Tapas, get your Charlestown Tapas

Bite-sized news

By Will Collette

Progress on public access to Charlestown Moraine Preserve

It took a while to settle the issue of what to do with the land Charlestown purchased for $2.1 million to block the proposed Whalerock wind turbines. For a while, Town Council Boss Tom Gentz and Planning Commissar Ruth Platner pushed the town to give away the land to one of their favored groups, only to discover that these groups either didn’t want the land or weren’t legally eligible to receive it. Plus, any such transaction requires voter approval.

After much painful stumbling about, the Council settled on the only logical approach which was to let the town Conservation Commission do its job to figure out how to best make it possible for residents to enjoy the land that was bought with their tax dollars.

The Conservation Commission has moved this process forward by working with the Nature Conservancy to plot out trail routes and with town Public Works to figure out the least intrusive way to set up public parking. Click here and here to see what they’ve come up with.

In a nutshell, for $12,979, we can build a 60’ x 60’ parking lot on King’s Factory Road and lay out trails so people can enjoy this beautiful piece of land. Included in the estimate is money for an archaeological survey to ensure that building the parking does not disturb any protected Native American gravesites or artifacts, an important consideration, given the site’s close proximity to Narragansett Tribal lands.

Charlestown scores partial but major victory in cesspool case

Charlestown sure has some incredible people as homeowners and the case of McCabe v. Charlestown is a good case in point. Paul McCabe owns a home at 12 Allen’s Cove Road off Charlestown Beach Road which is served by an old, illegal cesspool. Starting in 2006, the town sent him notice after notice that he needed to replace that cesspool.

Charlestown’s wastewater enforcer, Matt Dowling, responded to neighborhood complaints about that cesspool in August 2010 and found that it had failed, sending raw sewage to the surface. He cited McCabe, as did RIDEM shortly afterwards. A year later, McCabe finally responded to multiple letters and citations by claiming he had his system checked and that it was working just fine, thank you very much.

Except there was no evidence of any work done or progress toward a replacement. Finally, in December 2012, the town served a summons on McCabe informing him that he would be tried before the Charlestown Municipal Court. In March 2013, McCabe was found guilty and was fined $150 a day until he brought his system into compliance.

Open season on cesspools

McCabe filed his appeal in Superior Court and that led to Judge Rodgers split decision on May 23^rd.

First, Judge Rodgers found that McCabe “has flagrantly ignored his legal obligations…and he has buried his head in the proverbial sand.” So, he’s guilty.

But Charlestown failed to comply with violation notice requirements, specifically by failing to include specific deadlines for McCabe to comply. The Judge ruled the times given were not clear enough.

The result is good for Charlestown in that it upholds our overall enforcement regimen for getting rid of cesspools. But instead of being able to collect fines against McCabe starting from the March 2013 Municipal Court ruling, Judge Rodgers ordered the fines to begin on the date of her decision and to continue until McCabe has complied with the law. Read the decision here.

Charlestown Council Chambers moving along

Boss Gentz's new chair

Charlestown Town meetings have been held in the Police Station’s Community Room while major overhauls are being done to the Town Council Chambers. Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz told the Council the work began on June 3 and will improve the ceiling, lights, sound system and also make general improvements such as painting, flags, etc.

I asked him how these improvements might enhance the participation of Charlestown’s sizable elderly and handicapped population who have trouble standing to speak (or stand waiting to speak).

In an e-mail, Stankiewicz told me:

“Handicapped access in the Chamber is fine. It should be somewhat improved by removing the “wing walls” making the entrance easier. There will also be wireless microphones and moveable tables that may help residents who are unable to stand at the podium.”

He says “The plan is to have Council meet in the Chambers for their July meeting. Items not completed will be done in between scheduled meetings.”

He also reports progress in changing the town over from the current Clerkbase system which, as it is currently being used, is loaded with glitches that make it hard for people to view the video of town meetings. The new system, IQM2, will replace Clerkbase and, as he has told me, will include all the good features we had gotten used to with Clerkbase, while shedding the problems.

Ever wonder how the Town of Charlestown is organized?

Here's Charlestown's table of organization:

Pretty complicated for a tiny little town, isn't it?

Shelter Cover case goes on and on and on

The seemingly never-ending litigation between Charlestown and Shelter Cove LLC (best known for the marina and their tenant, Johnny Angels Clam Shack) and between the Charlestown Town Council and the Charlestown Zoning Board of Review (ZBR) goes on. 

This mind-numbing case grows out of Shelter Cove’s long-standing business of offering a commercial parking alternative to visitors to Charlestown Town Beach. 

The Town has argued that Shelter Cove lacks the right to do so even though it has been running beach parking for over 30 years. The Zoning Board disagreed and overturned the town’s cease-and-desist order.

The issue ended up in court with everybody suing everybody. The judge decided to send the dispute back to Charlestown for the appeal to be reheard.

Zoning once again ruled in favor of Shelter Cove and overturned the cease-and-desist order, but set conditions on how many parking spaces Shelter Cove could offer. Shelter Cove wasn’t satisfied with that and went back to Superior Court (click here) to try to get more. Now the town of Charlestown has decided it wants to be part of the rehashed case (click here).

Among the last developments are the court's acceptance of Charlestown's petition to intervene and to consolidate all the cases into one.

As one of the greatest lawyers in American history, Clarence Darrow, once said, “The trouble with law is lawyers.” 

If you're wondering why this case needs to drag on and on and on and on, providing a nice living for all the lawyers, there is the issue of the town's interest in wanting to curb competition to the Charlestown Town Beach parking lot.

But I also noted who else has a stake in this matter when I looked over the list of abutters who were notified before the Zoning Board's April hearing on Shelter Cove - only three Charlestown families are abutters, while there are sixteen non-residents, mostly from out of state, who abut the property. Click here to see for yourself - look on the third page.

Charlestown is not willing to risk litigation in the effort to regulate unregulated quarries, but it is willing to spend a small fortune on this case. What's wrong with this picture?

State Police looking for Bradford’s missing stuff

When the Bradford Fire District decided to end its role in fighting fires (and contract for service with Dunns’ Corner instead), a lot of the equipment and property allegedly disappeared. Included in the missing goods are two trucks, flashlights, turn-out gear, hoses, radios, an infrared camera and other stuff. The Fire District voted to spend $10,000 on a lawyer to try to get the goods back and now the State Police are looking into it to see whether, in their judgment, the alleged disappearance of valuable goods is a civil matter or a crime.

Charlestown’s share of state aid on par with rural towns

Charlestown receives $125,222 in direct state funding which works out to around $16 per resident. That figure is on par with the per capita amount of state aid received by similar small rural Rhode Island towns. This figure does not include indirect state aid (i.e. highways, state police, DEM, etc.). This state aid represents a return of some of the money we pay to the state through our state income, excise and sales taxes and user fees.

Screen shot from GoLocalProv

Falling housing market in Rhode Island

I keep getting notices from Zillow showing a steady decline in my own home value that reflects Zillow’s pessimistic view of Charlestown in general. Zillow is predicting Charlestown home values will drop more than 2% over the next 12 months.

Zillow isn’t the only source that is forecasting a drop Rhode Island real estate values. Market Watch listed Rhode Island as one of ten markets where home sales are falling. They note our unemployment rate is higher than the national average and that realtors did not get the hoped for “spring bump.”

Jaws can returns

The new owners of the iconic Narragansett Beer label plan to start canning beer in a version of the 1975 label that was featured in the classic summer thriller “Jaws.” You may recall that actor Robert Shaw, playing the crazy shark hunter Captain Quint, did a little macho display by crushing the can in his hands.

For all you beer can crushers out there, it’s back and if you buy enough of it, you may need a bigger boat, but watch out for the DEM anti-drunk boating patrols.

Great ink for Ocean House

Ever since the reconstructed Watch Hill’s Ocean House opened its doors in 2010, it’s created non-stop buzz locally and in the national tourism industry by creating a luxury travel option that draws high-rollers to Westerly. They’ve just done it again, scoring the cover of Conde Nast Traveler’s July issue. Along with the cover shot, there’s a six-page article singing the hotel’s praises.

I just wish Ocean House developer Charles Royce would take another good look at the potential there is to be had in our own General Stanton Inn if it got a little of that Ocean House magic.