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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Buried in the Town Council documents…

Charlestown snapshot found in department reports presented at Town Council meeting
By Will Collette

While waiting for the Clerkbase video to be posted for Monday’s regular Town Council session (Clerkbase access has become increasingly erratic lately), I read the array of reports filed by town department heads with the Council.

None of these reports were actually discussed – they were all simply accepted and filed under the Council’s “consent agenda.” But nerd that I am, I find interesting insights into Charlestown’s life and culture in those reports.

Interesting numbers are always found in Town Clerk Amy Rose Weinreich’s monthly report. For example, she reveals that Charlestown has had its first civil union ceremony performed since the state adopted a very restrictive civil union statute that was largely rejected by marriage-equality advocates. Mazel tov to the happy couple. Here’s hoping that one day soon they can in fact get married with all the civil rights that entails.




According to Amy’s report, Charlestown foreclosures now stand at 13, with none reported in October or November (great news, truly!). Unless there is a surge in December, it looks like Charlestown will not come near last year’s record total of 17 foreclosures entered into the town’s official record, even though Zillow.com still reports a significant number of distressed properties scattered throughout Charlestown.

Negative Population Growth

Our Family Planning Commissar, Ruth Platner, is no doubt pleased at Amy’s numbers for births versus deaths. So far, the Charlestown death rate is running about 20% higher than its birth rate (50 versus 42), which has got to be helpful to Platner’s Negative Population Growth Strategy.

The 2010 Census figures for Charlestown showed that Charlestown had lost population, especially among children under 18, whose numbers dropped by 12%. Charlestown’s last update to its Comprehensive Plan (2006) projected Charlestown population to reach 8,642 by 2010, up from its 2000 total of 7,859 full-time residents. Not only did Charlestown not hit 8,642, but our tally dropped to 7,827 people who call Charlestown home.

Like we said, the Y-Camp was a dump

Tax Assessor Ken Swain’s report shows that Frederick and Joanne Cindrich applied for – and the Town Council subsequently approved – a property tax abatement of $1,236.90 on the old abandoned Westerly YMCA campground. Subject of the unpopular and controversial Y-Gate caper, the campground is strewn with derelict buildings and was far from being the pristine wilderness portrayed by Planning Commissar Platner, Town Council boss Tom Gentz and the Charlestown Land Trust.

The Cindriches cited the poor condition of the buildings as well as its zoning status as open space/recreational as the rationale for the abatement. Clearly the town agreed. Belatedly. And granted the abatement. This is as clear an admission as we’re likely to get that the Town Council knew they’d be overpaying for the property when they voted to expend nearly half a million taxpayer dollars to acquire not the property itself but a superfluous easement on it.

Town recycling declines

Town Public Works Director Alan Arsenault reports on his department’s response to damage from Hurricane Sandy. Also included in his report is the sad news that Charlestown’s overall recycling effort is falling short and overall recycling in town is declining. 

We’ve written about this subject before – for a town that claims to be very environmentally oriented, we seem to only care about open space and not about other important environmental issues, such as waste reduction and recycling. This report adds evidence to that argument.

There might even be a tie-in between Charlestown’s declining recycling and the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Lots of unwanted – and otherwise expensive to dump – household items ended up at the town transfer station as “storm damage.” Big lines to dump lots of stuff that looked old but not water-damaged.

Busy Parks and Recreation Department

Last year's Charlestown bon fire as it gets going
Parks and Recreation Director Jay Primiano presented a chock-full report. He reported that while both of Charlestown’s town beaches lost a lot of their sand and dunes to Hurricane Sandy, our new beach pavilions survived largely unscathed. (Hope the blue shingles at Blue Shutters made it.) Jay reported on lots of ongoing and upcoming activities, such as the monthly “Supper Table” dinners being provided by St. Andrews Church at the Charlestown Community Center. 

Jay also noted the upcoming and always popular New Year’s Eve bonfire, organized by “Frankie Pallets” Glista.

We’re hoping that this year, Frank arranges the pallets to look like an animal that symbolizes Charlestown (suggestions, folks?  Turkey? Groundhog? Ostrich?) like the Gävle Goat in Sweden. By the way, as of today, the Gävle Goat is still intact.

Finally, I don’t mean to slight our new Charlestown Police Chief, Jeffrey Allen, but his report on Charlestown’s law and order stats show no significant changes in either criminal or police activity. Which I suppose is fine since Charlestown doesn’t have a whole lot of criminal activity going on, except perhaps among the challengers who ran for State Representative.