You can do great things, Part 2

Take up important issues the CCA ignored

By Will Collette

Remember this guy? That's Phil Armeta who did
federal jail time for organized crime, owner of the
infamous Copar quarries in Westerly and Charlestown.
Even knowing Copar's background, ex-Town Administrator
Mark Stankiewicz issued Copar a business license.

Last night, I ran Part 1 of this series that focused on taxes and finances, issues of paramount concern to Charlestown voters and prime motivators for the town's rejection of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) and the election of a Town Council comprised totally of members endorsed by Charlestown Residents United (CRU).

CCA control was also diminished on the powerful Charlestown Planning Commission, the only planning body in Rhode Island that is still elected, not appointed.

In Part 2, there are some recommendations to the new Council for further changes that they can make to enrich the lives of Charlestown residents. 

The first addresses the rhetorical question of "Why do business with criminals?" The answer is that we shouldn't so let's look at our options.

Bad Actor Policy.

The town of Charlestown does business with a lot of businesses. We buy things, hire contractors, and issue permits and licenses. When it comes to contracts and purchases, Rhode Island courts have held that municipalities are not required to strictly take the lowest bid, but rather the lowest responsible bid.

The courts have left it to the municipalities to define what “responsible” means, granting wide discretion so long as the definition is fair and reasonable, not arbitrary and capricious.

I spent much of my working life doing background research on companies and gave this subject a lot of thought. In 2022, I wrote this article: Charlestown needs a “Bad Actor” ordinance. It details the various ways “bad actors” can be defined and stopped.

For starters, I suggest the Council initiates a policy committing Charlestown to only buying from responsible vendors and contractors while developing a more comprehensive approach that can also be applied to permits and licenses.

If we had a town Bad Actor prohibition, we could have quickly blocked the Dollar Store proposal over their health and safety as well as wage and hour violations and the Copar Quarry expansion into Charlestown over its environmental violations and ties to organized crime.

Residential Wind Power.

$225 on Amazon. That's not an endorsement but
a fact that there's a big market for small wind generators.

Despite an avowed conviction to fighting climate change through lessened use of fossil fuels, Charlestown effectively bans all wind energy of any size or type.

In 2011, Charlestown overreacted to developer Larry LeBlanc’s proposal to build two industrial sized wind turbines on what is now the Charlestown Moraine Preserve. In addition to spending $2.1 million to buy the land, Charlestown also enacted a draconian anti-wind power ordinance that creates so many town regulatory hurdles as to make it impossible for homeowners and small businesses to install small wind-to-energy devices.

Read HERE to see the details.

There is no rational scientific reason to treat small home or business wind installation any differently than the town treats residential solar panels or heat pumps where the town inspector checks to make sure the work done properly.

Arrowhead's wind turbine as art

Wind power tech has advanced to the point where many residential wind installations are not only silent and efficient but even beautiful. My favorite style are the vertical axis turbines that replace the spinning blades with what looks like a top spinning on a spindle.

Some models look a lot like the art installation Dr. Bruce Gouins installed on the grounds of Arrowhead Dental. When I first saw them, I loved the design but was disappointed that they didn’t generate electricity – a missed opportunity, in my opinion. However, if they were rigged for power, they’d be illegal under Charlestown’s existing law.

The part of the ordinance on small residential or small business wind power generators needs to be repealed posthaste.

RIPTA connection.  

Charlestown is the only RI municipality (except Block Island) that isn’t on a RIPTA bus route. Buses run regularly from Providence to Westerly, South Kingstown, Narragansett and URI and loop back. 

Why not change some of those bus routes to cross over through Charlestown? For example, the South Kingstown bus could go down Route One where we could have a bus stop anywhere along the state’s highway easement, continue to Westerly and then return to Providence.

The CRU majority already made a forward step by approving $30,000 in APRA funds, supplemented by $120,000 in state funds, for senior citizen transportation. 

The main reason Charlestown doesn’t have a bus stop is that the CCA didn’t want one. Ruth Platner explicitly said so in her Charlestown Comprehensive Plan and suggested that residents without cars can just call Uber. I’m not making this up.

How can we claim we care about the dangers posed to Charlestown by climate change and fail to make it easier for residents to use public transportation? It makes no more sense than Charlestown's ban on residential wind power.

The Town Council could simply pass a resolution calling on town staff to open up discussions with RIPTA or ask Senator Gu or Representative Spears to do so on our behalf.

Dark skies campaign.

Preserving Charlestown’s dark sky was the centerpiece of the CCA’s 2024 campaign. Obviously, the voters didn’t get it although, as a lifelong amateur star gazer, I appreciate our tiny patch of sky that is relatively free of the worst light pollution.

Even though our dark skies are popular, the Charlestown public has long resisted the CCA’s approach. In 2010, Planning Commissar Ruth Platner started out wanting to swing a heavy hammer by crafting a town ordinance that would micro-regulate all Charlestown outdoor lighting. Under her early versions, if you needed to change a lightbulb in an outside fixture, you would need to replace the fixture with a new, town-approved model.

Time and again, Ruth would come back with slightly modified versions, but still unacceptable versions. She finally ended up with an ordinance that was very narrowly focused yet still unenforceable.

Cheap and easy way to
retrofit outdoor flood lights

At the time, Charlestown’s well-respected zoning officer Joe Warner said the ordinance was strictly “complaint-driven” and that he refused to go out at night and into dark back yards to see if a light violated the town ordinance.

I offered some advice at the time – unheeded by the CCA – that Charlestown would get a better result by putting together some discount deals to abate the cost of retrofitting or set up a cooperative plan like Solarize Charlestown. One-time tax credits to offset the cost of major replacement or refitting would help.

Though our dark skies will never generate the lucrative “astro-tourism” failed CCA Council candidate Sarah Fletcher promises, nonetheless, I think it’s worth protecting just for our own enjoyment. But let’s try a different approach.

Fire Joe Larisa.

Once and for all, let’s end the town’s Indian Affairs lawyer Joe Larisa’s retainer. It’s an embarrassment and a major obstacle to healing the wounds between the town and the Narragansett Indian Tribe. Read HERE for more detail on why Charlestown should end his contract. 

Besides, Larisa has one foot out the door already. According to the Providence Journal, he is one of several Republicans well known in Charlestown vying for a job with the Trump Administration in DC. Maybe as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs?