Charlestown Tapas

Lots more tasty tidbits of local news

By Will Collette

[Boston Public Library]

Great article on Tarzan Brown

The national Native American news service, Indian Country Today, ran a terrific biography on Ellison “Tarzan” Brown, who was perhaps Charlestown’s greatest athlete ever. The article is written by Tarzan Brown’s great-nephew John Christian Hopkins.

The article is rich with photos showing his victories in the Boston Marathon in 1939 and in other competitions, plus shots of him later in his life before his tragic death in 1975.

I had heard a few of these stories from his late daughter Sis Brown (I worked with Sis on various organizing projects in the 1970s) and read a lot more about him. But this new article added more information and texture to the life story of a complex and troubled man.

Mr. Hopkins goes into detail about Tarzan Brown’s up-bringing, his quirky running style, the story behind his disappointment at the 1936 Olympics in Germany and his efforts at redemption as a repeat Boston Marathon champion. Mr. Hopkins doesn’t gloss over Brown’s flaws, especially his problems with alcohol and how that factored into his death in the parking lot of a Misquamicut bar.

I highly recommend reading the whole article which you can get on-line by clicking here.

Westerly Council gives Craven terrible review

When Charlestown’s assistant town solicitor Bob Craven was hired part-time by the town of Westerly to serve as a special zoning officer to deal with the terrible Copar Quarry in Bradford, I thought he had hit the ground running. In short order, Craven issued a comprehensive cease-and-desist order against Copar citing the many problems reported by Copar’s neighbors.

But, like so many stories, there was a lot more to it than that.

Naturally, Copar appealed this order to District Court, but it looked for a while that Westerly would gamely argue its case to hold Copar accountable for what it did to the people.

Well, it seems like it was all too good to be true. As the District Court case proceeded, Westerly looked like it was ready to fold. Inexplicably, Westerly town government ceded enforcement jurisdiction to District Court Judge Brian Stern.

Then, Westerly folded and entered into a settlement agreement with Copar that left hardly anyone, except maybe Copar, happy. Click here to read the settlement agreement.

According to Sun investigative reporter Dale Faulkner, it turns out that the Westerly Town Council thinks the collapse of Westerly’s case and the resulting settlement was all Craven’s fault for doing sloppy legal work. They came within a whisker of refusing to pay the final $3,172 balance on Craven’s bill to the town.

Craven testified in a deposition that he issued the cease-and-desist order based on third-party reports and not on his actual knowledge of Copar’s transgressions. He also admitted that he did not actually write the order himself but did not identify who did.

Council members Jack Carson and Patricia Douglas publicly expressed their “displeasure” with the quality of Craven’s work.

The Council ultimately agreed to pay Craven the last amount due to him after both the Town Manager and Town Solicitor pleaded with them to do so, noting that at least technically, Craven had fulfilled the terms of his agreement with the town.

Rhode Island home values climb while Charlestown’s real estate market tumbles.

From Zillow: Charlestown home values turning downward again.

The Rhode Island Association of Realtors report that home prices in Rhode Island as a whole jumped by 5% in the first quarter of 2014. However, Zillow reports a drop in home values in Charleston, 1.1% compared to one year ago.

Charlestown home values are expected to drop by another 1.1% over the next year, according to Zillow. These lowered numbers pretty much match up with the results of Charlestown’s official revaluation of town properties.

Rental market sparse

The current median value of Charlestown homes is $314,300, according to Zillow, which the average listing price for homes in Charlestown is $425,000. Given that spread, it’s not surprising to see that Zillow rates the Charlestown real estate market as “cool.”

Zillow also listed 22 Charlestown homes as being in the pre-foreclosure stage. As usual, Charlestown’s biggest real estate problem continues to be the lack of year-round rentals. Zillow only identifies four rentals (see map, right) in town. Rentals on those four units range from $1,100 to $1,750 a month.

Local group wins DEM grant

The Local Catch of Charlestown won a $7,500 grant from DEM under the Local Agriculture and Seafood Act (LASA). Only 17 groups among the 92 that applied won grants. Charlestown’s Community Garden was one of those 75competitors who did not get funding in this round.

As I examined the list of winners, it seemed like DEM tried to spread the money around the state with some consideration given to population as well as the merits of the project. About half of the grants went to groups based in the cities. That’s not a criticism, by the way, since every grant award seems worthy. Just an observation.

See the complete list by clicking here.

Charlestown loses in ProJo summer-fun contest

Charlestown out in the second round

The Providence Journal set up a gimmicky little contest, the Summer Guide Challenge, to try to engage its dwindling readership. They set up a “March Madness” style competition using NCAA-style brackets to try to determine readers’ favorite summertime attractions. Charlestown started out with three of the initial 32 contenders with Rhythm & Roots, the Seafood Festival and Burlingame Park among the starters.

In the first round, two were out. Rhythm and Roots was matched up against the Seafood Festival and the Seafood Festival won. Burlingame Park was matched against the East Bay Bike Path and lost. In the second round, the Seafood Festival was paired against the Newport Folk Festival and, to my surprise, lost by 16 votes.

Big bucks

The national AFL-CIO just released its 2014 guide to Executive compensation and we have the results for Rhode Island’s top corporate moguls.

While the average Rhode Island worker’s salary was only $43,489, Rhode Island’s Top Ten receive a good deal more than that. Note that only companies that publicly trade their stock are listed. That’s because they are required by law to disclose executive compensation while privately held companies (e.g. Gilbane) are not.

1. Larry Merlo (CVS Caremark, Woonsocket): $31.3 million
2. Scott Donnelly (Textron, Providence): $9.9 million
3. Brian Goldner (Hasbro, Pawtucket): $9.7 million
4. Steven Spinner (United Natural Foods, Providence): $4.8 million
5. Michael Clarke (Nortek, Providence): $3.8 million
6. Vincent Sadusky (Lin Media, Providence): $3.8 million
7. David Whalen (Costa, Lincoln): $2 million
8. Joseph MarcAurele (Washington TR Bancorp, Westerly): $1.3 million
9. Martin Kits Van Heyningen (KVH Industries, Middletown): $1.2 million
10. Jeffrey Thompson (Towerstream, Middletown): $581,909

I hate to see this happen

Yet another iconic Rhode Island business has been taken over by a foreign company. This time it’s Autocrat Coffee, our most popular purveyor of the syrup just about every Rhode Island kid was raised to believe was one of the four basic food groups.

The buyer is James Findlay International, Ltd. Of Great Britain which bought 100% of Autocrat for an undisclosed amount (both Findlay and Autocrat are privately-held companies, not subject to SEC disclosure rules).

British companies own much of Rhode Island’s banking (Citizens Bank is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland) and power generation (now controlled by London-based National Grid, and the “national” doesn’t mean American).

So, what can we expect? Tea syrup for milk?

Follow-up on corporate lawyer’s plea deal on social host bust

Donegan's NKPD mug shot

In my April 20 Tapas, I reported on the bad behavior of Textron corporate lawyer (and former school committee member) Jayne Donegan who was busted for violating the state social host law when police were called to a party at her North Kingstown home. Police found over 100 teens, many of them drunk or stoned. Donegan tried to bar police from entering and that led to a shoving match and an exchange of charges.

Donegan ended up cutting a deal to have all charges dropped in return for Donegan making a $5,000 donation to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Apparently, no one consulted with MADD, because MADD publicly rejected the money saying they wanted no part in a deal that lets rich people buy their way out of trouble.

Another organization stepped up to accept the money (surprise!) – Amos House, the homeless program in Providence, saying that they believed in giving people a second chance. Unspoken was Amos House’s general need for money. Cathy and I have been long-time, faithful supporters of Amos House, but this decision is making me wonder if I want to give them a second chance.

Taxes too high?

While conservative groups, especially the Tea Party, like to blather on about taxes with the latest push being to eliminate or greatly reduce sales taxes, there are some hard facts often not mentioned in the debate.

Here in Rhode Island, it is telling that right-wing groups have stopped talking about income taxes – since they’ve already won that battle by dramatically winning huge income tax cuts for the wealthiest Rhode Islanders. Instead, it’s all about sales taxes this year and how we need to get rid of it entirely, and not just lower it from its current 7% to perhaps 6.5% to be on par with Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The Rhode Island right likes to point to states like Florida and Texas, and pretend that there are no taxes in those wonderful havens for retirees. Except it’s not true. In addition to high property taxes that are often levied on individual homeowners by several taxing jurisdictions (county, municipal, school district, fire district, etc.), there’s also an incredibly complex sales tax system.

Most of the so-called high tax states, such as Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts, have but a single statewide uniform sales tax. But according to the Tax Foundation, the states considered the lowest tax and least government intrusive tend to have the most byzantine sales tax systems.

For example, Texas has 1515 separate taxing districts that can, and often do, layer on added sales taxes with each taxing district having its own rules as to what it taxable and what is exempt. Iowa has almost 1,000 such taxing districts. Oklahoma has 587.

Depending on where you live, you might have to pay several different sales taxes on each purchase, often adding up to a lot more than 7% and then have to deal with an entirely different taxing scheme in the next county over.

Misquamicut Springfest this weekend

All that sand travelling through Charlestown’s roads will be much appreciated this weekend as Westerly kicks off its summer season with the Misquamicut Springfest from Friday, May 9 through Sunday, May 11. The festival features food, music, carnival rides, displays, a petting zoo, contests and competitions.  It is hosted by the Misquamicut Business Association (MBA) and Town of Westerly
All these activities and more take place at Misquamicut Beach. For further information on Springfest Weekend contact 401-322-1026, Misquamicut Beach on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or www.misquamicutfestival.org.

Gun lobbying groups are nuts

I’m not just talking about the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre. Gun nuttery shows itself even in small things. For example, I discovered that the US Sportsmen’s Alliance is fired up and angry about a proposed piece of Rhode Island legislation sponsored by Representative Scott J. Guthrie (D-Coventry), HB 7858.

This bill would make it a felony for a hunter to hunt deer on your property without your specific written permission. Being quite close to Burlingame, I take this matter quite personally. I’ve had no trespass-no hunting signs up on the edge of my land for years but always assumed that if some yahoo in hot pursuit of a deer stepped across my property line that I could have him busted. The LACK of such legislation makes me angry because nobody’s f***king Second Amendment rights trumps my right to be safe and secure in my home.

Republicans are nuts

"Old Abe," the war eagle, was the mascot of the
Wisconsin Infantry Regiment

New evidence comes from Wisconsin where the state Republican Convention will be voting on a resolution to assert Wisconsin’s right to secede from the United States. A number of other states, e.g. Texas, have taken such positions, but it’s pretty amazing to see this coming from the state’s governing party, especially given Wisconsin’s history.

Secession by the Southern slave states led directly to America’s deadliest war, the Civil War, in 1861. The state of Wisconsin, at the time still a sparsely populated frontier state, sent more than 90,000 soldiers to fight on the Union side. They were widely considered among the best troops to fight in the war. 12,216 did not come home.


Way to go, Wisconsin Republicans!