By
Will Collette
Where are the red light cameras?
They weren’t, plus there was no sign that the town’s contractor was doing anything to install them.
So I asked Town Administration Mark Stankiewicz wuzzup with the system and, on September 5 he said via e-mail:
“In regards to your inquiry, the best information I have is Sensys America will have the roadside equipment installed within a week. Sensys is also waiting on National Grid to connect the electric lines. The “best guess” is the system will be operational in approximately 2-4 weeks.”
Jobs
The
Tomaquag Museum in Exeter is looking to hire a Marketing Associate to start
work on October 1. The application deadline is September 19. Click here for details or
contact director Loren Spears.
South
County Community Action here in Charlestown is looking for a Special
Needs/Mental Health Coordinator to work in their Head Start program. Sorry for
the short deadline – September 10. Click here for details or
send a cover letter and resume to jsimone@sccainc.org
ASAP.
If you’re looking for work, you should sign up for daily
e-mails from RI Community Jobs, a project of Brown University’s Swearer Center.
Click here.
They are looking to fill a wide range of positions. Information about DEM and all seasonal positions, as well as downloadable application forms, are available online at DEM's website, www.dem.ri.gov, by clicking on "Jobs" then "Seasonal Positions". Applicants may also visit or call DEM's Office of Human Resources at 235 Promenade Street, Room 350, Providence, weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., or call 222-2775, ext. 4609.
Richmond reponds to the Poopline
If you've been reading the Westerly Sun or Progressive Charlestown, you will have seen lots of back and forth over the latest phony crisis concocted by the Charlestown Town Council - the looming though non-existent threat of an STD ("Single Taxing District" for the Chariho School system).
This bogus conspiracy went viral when the normally unbiased official town newsletter, the Pipeline, published an alarmist and grossly inaccurate "Special Edition." Since we can no longer count on the Pipeline to present objective facts, it will be hereafter referred to as "The Poopline."
Despite efforts by our state legislators, and others, to debunk this myth, our Council's leading conspiracy-buff, the fact-challenged Councilor George Tremblay (CCA Party) just can't help but to keep blowing the bugle to assemble the militia to go to war with Richmond and Hopkinton.
Now the Richmond Town Council has weighed in, as described in the Chariho Times (no electronic link available):
Tough
times for the Narragansetts and other tribes
I reported the
rejection by the Navy
to a proposal by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs to acquire
a major portion of surplus Navy land left over from the old Navy base on behalf
of the Narragansett Indian Tribe. Matt Sheley of the Newport Daily News (no
link, sorry – the NDN doesn’t allow much non-subscriber access) reports the
Tribe plans to challenge that decision and thinks it is still “in the mix” to
acquire some of the 225 Aquidneck Island acres.
While
ruling out a casino for that property, the Tribe isn’t saying what it wants to
do with the land. But according to John Brown, a leading tribal official, they
still want to acquire that land.
In
another development, Indian Country
Today reports
that a decision is expected soon in a Ninth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals
case, Big Lagoon Rancheria v. California.
The case
is being re-heard by all 11 judges of the 9th Circuit after a three
judge panel ruled on a 2-1 vote that the state of California was not obliged to
negotiate a new gambling compact with the tribe because the tribe was one of
the 500 tribes who lost sovereignty rights under the notorious 2009 Carcieri v.Salazar decision by the US Supreme Court.
The US Justice Department and
lawyers for the tribe are hoping the full appeals court will overrule the
three-judge panel. Charlestown – or at least the Charlestown Citizens Alliance
– is invested in seeing the early decision stand since it upholds Carcieri v.Salazar, a case that originated in Charlestown’s effort to block the
Narragansett Indian Tribe from building a low-income elderly housing project.
Indian advocates worry that if
the 9th Circuit upholds the earlier decision, the 500 tribes that
lost sovereignty rights will be in an even deeper hole.
South
County Hospital breaks off merger talks with Massachusetts chain
SouthCoast
Today and the Providence
Business News both report that South County Hospital, the state’s only
remaining independent hospital, broke off partnership negotiations with New Bedford-based
Southcoast Health Systems. These talks have been going on for about six months.
Most hospitals have been pushed into mergers to deal with changes
in the economics of health care.
Westerly Hospital faced
either bankruptcy and closure or a buy-out by New London-based Lawrence & Memorial Hospital.
Despite the hardships
imposed on independent hospitals, such as lower reimbursement rates, South
County Hospital has thrived and has scored as the Number One hospital in all of New England for patient satisfaction and top scores in most other ratings.
South County says none
of the conditions that drove it to seek a partner or merger have changed, so
they will continue looking.
Animal
Rescue League needs your help
.JPG) |
| Just two of the many reasons we support the Animal Rescue League |
Regular
Progressive Charlestown readers have probably all seen the weekly notices for
the Dog
or Cat of the Week. These cute critters are under the care of the Animal
Rescue League of Southern Rhode Island in Peace Dale and are available for
adoption.
Cathy
and I feel a particular connection with them because after the unexpected death
of one of our kitties, we visited the shelter and came home with twin brown
tabby brothers who have become part of our family.
We
got hooked on the League because, we discovered, it is one of the only true no-kill shelters not only in
southern Rhode Island but for a much wider distance than that. Like so many
shelters, theirs’ is in rough shape. They are building a new state-of-the-art
facility next door to the current building and we were proud to make a major
donation and to also offer to help raise more.
I
recently met the League’s board chair, Doug Rubenstein, who just happens to
live right here in Charlestown. As he described the history and the future of
the League, I was amazed and thrilled at what they have planned. For example, I
wasn’t aware that they run a pet food pantry for low-income families and that
they do extensive education in the schools.
They
also have a Service Dog Training Academy in the works where they will train
shelter dogs for search-and-rescue, service to the disabled, and comfort to the
sick and the elderly.
Doug
gave a great interview to the Providence Business News recently (click here) where he really makes
the case for why you should consider supporting the League or donate generously
toward the costs of their new building. They are a 501(c)(3) non-profit and
your contributions are tax-deductible. Go to their website
for more information.
More
Chamberpots
The
Charlestown Citizens Alliance has taken the muzzles off the Chambers, Mike and
Donna, who have been pretty silent for a number of months. Both have developed
reputations in town for their tortured and fact-challenged writings both on the
official CCA Party website and in the Westerly Sun.
Frankly, I’ve missed all
those Chamberpots because only the Chambers are naïve enough to actually put in
writing the delusional stuff the CCA Party generally believes.
I’m
waiting for them to write about Tom Gentz’s latest delusion, which is that the
state Water Resources Board plans to build “huge pumping stations that will
send Charlestown’s water upstate. Gentz has been reported as saying this to
voters, but he has yet to be foolish enough to put it in writing. Thus, the
perfect mission for the Chambers.
But
apparently the Westerly Sun isn’t so thrilled with the Chambers. While they
have run three Chamberpots in the Sun’s Letters to the Editor column (on August
25, 26 and 27), they only ran them in the print version which doesn’t get much
readership in Charlestown, and not on the Sun’s public website.
If
you really want to read these Chamberpots, just take yourself over to the CCA
Party website where they are prominently posted. Their appearance there makes
it pretty clear that they are espousing the CCA Party line, all disclaimers to
the contrary.
Atlantic
Animal Hospital expands services, hosts open house
Atlantic
Animal Hospital will hold an open house at their offices at the junction of
Route One and Route Two in Charlestown on Wednesday, September 13 from 9 to 1
PM. In addition to tours, gifts for pets, snacks and entertainment for kids,
they will be showing off their new state-of-the-art mobile veterinary van.
This
van will enable them to do house calls. Plus, they will park it at Spindrift
Village every other Saturday from 9 – 1 PM for drop ins.
Number
of page-reads hits one and a half million
For
a small, sort of hyper-local, volunteer-run website on politics, news and
entertainment, we’ve been surprisingly successful at attracting regular readers.
They average around 2,000 during each weekday. That’s the number of times per
day that somebody clicks on an article to actually read it, as opposed to
“hits,” which is simply the number of people who, accidentally or on purpose,
check out Progressive Charlestown.
So it was nice to hit a new mark, one and a half page-views at 10:30 PM on September 6.
So it was nice to hit a new mark, one and a half page-views at 10:30 PM on September 6.
We
hit the one
and a quarter million mark on April 22, so it took only another four and a
half months to attract another quarter million page-reads.
Here's the money...where are the jobs?
The RI Division of Taxation has just released its annual report on the amount of corporate welfare it has dispensed to supposedly create jobs. These usually come in the form of tax credits or subsidies. I am actually a big fan of subsidies, provided (a) they actually create jobs; (b) go largely to small local businesses and (c) are not the result of corporate blackmail (e.g. Fidelity's constant threat to move to another state if we don't keep subsidizing their operations).
Unfortunately, the new report fails to provide any useful information on what good our corporate welfare actually did. We do know that we gave roughly $15 million out last year and that around $12 million of that went to CVS ($9.9 million), Electric Boat of Groton ($1.5 million), Fidelity of Boston ($0.43 million) and Perot Systems of Texas ($0.05 million).
In addition, CVS got another $5.1 million, Electric Boat got another $1.8 million and Fidelity got another $3.2 million in "Investment and Job Training Tax Credits."
Rep. Teresa Tanzi has made pushing for full disclosure on corporate welfare one of her priority issues. The fact that we get even this small amount of information is due to her. I asked her when we'll start seeing some detail on how many jobs we got in return for our money and she e-mailed me to say that starting in FY 2015, they will disclose the jobs numbers for 19 corporate welfare programs out of a total of around 200.
The RI Division of Taxation has just released its annual report on the amount of corporate welfare it has dispensed to supposedly create jobs. These usually come in the form of tax credits or subsidies. I am actually a big fan of subsidies, provided (a) they actually create jobs; (b) go largely to small local businesses and (c) are not the result of corporate blackmail (e.g. Fidelity's constant threat to move to another state if we don't keep subsidizing their operations).
Unfortunately, the new report fails to provide any useful information on what good our corporate welfare actually did. We do know that we gave roughly $15 million out last year and that around $12 million of that went to CVS ($9.9 million), Electric Boat of Groton ($1.5 million), Fidelity of Boston ($0.43 million) and Perot Systems of Texas ($0.05 million).
In addition, CVS got another $5.1 million, Electric Boat got another $1.8 million and Fidelity got another $3.2 million in "Investment and Job Training Tax Credits."
Rep. Teresa Tanzi has made pushing for full disclosure on corporate welfare one of her priority issues. The fact that we get even this small amount of information is due to her. I asked her when we'll start seeing some detail on how many jobs we got in return for our money and she e-mailed me to say that starting in FY 2015, they will disclose the jobs numbers for 19 corporate welfare programs out of a total of around 200.
Dump
your old pesticides in Charlestown on September 18
DEM
is hosting a free pesticide take-back program for farms and businesses at
locations around the state. Charlestown’s DOT Salt Barn right off Route One
will be one of the sites. They will accept old pesticides there on September 18
from 9 AM to 1 PM. Click
here for more details and for information on the other sites and drop-off
dates.
Be
careful when you drive or retire in Providence
Allstate
Insurance releases the results of its annual survey of roadway safety in
America’s major cities. This will come as no surprise for most people who make
the drive up to the city, but Providence was among the worst in the nation,
coming in at #196 out of 200 cities.
One
post-retirement business venture I am seriously considering is launching an
on-line rating service for stuff. It seems like just about anyone can start one
up and get people to take it seriously. Here’s an example: a service called WalletHub,
describing itself as a “personal finance service,” rated 150 of the country’s
largest cities in terms of what they had to offer retirees.
Providence
won the last place rating. Boston and Worcester were also near the bottom.
I will not venture a guess about any correlation between Providence's low ratings for driving safety and retirement, although maybe there is one.
Is nothing sacred?
I am losing my will to live. How can we have any
faith in the future when we are told that Kraft’s individually-wrapped American
cheese slices might have spoiled while at one of its suppliers. They have issued a recall and taken back tons of the
stuff, which I had thought had the same longevity as Twinkies®, Spam® and
marshmallow Peeps®. You can return the recalled cheese at the store where you
bought it an exchange or full refund. Consumers also can contact Kraft Foods
Consumer Relations at 1-800-396-5512.”
Late add-on
Then the app pairs you with some stranger of roughly the same age and the opposite gender and assigns that person to give you a morning walk-up call. Not sure whether there is an LGBT option.
As Dave Barry likes to say, "what could go wrong with that?" Neither the Wakie or the Sleepyhead gets the phone number of the other, unless of course, there's some chemistry that takes place during the wake-up call.