Dog Days meeting
should be short
By Will Collette
My bad. I missed the fact that Charlestown observes the unique and anachronistic Rhode Island holiday of "Victory Day," a.k.a. VJ-Day today.
So the Council meeting to put a public face on decisions that have already been made in private will take place on Tuesday, not today.
It used to be that Tom and I would put a lot of work into covering the doings at the Charlestown Town Council. But after their election triumph in 2014, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Alliance) holds every elected office in town, including the Council, and they are likely to retain their death grip on the town because they face hardly any opposition in the November election.
So the Council meeting to put a public face on decisions that have already been made in private will take place on Tuesday, not today.
It used to be that Tom and I would put a lot of work into covering the doings at the Charlestown Town Council. But after their election triumph in 2014, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Alliance) holds every elected office in town, including the Council, and they are likely to retain their death grip on the town because they face hardly any opposition in the November election.
Since most important decisions are pre-determined by the CCA
Party’s Steering Committee in their secret monthly meetings, these Council
sessions serve to simply provide a platform to announce those decisions. But on
occasion, as required by state law, the CCA Council must put some matters up
before the public and allow dissenting voices to be hears.
After reviewing this month’s agenda, the only two items
likely to provoke even a little sharp dialogue are the two listed under “New
Business.” The first is a proposal by Frank Glista to display a propeller from
a nearby World War II crash site near the memorial to the Navy flyers who were
trained at the Ninigret Auxiliary Air Field (NAAF) which is now Ninigret Park.
The prop certainly makes the point that not all of those training flights ended
well.
This Town Council has been generally hostile to anything
proposed by Frank, including proposals to enhance the town’s recognition of the
historic NAAF site. Expect at least some sharp elbows to be thrown over this
subject.
The second item under new business is the planned expansion
of Burlingame Park through the acquisition of the 42 acre “Dodson Property” by
DEM. Normally, nothing, and I mean nothing, gives the CCA a greater thrill that
to see more Charlestown real estate get turned into open space.
However, it looks like the Town is going to get a little
snippy with DEM because, if you look down the agenda, toward the end, there’s
an item in the Consent Agenda that calls for:
“CA” L. Authorization of the Town
Administrator to Send a Communication to All State Agencies and Regulatory
Boards, to Specifically Include the Department of Transportation, the
Department of Health, the Department of Environmental Management and the Water
Resources Board, and Any Other Pertinent Agencies, Requesting Notification of
Any State Projects Scheduled to Occur Within the Town of Charlestown
This is a reiteration of the “Slattery Doctrine” that
Charlestown asserts that no state agency should do anything in Charlestown
without checking with the CCA Town Council.
Essentially, any state agency that wants to do anything in Charlestown has to play "Simon Sez" with the Council, meaning with the CCA Party.
The Slattery Doctrine stems from a negotiation between the
state Water Resource Board and Frank Glista’s family that led to the state’s purchase of a parcel of land in Cross’ Mills that would be set aside as open
space to preserve the underground water resource.
As much as the CCA Council loves open space, they were
outraged that the Water Resource Board would do business with the accursed
Glista family (see above) or for that matter do anything in Charlestown without
their CCA Council’s advice and consent.
This policy, pretty much exclusively focused on the
Water Resources Board, essentially lapsed after the residents in and around the CCA Party stronghold in Quonnie finally came to accept the fact their drinking water was imperiled by nitrates and other future
threats. At that point, the state Water Resource Board went from being a slimy illegal alien to becoming Quonnie’s potential savior.
It’s funny how self-interest works.
Anyway, it looks like the Slattery Doctrine has returned now
that DEM is back in the Charlestown Open Space business. And the great thing for the CCA is that they can't really be held accountable for yet another display of gross hypocrisy.
Here’s the official agenda:
Charlestown Town Council
Regular Meeting 8/9/2016 7:00 PM Council Chambers
Town Hall 4540 South County
Trail Charlestown, RI 02813
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