UPDATED: Charlestown budget and taxes topic of hearing Monday night

UPDATED: Taxes WILL go up. How and by how much?

By Will Collette

"Faith's Folly," one of the boondoggle projects that are adding to
your tax bill. 4,000% over budget and hardly ever used.
Details down below. 

Every single year since they took control of Charlestown town government, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) has raised taxes. That will be the case this year, too.

UPDATE: As usual, the CCA Party makes the claim that Charlestown's tax rate is very low compared to other municipalities, except they always leave out any comparison of what taxpayers in other municipalities GET for their tax dollars.

This year, unlike past years, they are drawing attention to the tax rate. 

That's because, since 2008, the CCA Party has increased the tax rate. This was a revaluation year and that gives the CCA Party an opportunity to cloud over how they will increase town taxes.

Charlestown property owners have already been notified by Charlestown Tax Assessor Ken Swain what their homes are worth under the new valuation Charlestown will use to calculate their taxes. Cathy and I got notice that our assessment is going up by 9.4%.

Overall, the value of all taxable property in Charlestown went from over $2.3 billion to $2.5 billion, or approximately 8%. Put that number up against the reduction in the tax rate.

The Budget Commission will hold a public hearing on the budget on Monday, May 1 where they will present the new $27,724,601 Fiscal 2018 Budget.

Of that amount, just over 50% covers Charlestown’s share of the cost of the Chariho School District. That part of the budget has already been approved by voters and is now locked in.

The Budget Commission is recommending a drop in the tax rate from the current $10.21 per $1000 of valuation to $9.54, a number subject to change all the way until the budget is finalized and approved by voters at the June 5 townwide Financial Referendum.

But the Budget Commission proposes that actual tax collections rise to $24,400,793, an increase of 1.15% despite the drop in the tax rate.

Hope you haven’t dropped off to sleep. Yes, the tax rate will drop for the first time since 2008 (which was another revaluation year) but no, you will probably still pay higher taxes.

Since my tax valuation is up by 9.4%, that wipes out the effect of the drop in the tax rate and then some. I suspect many, maybe most, other Charlestown taxpayers will be in the same boat.

Narragansett gets it but we don’t.

Making it even more galling is that the CCA Party has denied Charlestown residents the benefits of the Homestead Tax Credit available to other Rhode Island communities, but not here in Charlestown.

Narragansett’s Homestead Exemption just went into effect, giving full-time residents who do not rent out their property up to 10% off the tax valuation of their home. More than 3,000 residents have applied to receive the exemption which is close to the Narragansett tax officials’ estimate of the total eligible households.

How the Charlestown Citizens Alliance used fake enemies and bogus emergencies to gain and keep power

Fear and loathing in Charlestown politics

By Will Collette

Just substitute "CCA" for "GOP" and
you get the gist

One of the most despicable things a politician can do is to use lies to create fear and panic among the people to win their votes. 

Donald Trump has used that technique for years, but this year, has brought it to new heights, as the residents of Springfield, OH can testify. 

Trump’s running mate JD Vance admitted he spread phony stories about legal Haitian immigrants eating pets because "If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention..., then that’s what I’m going to do,”

Long before Trump, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) has used that technique, starting in 2008 by portraying Charlestown’s resident curmudgeon Jim Mageau as the devil incarnate. 

While Jim was a terrible Town Council President, his wacky behavior made him an ineffective threat to anyone other than himself. But as a "threat," Mageau helped catapult the CCA into power.

Since that initial success at seizing power through fear and loathing, the CCA has come up with some enemy – real or imagined – to stay in power. They create one or more villains and then claim that only they can defend the town. The CCA is as phony as Trump and Vance claiming Haitians are coming to eat your pets.

The CCA's list of threats and enemies is long

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance threat list includes:

The Narragansett Indian Tribe for their long-abandoned plan for an Indian casino. The CCA hired attorney Joe Larisa, called a "racist by tribal leaders" specifically to harass the Tribe and block any effort the tribe makes to improve the lives of its people.

“People from Providence” who will swarm in with all their kids if we build any family housing and overrun the Chariho schools. Another example of the CCA's use of racist code words.

Developers and Democrats – the CCA has worked hard to create the myth that they are one and the same even though it's demonstrably false.

Wind power, spurred by Larry LeBlanc’s proposed Whalerock wind power project, became one of the CCA’s most successful phony campaigns. Ironically, in 2011, the CCA leader Tom Gentz was a staunch supporter of wind power, even making a presentation to the Council about how good wind energy is. Of course, that was before anti-wind NIMBYs started to contribute heavily to the CCA. Charlestown now has an effective town ban on ANY wind-to-energy device, even small residential units.

AMTRAK made another good boogeyman when a half-baked, improbable idea surfaced to run new track through northern Charlestown, scaring the shit out of half the town. CCA leader and Charlestown’s Planning Commissar Ruth Platner has been trying to revive the Charlestown Choo-choo hoax since the furor died down. Her 2021 headline for a story that attempted to revive the Amtrak boogeyman read They’re Back: Northeast Corridor Commission Sets Out Plan To Implement NEC Future.

Lights. In 2012, the CCA went nuts when a town staffer explored funding for temporary lights to facilitate autumn kids' football practice. This innocent inquiry mushroomed into a full-blown crisis - The Battle for Ninigret Park. The CCA confabulated this lighting inquiry into a direct threat that the Interior Department would take back Ninigret Park because the lights during autumn twilight would disturb the birds and bunnies in the Wildlife Refuge. It was all bullshit - the Interior's regional director Elyse LaForest had to come in to debunk the CCA lies - but it cost then Town Administrator Bill Delibero his job.

The Narragansett Indian Tribe became a CCA target again when one official made an ill- advised and broadly rejected deal to sell water to a nonexistent power plant in Burrillville.

Frank Glista was trashed for selling open, undeveloped land to the state Water Resources Board to preserve water resources. The CCA normally worships permanently protected open space, but not when the land comes from Frank.

Tons of asphalt were laid for "Faith's Folly" despite the CCA's
hatred for asphalt. Faith sold this project, telling the
Town Council it would cost less than $7,000.
The final bill was at $266,927.

Asphalt is a hated substance except when used in a scandalous patronage deal for CCA founding member Faith LaBossiere to build “Faith’s Folly,” an over-priced, under-used bike track in Ninigret Park.

Progressive Charlestown and me in particular made the CCA enemies’ list early on for writing articles like this. I’m fine with that.

The CCA also hates Deb Carney despite her years of effective leadership on the Council and the Chariho School Committee.

You can add a lot of others to the list. For example, CCA Town Council President Tom “Uncle Fluffy” Gentz frequently mocked and belittled Janice Falcone when she would rise to support a measure the CCA didn’t like.

The CCA viciously attacked Janice when she attempted to get the town to buy the historic General Stanton Inn that Janice and her beloved late husband Sonny labored to keep in tiptop condition. The CCA fought hard to block a town referendum to buy the Inn as an anchor for the Cross Mills historic district even though the CCA was otherwise willing to pay any price to preserve the “historic village district.”

* NOTE the contradictions. The CCA wants to do whatever it takes for the Cross Mills Historic Village but killed the plan to buy and preserve the General Stanton Inn. The CCA is willing to pay any price to add more protected open space but attacked Frank Glista for trying to do just that with his land sale to the state Water Resources Board. The CCA hates asphalt but is willing to lay down tons of it for "Faith's Folly." Go figure.

They viciously attacked my colleague Steve Hoff, a retired CPA, for doing the research to expose the CCA’s fiscal irresponsibility, especially the “$3 million Oopsie.”

In their big 3-page flyer, the CCA sums up their position, stating “What is at risk in this election?” Note they use the negative instead of “what is our plan for improving people’s lives” or some other positive theme. At risk, according to the CCA are “low taxes,” “dark skies” and “clean water.”

First, the town tax rate has dropped since the CCA was booted from control in 2022. They left behind a tax rate of $8.17 per thousand. Under the CRU's first year, the tax rate dropped to $5.74. It’s currently $5.78. 

They claim there’s a $39.5 million plan for “commercial development” in Ninigret. There isn’t.

They claim this imaginary threat will thwart “the Ninigret Wildlife Refuge and our children’s ability to learn about the universe.” This is a total crock of horse manure, as stupid as the "Battle for Ninigret Park" described above.

The CCA flyer also raises the specter of the need for “a sewage treatment plant and miles of sewer lines that would cost at least $1 billion.” Yup, that’s the claim. They say this will happen unless there is a “delicate balance” between well-planned residential development and what the land can support.

Here’s the key question: WHO is proposing otherwise? Who? If the CCA is going to create a boogeyman, at least give it a name.

Early on in the CCA’s history, one of their resident geniuses, Mike Chambers, liked to brag about the CCA's effectiveness at. They used Hitler’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’ formula: “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”

Creating fear and hate through lies kept the CCA in office for over a decade. They have also gotten very good at covering up their lies by blocking access to public records that would unveil their deception. CLICK HERE for an example.

In 2022, Charlestown voters saw through the CCA’s blue smoke and mirrors and voted them out of office. The CCA wants to take back power using the same old Goebbels’ formula. Don’t let them.

Charlestown Chunks #7

News nuggets you may have missed

By Will Collette

The CCA will also be rolling out its new
line of eco-fashions to wear in
conservation developments. You,
too, can become a tree. Or a shrubbery. 

This seventh installment of Charlestown Chunks is another effort to report on smaller news items that really don't on their own warrant full-length article treatment.

Postponements

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance is desperate to pass a new ordinance that would increase the scope of power for the all-mighty Planning Commission. Having once condemned “conservation developments,” the CCA now embraces them, but with a twist.

The new ordinance is essentially designed to be so onerous and complicated that no one is likely to try to build any new housing developments in town. It’s clearly another CCA power play.

Property owners angrily stormed the first hearing on the ordinance, forcing a continuance of the hearing to be bumped to the earliest possible date. Then, so many people showed up that the Council could not continue the hearing due to an over-capacity crowd exceeding Fire Marshal limits. 

Now the hearing is postponed to August 22 at 7 PM at the auditorium at the Charlestown Elementary School. Be sure to bring your balloons and banners.

Also postponed is former Westerly Democratic town chair Bob Ritacco’s pre-trial conference on the two counts of rape contained in a grand jury indictment. Pre-trial conference has been postponed until September.

She can’t always get what she wants

Here is the actual map LaBossiere included in her proposal for $375,000
to build new bike paths. There was also a second map that is equally
useless in telling you exactly where the path would go.

One article of faith in Charlestown is that CCA matriarch Faith LaBossiere always gets what she wants. Whether it’s a bike path in Ninigret Park that was not needed – and according to Faith would only cost $7000, except it ended up costing $266,927 plus interest – more regulations on landscaping, shrubbery or whatever, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance could be counted on to give her what she wants.

Until now. On July 18, the Town Council held a special meeting to go over a list of projects proposed for funding under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Faith snuck a project onto the list under the auspices of the illegally appointed “Block Island Sound Subcommittee” to spend $375,000 for 1.79 miles of new bike paths.

Aside from being improper on its face, Faith’s scheme is a revival of past biking schemes that would involve either asking property owners to give up land for the right of way or town purchase of land rights. Also the destruction of some portions of stone walls along the route. Variations of this scheme failed in the past due to those problems as well as liability issues – i.e. who pays when bikers inevitably get injured in a fall.

Then there is the money question, namely can Faith's cost estimates be trusted? Like Faith’s Folly in Ninigret Park, the one that Faith said would only cost $7,000 went over-budget by 4,000%. If you apply the same arithmetic to Faith’s new scheme, the final cost could be around $15,000,000.

Little details like this didn’t stop the CCA Council majority from giving Faith what she wanted in the past. However, on July 18, a miracle happened. Faith’s scheme was killed by a 4-1 vote, with CCA counselors Susan Cooper and retiring Councilor Bonnita Van Slyke voting NO.

Hooray Fidget!

Fidget is OK

Charlestown-based journalist Cynthia Drummond recently had a scare when her vet thought her beloved Corgi Fidgit might have cancer. But after a battery of tests, it turns out that the growths the vet thought might be cancer turned out to be “benign nodules.”

I’m very happy for Cynthia. I’ve gone through this kind of crisis with several companion animals in the past – usually not with as good a result – so I understand the range of emotions you go through as you try to get the right answers.

But in this case, Viva Fidget!

Fidgit is frequently featured in Cynthia's entertaining Tweeter site.

Party! Party! Party!

Now that Charlestown’s state Representative Blake “Flip” Filippi has decided to abandon his party and not run for re-election in the face of his first opponent since his initial election in 2014, I wonder what he’s going to do. 

Flip says he decided to quit because he wants to concentrate on an arcane lawsuit he has brought against the Joint Committee on Legislative Services. What’s the case about? How decisions are made in the General Assembly.

When Flipper’s attentions are not required on this crucial lawsuit that everyone in Rhode Island is watching with rapt attention (sarcasm alert!), Flip also has the family businesses on Block Island to tend to. 

Also, he needs to take care of his cute cows on his Lincoln ranch before he slaughters them to sell as organic beef.

It’s his Block Island businesses that probably need his attention most right now. Local police conducted a sting on establishments serving liquor to determine whether the laws on under-age drinking were being followed. For the most part, bars and restaurants, including Filippi family properties, were not carding young customers. They were issued warnings and told to knock it off.

According to the Providence Journal:

“However, Ballard's [a Filippi property]  issued a statement to ABC6, saying that they take the matter "very seriously and will be working with the police department to ensure best practices are enhanced and put in place immediately.”

No Red Flags in Charlestown

All but the most fanatical gun nuts generally support red flag laws designed to enable police to take guns away from people who are found to pose a danger to themselves and others. 

It was one of the better provisions of the bi-partisan gun bill recently passed by Congress and signed into law by Joe Biden.

Rhode Island also has had a red flag law on the books.

The Boston Globe recently surveyed Rhode Island cities and towns and found that the red flag law was used 128 times in the four years since the law has been in effect.

Nearly every municipality has used the red flag law to take guns from dangerous people, some through the State Police where the town lacks its own police department (e.g. Exeter). 

Charlestown was one of the ONLY towns to report no instances where CPD intervened to takes guns away from a dangerous. Even Burrillville, which declared itself to be a “Second Amendment Sanctuary” where gun laws are not enforced, reported three instances where the red flag law was used.

Still hoping the feds bust Justin Price

Local nutcase legislator Rep. Justin Price (Trumplican- Richmond, Hopkinton, Exeter) took part in the January 6 Trump-led coup attempt in Washington. 

We know that because he tweeted all about it until Twitter revoked his account. He claimed he didn’t go inside the Capitol but got close enough to definitely I.D. the rioters as Antifa.

Aside from the debunked Antifa bullshit, by his own admission, Price must have crossed police lines to get close enough to make his bogus ID. 

I want to know WHY Price failed to take action against what he perceived to be enemies of the state. As a rough, tough former Marine, he took an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. How about it, Justin?

The feds are slowly but surely rounding up legislators who broke the law on January 6, as they did with West Virginia state Delegate Derrick Evans who received a three month prison sentence after pleading guilty to felony civil disorder. I am hoping that Price will also be called to account for his actions on January 6.

Drought prompts Westerly to order stop to water wasting

South Kingstown has had water restrictions in place for years, but now Westerly has decided that it too must stop water waste. Almost all of Rhode Island is suffering a “severe” drought. Only a small strip of the coast, including the south end of Charlestown is in “moderate” drought. See map, below.

Nonetheless, all of us should be mindful of wasting water since our wells are drawing on aquifers that count on rain to recharge.

In Westerly, wasteful uses include watering lawns, filling swimming and wading pools, washing houses, cars, sidewalks, and boats, etc. 

Westerly residents with even numbered addresses can use water without restriction on even numbered calendars; odd address numbers, odd days.

It’s a warning for the first offense but $100 if you do it again.

Aside from stressing trees and withering gardens, the drought also boosts the chance of wild fires.

UPDATED: If you are not CCA-approved, don’t apply to a town commission

How political favoritism has tainted Charlestown’s tradition of volunteerism

By Deb Carney

"Faith's Folly," a 1.3 mile stretch of asphalt installed in Ninigret Park
at the insistence of Faith LaBossiere. This project was sold to the
CCA-controlled Town Council at a cost of $7,000 but ended up
costing $267,000 PLUS interest. And it's hardly ever used. The fight
over this boondoggle led to the CCA gutting the existing membership
of the Parks & Rec Commission so they could be replaced with
CCA Party loyalists. (Photo by Will Collette)

These are updated, final text of comments presented before the Charlestown Town Council on April 10, 2017 

Last month the Council received 20 applications to fill 5 vacancies on the Parks and Rec Commission.

In an obvious political move by 4 of the 5 Council members, the 4 voted to appoint all of fellow CCA member Faith Laboissiere's ad hoc bike path committee members to fill 4 of the 5 vacancies on the Parks and Rec Commission.

The fifth appointment, the only non-bike path member, was appointed to fill the term that will expire in 10 months.  

The 4 former bike path members were appointed for 3 year terms.  Faith had previously been appointed to the commission.

Under Council Comments, several Councilors made a point of saying their decisions were not political.  

The fact that all 4 the CCA members bike path committee friends got appointed, while 15 other applicants, including several current members of that commission, who had not served on the bike committee did not, speaks loudly for political favoritism.

Safety tips for those few who use "Faith's Folly"

From Fake Science

To learn more about Faith's Folly, a $267,000 vanity project that YOU paid for, CLICK HERE.

Charlestown could use this for Faith’s Folly II

DEM Announces Next Wave Of Grant Funding Under 2016 Green Economy Bond

$3 million available to help R.I. communities improve recreational areas

Maybe Charlestown can get funding to expand the asphalt "Faith's Folly"
bike path in Ninigret Park. And this time, add shrubbery
to indulge CCA Party favorite Faith LaBossiere's twin passions.

As part of continued efforts to grow Rhode Island's green economy and promote healthier communities, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) announced the availability of $3 million in matching grants to help local communities invest in recreational spaces. 

The grants will be funded by the $35 million Green Economy Bond, approved by voters last year. The grant application period is open through December 1, 2017.

The honeymoon is over (with bonus video)

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

By Will Collette

The orders are still coming from the CCA Party's
secret clubhouse

Fool that I am, I really thought the new leadership of the Charlestown Town Council might be open to ideas other than those emanating from the secret clubhouse of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) or their non-resident financial backers.

I even made a number of suggestions where there might be ways to build a broad base of support for initiatives to make life better for all of us who call Charlestown our home.

Silly me.

But the first major barb that burst the bubble did not come from me. Instead, it came from the most unlikely of sources – a January 13 Westerly Sun editorial entitled “Hypocrisy back on the agenda for Charlestown.”

Here’s how the Sun editorial started:

The club atmosphere that has become Charlestown government in recent years got a little more blatant last week when the Town Council — in a Trumpian move — named one of its own to fill a vacancy on the Parks and Recreation Board after the board had vetted other candidates and made a recommendation for appointment.

The Sun followed up by putting the Charlestown Town Council meeting at the top of its weekly “Highs and Lows” editorial on January 15:

What a show in Charlestown last week. The Town Council picked a new member to serve on the Parks and Recreation Commission without the standard practice of letting the Parks and Recreation Commission first interview the candidate. Another candidate, who had been vetted by the commission and who has attended meetings as an interested member of the public and happens to be familiar with the workings of town government as a former town councilor, was ignored by the council. The new member selected is also a member of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, a political action committee to which all five council members also belong. The council claimed it knew better and that its choice was the superior choice. That sounds like rule by decree, not democracy.

This is not the first time the Sun has written an editorial critical of Charlestown’s CCA-controlled government, but such editorials have been rare and generally far more temperate.

This editorial (and its follow-up) was remarkable not just for its cutting language, but also because it may be the first time a new town council in the Sun’s reading area was so excoriated so early in its term.

So what was this all about?

CCA scam loses big at the polls

Charlestown taxpayers foil grand larceny attempt

By Will Collette

An unusually large number of voters (1004 which is 15% of those registered) turned out for the special Town Financial Referendum on Monday. 

They voted by a resounding margin against the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) budget plan that contained a $3 million line item for a “community center” the town doesn’t need. 

They had no plans, no designs, no budget for the “center” but they did have a likely location for it (see below).

The final vote tally was 739 NO to only 265 yes. The CCA apparently couldn’t even motivate its own base to support this project.

This all began when the town realized it had more than $3 million in surplus funds this year, so the question was what to do with it.

Of the many choices available, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance supermajority on the Town Council decided to encumber the funds by creating the “community center” line item, to use for the center or some future, unexplained use.

A community center is certainly not what we need, since we already have a very nice one that is, in fact, under-used.

Bonnie Van Slyke, the CCA Town Council member representing the Arnolda neighborhood gave the game away on the eve of the election.

She admitted what had only been speculation – that the half-baked “community center” idea was not just to hang on to the $3 million, but to tie up a patch of land in Ninigret Park designated as the site of an entertainment venue in the 2008 Ninigret Park Master Plan which is still the only plan the town has.

Arnolda folks HATE the use of Ninigret Park for any activities louder than a whisper. This scheme served the two-fold purpose of tying up the money and monkey-wrenching the Park’s Master Plan.

This latest scheme is just the latest of a long string of CCA scams. The CCA is a special interest group funded by wealthy non-resident property owners. For those of you who are new in town or have short memories, I've listed below several other schemes where the CCA tried to use town money and resources to benefit their campaign supporters.  

Before we do a history review, the most immediate concern after this referendum is what should go into a revised budget. Personally, I think the most logical way to deal with the $3 million is to give it back to the taxpayers.

I favor two approaches. First, Charlestown should try out the homestead tax credit, an idea CCA and its non-resident supporters trashed in 2011. Simply put, people who make Charlestown their home should get a credit on their property tax bills. 

To keep it simple, let’s peg the credit at $1,000.

Census data puts the number of owner-occupied homes in Charlestown at 2,904 so that fits nicely into the $3 million plus we have available with enough to spare for another good way to use the money.

That would be to create a new property tax credit for volunteer firefighters. Such a tax break would make it easier to recruit new volunteers and also serve as an appreciation to those good people who rush to our aid at their peril.

Beware: Charlestown health alerts

Summertime problems

By Will Collette

Charlestown and the rest of South County continue to be under caution from state health officials for unhealthy air and dangerously high heat.

In addition, we have another species of jellyfish in Ninigret - keep a wide berth. Two weeks ago, I wrote THIS ALERT about clinging jellyfish - beautiful but deadly - in Ninigret Pond. Last week, Cynthia Drummond, who covered Charlestown for the Sun for many years, wrote THIS PIECE with more detail in EcoRI.

Today, the state issued a new alert for Atlantic Bay Nettle Jellyfish (photo above) in Ninigret Pond. Though their sting is less lethal than than their cousins, the clingling jellyfish, it still hurts like hell.

The unhealthy, high ozone levels will extend at least through tomorrow and may continue until we get some needed rain on Monday. This frequent summer problem is caused by the combination of high heat and lots of visitors driving here in their cars and trucks.

The high heat advisory also extends into Monday, again with a potential break coming our way via cooling, cleaning rain. Be sure to drink water, stay in the shade, be careful about sunburn and, if you have any respiratory issues, stay indoors. You may want to skip riding your bike on Faith's Folly today unless you have a death wish. So be careful out there.

Extreme heat can be dangerous for runners, cyclists and anyone spending time outdoors: 6 tips for staying safe

Watch out, Faith!

Susan Yeargin, University of South Carolina

"Faith's Folly" in Ninigret Park. Photo by Will Collette

When summer starts with a stifling heat wave, as many places are seeing in 2024, it can pose risks for just about anyone who spends time outside, whether they’re runners, people who walk or cycle to work, outdoor workers or kids playing sports.

Susan Yeargin, an expert on heat-related illnesses, explains what everyone should think about before spending time outside in a heat wave and how to keep yourself and vulnerable family members and friends safe.

What risks do people facing running, walking or working outside when it’s hot out?

The time of day matters if you’re going for a run, or if you’re walking or cycling to work during a heat wave. Early risers or evening runners face less of a risk – the Sun isn’t as hot and the air temperature is lower.

But if your normal routine is to go for a run midmorning or over lunch, you probably want to rethink exercising in the heat.

Pretty much everywhere in the U.S., the hottest part of the day is between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. The body will gain heat from both the air temperature and solar radiation. The ground also heats up, so you’ll feel more heat rising up from the asphalt or grass.

Add humidity to the mix and that will also affect your body’s ability to dissipate heat through sweat.

Signs of heat illness and what to do. Elenabs via Getty Images

The problem with asphalt

Hot roads and roofs send harmful pollution into the air

Brian Bienkowski for the Environmental Health News

Charlestown normally tries to discourage new asphalt - except when it benefits a friend or political crony. This is "Faith's Folly," a largely unused bike path in Ninigret Park laid at the behest of Faith LaBossiere, one of the founders of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party). It's a 1.3 mile stretch of asphalt. When Faith proposed the project, she told the Town Council it would only cost $7,000 but in the end, it has cost the town $267,000 plus the interest we pay on the bond money. The existing town Parks and Recreation Commission opposed the project. The CCA-controlled Town Council threw them off the Commission and replaced them with CCA Party loyalists in a move described in a Westerly Sun editorial as "Trumpian." (Photo by Will Collette)

We all know cars and trucks spew pollution into the air—but it turns out what's underneath their tires do as well.

Asphalt—a petroleum product used on roads and roofs—is a significant source of harmful chemicals that end up contributing to ozone and particulate matter pollution, according to a study published in Science Advances.

The researchers found the emissions from asphalt are highest on hot, sunny days. While producing asphalt is a known source of pollutants such particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds, the asphalt industry has said pollution from applied asphalt is negligible.

The findings are important as most states and cities have tackled combustion sources of air pollution—such as cars and power plants—but have neglected to take asphalt emissions into account.

New budget goes to Charlestown voters on June 2

CCA chimes in on Charlestown proposed budget

By Will Collette

Charlestown voters will have the final say on the town’s proposed $30 million+ budget. This new budget increases town expenditures by around 1.5%, compared to a 2.39% inflation rate for the past 12 months.

Under this budget, Charlestown’s tax rate is projected to increase from the current $5.78 per $1000 in assessed property value to $5.93. That’s an increase of 2.6%. Hopefully, this will be offset for permanent residents by a planned Homestead tax break if – fingers crossed – we get General Assembly approval and can swiftly pass a town ordinance. That might be overly optimistic, though.

Even at $5.93, Charlestown’s tax rate since the Charlestown Residents United won control of the Council continues to be lower than it was during any time in the past 50 years. Your actual tax is the tax rate times the assessed value of your property. Those assessments are also at an all-time high.

The all-day financial referendum will be held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, June 2, at Town Hall. Mail Ballot Applications are available on request at (401) 364-1200 or by e-mailing Town Clerk Amy Weinreich at arweinreich@charlestownri.gov.

I have been watching the reaction from the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA), Charlestown’s past rulers who were kicked to the curb by Charlestown Residents United in the last two elections. Their reaction was pretty muted compared to the kinds of rants we’ve seen from the CCA over the past 15 years.

They kvetched a little about plans to create a new home for the Parks and Recreation Department in Ninigret Park. What a concept! At its April 14 meeting, the Town Council set aside $75,000 as a contingency to pay for any needed design or engineering work. One plan is to convert the existing gatehouse into office space. If that is impractical (i.e. if repair work is too expensive), Plan B is to build a new building.

That plus improvements to existing facilities in the Park bother the CCA. Frankly, anything in the Park bothers the CCA who have fought against any and all projects, except of course, “Faith’s Folly,” their over-budget asphalt abomination of a bike path. If anyone other than CCA founding member Faith Labossiere had proposed laying down that much asphalt anywhere in town, CCA Leader and Planning Commissar Ruth Platner would light her hair on fire.

The CCA groused a little at the Town Council’s refusal to continue small grants to the Charlestown Land Trust and Community 2000. Both organizations are currently well-funded and well-endowed.

According to the Charlestown Land Trust’s most recent federal IRS-990 filing, they hold more than $2.76 million in assets, although I believe the true value is far higher, given that their acreage includes lots of prime property. The Land Trust has long and deep ties to the CCA.

More relevant to whether the town should contribute to them is another fact included in their IRS filing. The CLT only spends about 65% of what it raises. They reported an income of ~$80,000 but only spent ~$52,000.

Community 2000, a scholarship fund, reports similar data in its IRS filing. It has an endowment of $2.3 million. They only spend 60% of what they raise. In their most recent tax filing, they raised ~$228,000 but spent only ~$137,000.

While I have no quarrel with the mission of either of these two organizations, I think their own tax data show they don’t need Charlestown taxpayer money.

But here’s the kicker: The CCA makes the claim that “The Council also eliminated funds designated for the Charlestown Land Trust ($1,500) and for Community 2000 ($1,000).”

In fact, there was NO MONEY designated to be removed. Like so many of the CCA’s fiscal complaints, this is imaginary. While this is small potatoes compared to the CCA’s many other fiscal gaffs, it shows that the CCA just doesn’t seem to learn that you can’t make this shit up and get away with it.

The CCA’s sharpest critique was aimed at the Town Council’s decision to fund this year’s budget increase from the town’s bloated unrestricted fund balance.

During the CCA’s reign, increasing the size of the town’s fund balance became an obsession to the point where it seemed as if no amount of “rainy day” reserves was enough. The old Budget Commission Chair and controversial former town administrator Richard Sartor continually pushed to put more cash into reserves. Among other things, Sartor pushed for Charlestown to pay cash for capital projects, as if using bonds to fund capital projects was a mortal sin. Maybe Sartor never had a mortgage.

The CCA concedes that even after taking out this year’s budget increases, the unrestricted fund balance still meets the minimum levels (23-33%) they themselves forced on the town. Their complaint: if the town continues to tap the fund balance in the future, this might reduce the fund balance below their comfort level.

They also think the current Town Council doesn’t have adequate plans for future capital projects.

Deputy Dan Slattery

Again with the irony. Since at least 2012, the town Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) has been a CCA obsession, especially when their former President Deputy Dan Slattery served on the Town Council. I wrote about that obsession in detail HERE.

If you don’t want to read it, here are the Cliff Notes: State law and the Town Charter both mandate municipalities to have five-year capital improvement plans. For some reason in 2012, Deputy Dan wasn’t satisfied with the result and tried to make this a big deal even though CCA leader and Planning Commissar Ruth Platner denied the Planning Commission had no role to play. Her Planning posse only dealt with birds and bushes, not buildings and bridges.

After Deputy Dan left, the CCA seemed to lose all interest in the capital improvement plan. If anything, they seemed to see it as an impediment to spending money on shady land deals or any of a number of other crackpot schemes they came up with, often on the spur of the moment.

Prime among them is the 2019 CCA-controlled Council decision to spend a $3 million surplus on a a “community center” in Ninigret Park. This scheme came out of the blue with no plan, design or actual budget for a new building that no one either asked for or wanted. It wasn’t in the approved Ninigret Park Master Plan nor the existing town Capital Improvement Plan. For good reason, taxpayers voted it down.

The CCA makes no mention of the September 2024 Rhode Island Auditor General’s report that shows in hard numbers that the new CRU controlled Town Council has cleaned up the fiscal mess left behind by the CCA.

The contradictions and hypocritical comments from the CCA are par for the course, but I still wonder why they chose to make them. They had to know they would be fact-checked.

One thing did surprise me in the CCA’s remarks on the budget. This year’s town budget reflects a 2% drop in Charlestown’s share of the cost to run the Chariho School District. That’s a savings of ~$287,000.

The saving is entirely due to a drop in the number of students going to Chariho from Charlestown. Why doesn’t the CCA take credit for this? After all, the drop in students is due to the relentless 15-year campaign by the CCA and its founder and leader Ruth Platner to drive families with kids out of Charlestown while ensuring that new families don’t come in.