17 Digestible news bites for Progressive Charlestown readers
By Will Collette
Closed Bradford textile mill still in trouble
 |
| 2007 fire at the Bradford mill |
But
mismanagement and a bad fire in 2007 led Bradford Dyeing to shut down in 2008. They reopened a few
months later with only the name changed to Bradford Printing and Finishing and with
one of the former managers, Nick Griseto, as the new boss. Oh, and they tore up
their union contract, claiming they were an entirely different company. That
turned out to be untrue, but by the time Bradford was ordered to honor its
contract with its workers, the company was circling the drain for the last
time.
The
company is now shuttered and its goods auctioned off but, according to a great
piece in the Sun by Dale Faulkner, its troubles live on. According to
Faulkner’s article, Bradford’s owners are being sued by DEM for illegal waste
water discharges into the Pawcatuck. EPA has also put a lien on the property to
try to recover some of its costs for removing hazardous materials prior to
Hurricane Sandy’s arrival to prevent further pollution. And the town of
Westerly and IRS still seek payment of back taxes.
Griseto,
who used to be responsible for business development for the old management (and
didn’t do so well) still claims to have big plans for the site. But when I
worked for the textile workers union who fought with him over his refusal to
honor their contract, I found that Griseto’s track record is loaded with broken
companies.
Carcieri Fix wins key Senate vote – mobilize the CCA Militia!
One of the things the Charlestown Citizens Alliance fears most is that somehow, the infamous Carcieri v. Salazar Supreme Court decision that stopped the Narragansetts from having any autonomy over their own land by stripping the Narragansetts and 500 other tribes of sovereignty rights, might get “fixed” by Congress.
This year, like just about every year since the Court’s decision, some members of Congress have tried to restore those rights so that all Native American tribes are treated equally.
This year, Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) is the sponsor of the “Carcieri Fix legislation. He is also the Chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Not surprisingly, since he is after all the Chair, the Committee voted to approve his bill, according to a statement issued by Tester on June 12. Obviously, getting the bill out of committee is a critically important step, but this bill is given little chance of going much further and zero chance of passage.
But watch to see if the CCA Party tries to inflame fear of the Tribe during this election season – it has been one of the CCA Party’s favorite campaign boogeymen. And watch to see the hours show up on the invoices of our town’s Special Counsel to Fight the Narragansetts Joe Larisa.
Jobs, jobs, jobs
The listserve for non-profit job openings run by Brown University posted several local jobs that might be of interest. If you’re looking for a new job, you need to be on their e-mail list to get the daily listings. Here’s what they have locally:
The
North American Family Institute wants to hire a community-based mental health
clinician in South County. Click
here for more details. The Exeter Job Corps is looking to hire a physician.
Click
here for more details.
PACE
of RI is looking for an IDT Secretary to work at its Adult Day Care Center in
Westerly. Click
here for more details.
Rhode
Island Young Democrats are recruiting field directors for a number of campaigns
around Rhode Island. Nice way to get into this year’s political fray and earn
some money. Click
here for more details.
Deepwater
expects to get last federal approval to build pilot wind farm
 |
| How the CCA Party views wind power |
Deepwater
Wind is about to get the blessing of the Army Corps of Engineering, which would be the final federal level hurdle before
they can begin construction of their pilot five-turbine wind farm in the waters
off Block Island. This keeps Deepwater on track to become America’s first
operational off-shore wind farm.
Can’t
wait for Areglado or Donna Chambers to weigh in on this
Channel
10 recently reported that a Chariho High
School student complained to her father about a fellow student who was making her
nervous in the restroom. She texted her complaint to her father Glenn
Josephides and, by the miracle of social media, this kid’s bleat has now been
broadcast all over Rhode Island: "Are
transsexual kids legally allowed in the girls' bathroom? If a guy is changing
to a girl, he hasn't gotten surgery yet. I saw him in the bathroom and I don't
like him in there."
Chariho’s position is that the law requires a transgender
student to use the bathroom of the gender with which that student identifies,
in this case, female.
Superintendent
Barry Ricci added, "We begin every day
of the school year by telling the students at the high school to remember to
treat each other with dignity and respect."
Mr. Josephides, the
complaining girl’s father, doesn’t agree, telling Channel 10 "Not
understanding the logic of taking one child, or one person's situation and
placing their needs or their feelings or their concerns over 1,200
others."
Except where are the 1199
other complaints? I’m still waiting for Swami Ron Areglado, the CCA
Party-appointed Chariho School Committee member for Charlestown to spread some
of his moral and ethical mojo on this situation.
Speaking of nuts…
One of the few things that
gun control advocates and most
gun nuts agree on is that there needs to be a good, accurate registry of
persons who suffer from the kinds of mental illnesses that make them a danger
to society. The General Assembly is about to pass legislation that was
presented in tandem by our own Senator Cathie Cool Rumsey and Rep. Deb
Ruggiero. Deb Ruggiero’s bill
passed the House ahead
of Cathie’s Senate version. The Senate is expected to vote on the measure and
then send it to Governor Lincoln Chafee for his promised signature.
It’s a small step, but an
important one, so congrats to both Cathie and to Deb Ruggiero.
Cathie Cool Rumsey is also
teaming up with our own Rep. Donna Walsh to get a bill enacted that would
mandate that large producers of food waste be required to separate the waste
for recovery and recycling. The Senate passed Cathie’s version. It is currently
unclear whether the differences between the two bills can be reconciled before
the end of the session.
The legislation is fiercely
opposed by institutions and hospitality industry lobbyists.
Cathie and Donna’s effort
has certainly drawn a lot of attention. The Wall Street Journal (click
here, but access limited) did a great feature story on Donna and the effort
to not only keep food waste out of the state’s rapidly filling Central
Landfill, but to recover value and cut costs by recycling the waste.
Gratuitous cute video
What do John Boehner, Dan Slattery, Netflix and the Nordic Lodge have
in common?
 |
| This is pretty much what their lobster looks like, except minus the melted butter and room temp and still moving |
The color orange.
Whether it’s the complexions of GOP House Speak Boehner or our hyperbolic CCA Party Town Councilor or “Orange Is the New Black,” orange has become a notorious, if not favorite color. Now the Nordic Lodge in Charlestown joins the club with a new naturally orange lobster caught in Maine and delivered to their fish tank.
Whether it’s the complexions of GOP House Speak Boehner or our hyperbolic CCA Party Town Councilor or “Orange Is the New Black,” orange has become a notorious, if not favorite color. Now the Nordic Lodge in Charlestown joins the club with a new naturally orange lobster caught in Maine and delivered to their fish tank.
The lobster is a rare one-in-ten-million mutation and will not be eaten. At
least not by diners. Nordic
Lodge co-owner Lisa Persson Brown told Channel 12 they were asking local
aquariums if they were interested in getting this rare specimen.
A solution for those beach property owners on Charlestown Beach Road…
Those mostly non-resident beach property owners who tried to grab one of the town’s few town-owned beach right-of-ways because they didn’t like the type of people who were using it to
go to the beach – there’s hope.
Rather than buy our beach path at bargain prices, as you attempted, how about if you entice Taylor Swift
to move into one of your properties?
On June 15, three Connecticut residents who were partying on the beach below Taylor’s Watch Hill mansion were arrested. The three were allegedly drinking and throwing beer bottles and using bad language toward Swift’s private security detail.
On June 15, three Connecticut residents who were partying on the beach below Taylor’s Watch Hill mansion were arrested. The three were allegedly drinking and throwing beer bottles and using bad language toward Swift’s private security detail.
Later, one of the miscreants
told TMZ they meant no disrespect to Taylor Swift who was not actually in
her mansion at the time of the incident and that they were actually flashing
the peace sign, not the one-finger salute.
South County agriculture is growing
Farming
is making a comeback and South County is leading the way according to new
USDA data. The report shows an almost 20% increase in the number of farms in
the most recent 5-year interval, as well as a 33% increase in acreage. Those
increases mean more jobs and more economic activity in our area.
One of those new farms is New England
Mushroom in South Kingstown, which specializes in growing gourmet varieties
like oysters, shitakes, maitakes and pioppinos. They’re only 18 months old, but
have already experienced a rise in sales, doubling just this year alone, and
expected to double again over the next year.
If they want to expand,
they should consider Charlestown, especially in and around our Town Hall where, thanks to the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, there are ideal growing conditions
for mushrooms: darkness and lots of bullshit.
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Pesto preserved?
If you are
a basil lover and grower like I am, there’s a warning to heed from the University of Connecticut Extension
Service about “basil downy mildew.” If you’ve
bought trays of basil plantings from Big Box stores, watch out. The fungus-like
pathogen (peronospora belbahrii) shows up as dark, sooty spores on the
undersides of leaves and can be spread by rain and wind.
This
problem is not showing up in basil from local sources such as farmers’ markets.
Key to preventing the disease is to give your basil plants plenty of room for
good air flow, don’t water from overhead and keep the beds weeded. Click
here for more information.
Next, a collection of Fluff
Congratulations
to Washington Trust for collecting more than five
tons of peanut butter during its 14th annual peanut butter drive.
The peanut butter will be given to the RI Community Food Bank and food pantries
such as the Jonnycake Centers in Westerly and Peace Dale and the WARM Center.
Another Gratuitous Video, similar theme to earlier one
Call National Geographic! First canoeists to span Rhode Island
In
July, watch for a group of guys in canoes paddling down the Pawcatuck heading
for Westerly. Three canoeists, including 67-year old Jim Cole of Charlestown,
plan to complete the first-ever traverse of Rhode Island by canoe, travelling
from Woonsocket to Westerly (see map) via eight different inland waterways.
More detail by clicking
here and also here,
and their Facebook
page.
Events
