $500 can be given to troops rank E5 or lower who live in Rhode Island and are in active service or in the Reserves or National Guard. The money can be used for rent, mortgage, utilities, maintenance or other housing related needs.

For more information about the Realtor Troop Support Task Force or to find out how you can contribute, visit the Realtor Troop Support Facebook page. For help, contact the Rhode Island National Guard Family Assistance Center at 401-275-1242/43.

Spring is coming

As the snow banks melt, the birds sing louder and the squirrels prepare to deliver their litters of squirrelettes, I received notice that we’re already getting fairly substantial amounts of pollen in the air. Pollen.com is reporting pollen in Charlestown from junipers and elms in the “medium” range on non-rainy days which is more than enough to affect sufferers of seasonal allergies.


Speaking of annoying…

I get these regular notices from LinkedIn.com, telling me I should network with specific people with whom I share a network of connections. I just got one from none other than Ron Areglado, famed leader of anti-wind energy NIMBY group Ill Wind and swami to his flock of Morainiacs.

His LinkedIn profile shows him as “President” of the “Center for Educational Excellence,” which does not exist on the RI Secretary of State’s corporate database or in the Westlaw corporate database. His very creative resume used to list him as President of another unregistered fictitious business name, the Center for Moral and Ethical Leadership. No sign of that one anymore.

Hartford got a promotion already

Ex-Westerly Town Manager Steve Hartford rebounded quickly from his forced resignation in August after the Westerly Town Council showed its dissatisfaction with his handling of the Copar Quarry Scandal among other things. In January, Governor Lincoln Chafee hired him as a “special advisor on policy and legislative affairs.”

Hartford must have really wowed the Governor because after just weeks on the job, Hartford has been promoted to be Governor Chafee’s Director of Policy.

Hartford probably won’t be there long. His job with Chafee is a political appointment and Chafee is not running for re-election in November. Whoever the new Governor is will probably bring in a new Policy Director.

Hello, Charlestown: Uber-rightwing stink tank wants to “help” municipalities

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a 40 year old ultra-conservative group that has crafted and promoted some of America’s most troublesome new state laws. You can thank them for legislation on “Stand Your Ground,” Voter ID, charter schools, anti-green energy, pro-fossil fuel, anti-Obamacare, corporate rights, private prisons, anti-public worker pensions and a host of other right-wing causes.

They are funded almost exclusively by some of the nastiest corporations, including the infamous Koch Brothers. Up until lately, their principal focus has been state legislatures.

However, they’ve just set up a new subsidiary called the American City County Exchange (ACCE) that aims to recruit public officials from “villages, towns, cities and counties”.

One of the purposes of ACCE will be to connect the lobbyists from the corporations that provide the funding with what they expect will be a legion of local politicians who join ACCE because it is “America’s only free market forum for village, town, city and county policymakers”.

I’ll bet the CCA Party boys who control the Town Council (Boss Tom Gentz, his deputy Dan Slattery and George Tremblay) are wondering how they can become charter members.

Not happy

crying animated GIFThe Gallup Polling organization released its annual survey results on misery and happiness, ranked by state, and – big surprise – Rhode Island came in at #39 meaning that people in 38 other states are happier than we are. We came up one spot from our #40 ranking in 2009, but we’ve actually been happier than we are now in 2010 through 2012.


Oh well, take another Xanax with a swig of Gansett and toast the fact that we’re not the worst-ranked state of West Virginia. And ponder why it is that North and South Dakota come in first and second. Sure, they’ve got lots of jobs blasting the crap out of the prairies to extract oil, gas and coal. But besides that? Well, I’ve been to both Dakotas quite often and this is a mystery to me.