Charlestown
Tapas
By
Will Collette
Gävle Goat Lives!
This is how the Goat usually ends up, but not this year |
For
the first time since Progressive Charlestown started monitoring it, Sweden’s Gävle Goat (Gävlebocken) made it through the Christmas
holiday without being torched. As regular readers may recall, Gävle, Sweden has a
holiday tradition of erecting a 40-foot tall goat made of sticks and straw that stands on display in the town square throughout the Advent season.
In most years, the Gävlebocken gets burned to the ground by
vandals. But not this year.
It survived, thanks to vigilant volunteers and the idea of ringing the town square with a taxis.
They want to be Gavle Goats when they grow up |
The
Gävlebocken has his own blog where he makes
fun of the right-wing jerks who run the town government.
Speaking of which, the All-CCA Charlestown Town Council encourages you to attend this year’s Charlestown New Year’s Eve bonfire at 4:30 PM (on New Year’s Eve, Wednesday, of course) at Ninigret Park.
Speaking of which, the All-CCA Charlestown Town Council encourages you to attend this year’s Charlestown New Year’s Eve bonfire at 4:30 PM (on New Year’s Eve, Wednesday, of course) at Ninigret Park.
This
year, the Council has mandated that five Democrats be tossed onto the fire, but
as is their usual policy, they want the Charlestown Democratic Town
Committee to draw up a list of which five it will be.
Speaking of New
Year’s
For
the best wrap-up of the events of 2014, don’t miss Dave Barry’s 2014 Year in
Review in the Miami Herald. Click here.
Virginia Wooten
Speaks
Every
so often, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance brings their President Virginia
Wooten forward to deliver an encyclical to the CCA Party faithful. Rarely seen
or heard, Wooten’s words are to be savored much like the Oracle at Delphi. This year, she (or one of her
elves) penned a Holiday Message to Charlestown
which ran in the Westerly Sun.
In
it, Wooten declares Charlestown to be the best place in Rhode Island and tells
the faithful that “the newly elected Charlestown Town
Council members and planning commissioners will strive to achieve the type of
government that the citizens of our town expect and deserve.”
That's pretty much what Alexis de Tocqueville supposedly said with an irony not evident in Ms. Wooten's letter to the editor, when he said, "In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve." Some say the quote is misattributed and credit instead Joseph de Maistre who's 1811 line read, "every nation gets the government it deserves."
Charlestown
swept up in class action lawsuit on public pensions
According to records released to me by the town, Charlestown is
one of many targets of a class action lawsuit filed Rhode Island’s public
employee unions against most of the state’s general officers and municipalities
for cutting pension benefits guaranteed under collective bargaining agreements
through MERS (Municipal Employees Retirement System).
Click here to read the lawsuit.
The Charlestown piece of the lawsuit is brought by Laborers Union
Local 808 (see paragraph 60). Charlestown is being sued as “an interested
party” (see paragraph 81).
The lawsuit is 45 pages long. Charlestown’s answer, written by
Town Solicitor Peter Ruggiero, is only seven pages long. I am not exaggerating
when I tell you that, in summary, the town’s response is words to the effect of “what the hell
are you talking about?” Seriously. Click here to read for
yourself.
Big discount for
waterfront property owners
Good news for all these folks |
The
Westerly Sun picked up on a
major piece of news I gleaned from Charlestown Town Administrator Mark
Stankiewicz’s report to the emptitious Town Council. I ran the item in this edition of Charlestown Tapas. The news
is that Charlestown has qualified for the FEMA Community Rating System (CRS)
which measures the extent to which municipalities prepare for natural
disasters, especially floods.
Thanks
to hard work and study by town Building official Joe Warner, Charlestown not
only qualified, but received the best rating – a seven – of any municipality in Rhode
Island. The practical result of this achievement is a likely 15%
discount on flood insurance. The Sun story notes that these discounts are NOT automatic.
Insurance carriers know
about it, but it will be up to policy holders to request the discount be
applied. Warner guesses that these discounts will be available starting in May
2015.
Get
your damned flu shot!
Yes, I know. The flu virus mutated this year and the vaccine is
much less effective than previous years’ versions. Nonetheless, with flu now
starting to spike, getting vaccinated now is still a good idea. While our rates are not as bad as some other parts of the country – yet – commonsense precautions should be applied.
Rhode Island has already had one fatality.
Because of the mutated flu strain, you should do more to protect
yourself and your family than just getting a flu shot. Click here for practical tips.
As if the flu
(and Lyme Disease) wasn’t enough
There’s
yet another tick-borne disease to watch out for called “Bourbon Virus.” It’s not
named after whisky, but after Bourbon County, Kansas where a man was diagnosed
with this newly-found virus. He died despite 10 days of intensive hospital
care.
Bourbon
Virus is in the same family of viruses that includes flu. The dead guy in
Kansas is the only known case so far so the CDC doesn’t know whether it exists
elsewhere. There is no vaccine and no known treatment as yet.
The
CDC offers the general advice it gives about ticks in general, which is take
steps to avoid getting bit.
Here
in Charlestown, the best way to do that is to never go outside, especially into
the woods. Our local ticks are active all year long – I picked a couple off me
after doing some yard work just after Christmas. Since avoiding the outdoors is
impractical for many of us, use DEET repellant and make sure you check
yourself.
Jobs in our area
Looking
for work? Check out RI Community Jobs for non-profit and public service jobs. A
free service of Brown University’s Swearer Center, they send out a daily e-mail
listing new postings. Click here
to sign up.
The
Ocean Community YMCA has various part
time positions available with different skill sets, days, hours. Click here
for the list, details and how to apply.
From the South Kingstown-Narragansett Patch:
- Corporate Manager, Contract Operations &Business Reporting, Partners Healthcare, - Charlestown, RI. Oddly, this job, and others, are listed for Charlestown. RI not Massachusetts. Partners Healthcare is the non-profit consortium that owns and operates Massachusetts’ top hospitals – Mass General, Brigham and Women’s and others
- Two jobs: Creative SolutionsStudio Director, Americas and IT Sr. Project Manager, Schneider Electric, West Kingston, RI
- Three Jobs: Director, Insight & Strategy- LOB, Consulting Technical Manager and Program Manager -Consulting, Oracle, Ashaway, RI
- Several Jobs: National Account Manager: East Coast (no relo required), National Account Manager: MidwestTerritory (no relo required), New Market/Business Development Manager, Toray Plastics, North Kingstown
- Area Sales Director & Publisher, N2 Publishing, Westerly, RI
- Engineering Services Manager, Hexagon Metrology, North Kingstown, RI
- Executive Chef - Upscale Dining, Gecko Hospitality, North Kingstown, RI
- Financial Management Technician, Air Force Civilian Service, North Kingstown, RI
- Medical Director, VCA Animal Hospitals, Westerly, RI
From Stonington Patch:
- Director of Development, New England Science & Sailing Foundation - Stonington, CT
- Executive Director, Mystic Arts Center - Mystic, CT
- Clinical Pharmacy Director, Kurz Solutions - Westerly, RI
- Hospice Account Executive, Amedisys - Mystic, CT
- Premier Relationship Manager, Citizens Financial Group - Mystic, CT
- Healthcare Account Manager, Grainger - Westerly, RI