The Muddy Genesis of the CCSPAA

Charlestown Citizens/Sachem Passage Alliance Association Emerges From The Mud Hole

By Robert Yarnall

In small towns, it is easy for small decisions and big mistakes, local squabbles and petty rivalries to become the business of everyone. This is the story of how one neighborhood’s disputes can have a major effect on everyone, residents and town employees alike.       

Part 5 Cash Flow Low? Try Quid Pro Quo!

The picture above was taken at the Sachem Passage Association kayak access located on its Oyster Drive property. The fake money was digitally added to contrast with the real money our association has been figuratively tossing into that mudhole for the past 22 years. 

The images below, from left to right, are Belgian block pavers fronting the kayak access; a pull-back view from the small parking area looking toward the kayak access; the kayak rack adjacent to the kayak access; the lone picnic table adjacent to the small parking area.   

These idyllic amenities are the prime features of the Oyster Drive property that interested the Charlestown Town Council and Planning Commission Chair Ruth Platner. The lot itself has been deemed unbuildable by the Town of Charlestown. Why? Wetlands. 

When it became apparent that the coveted recreational features were no longer included in the deal during the SPA’s November 8, 2021, Town Council presentation, Council President Deb Carney and her fellow councilors were less than pleased. 

SPA President Ronald Areglado claimed that the inconsistencies were attributable to his leave of absence from the SPA Board of Directors while he campaigned as the CCA-endorsed candidate for Charlestown Town Moderator. He suggested circumstances would have been more favorable had he been in the loop. 

The Town Council collectively shrugged off Areglado’s disclaimer. Beginning with Council President Carney, each councilor probed different aspects of the proposal. Even with assistance from SPA Attorney Nick Gorham, Mr. Areglado was unable to clear things up. He knew he was in trouble, and it showed. He jokingly offered to give the property away. It wasn’t a good look. 

Planning Commissioner Ruth Platner, de facto leader of the CCA, found herself in an uncomfortable position. Ms. Platner had followed the Oyster Drive property sale for over two years. It was exactly the type of open space acquisition she worshipped, undeveloped land with built-in passive recreational features. 

Ruth Platner was somewhat puzzled by the SPA’s withdrawal of the boat/kayak launch: 

“The boat launch was definitely part of the grant,” Ms. Platner commented, referring to the document package of the formal proposal that was the foundation of the SPA’s sale pitch. 

For those of us watching video of the Nov 8^th Town Council Meeting, it seemed Ruth Platner was genuinely taken aback by the SPA’s transparent bait & switch maneuver. 

Referencing Areglado’s earlier assertion that his leave of absence from the SPA Board of Directors was the source of the confusion, Platner offered to make sense of SPA’s double messaging… “…there have been different association heads, I think, so that’s probably why there’s a difference in what they are talking about, compared to what the other people are talking about.” 

Planning Commissioner Platner was necessarily nibbling at the corners, not quite sure what was going on with the Oyster Drive deal. If she knew that CCA Steering Committee member Joe Quadrato had been working on the proposal for nearly two years, including the past nine months in his capacity as SPA Real Estate and Finance designee, she wasn’t about to mention it, certainly not in a public forum. 

Ms. Platner knew that Joseph Quadrato had been a vital cog in the CCA’s political machine for nearly a decade. Quadrato’s natural fundraising prowess, a convenient extension of his professional sales career, earned him a 2014 appointment to the Zoning Board of Review. His sustained performance over the next two election cycles led to a coveted seat on the CCA Steering Committee alongside Zoning Board colleague Cliff Vanover, Platner’s spouse. 

CCA Treasurer Vanover soon learned that Quadrato’s services came with a price tag, in addition to the pair of political plum appointments. Starting with the 2012 election cycle and continuing through the 2020 campaign, Vanover wrote six checks totaling $4,515.32 to Quad Products, Mr. Quadrato’s home-based small business. For the CCA, it must have been worth every penny, even if it came with a whiff of quid pro quo…

It’s likely that neither Mr. Vanover nor Ms. Platner knew that Mr. Quadrato may have had more in mind than a measly handful of Quad Product orders tossed his way in recognition of his contributions to the CCA political fiefdom.

In July of 2020, property owners of Sachem Passage received a newsletter from then-SPA President Paul Raiche. A thirteen-member sub-committee had developed three options in a quest to get rid of an asset that had turned into a liability. 

The group settled on exploring option #2, donating the land to a non-profit conservation group, and kicked its recommendation upstairs to the Board of Directors. 

The SPA Board of Directors consists of SPA officers and SPA directors. In 2020, the SPA officers were also its directors. This meant that President Paul Raiche, VP Joe Quadrato, Secretary Ron Areglado and Treasurer Tom Gilligan were also the Board of Directors. 

Aside from Mr. Raiche, the fate of the Oyster Drive property was now in the hands of Messrs. Areglado, Quadrato and Gilligan, the same SPA power trio that led the SPA proxy, Illwind, the group that dovetailed with the CCA during the entirety of the Whalerock Wind Turbine saga, 2010-2013. 

It was during Whalerock that CCA stalwarts Tom Gentz and Dan Slattery recognized Joe Quadrato’s formidable fundraising skills. Quad Products began showing up in the CCA’s Expenditure Reports. Joe Quadrato meant business. The CCA bought in. 

As Whalerock was playing itself out, Illwind was able to offload its litigation-based financial worries onto the backs of Charlestown’s taxpayers. The CCA-controlled town council spent $50,000 to hire Special Council John Mancini to represent a group of “anonymous abutters.” 

When the town plunked down $2.14 million to buy the 78-acre idyllic not-to-be-Whalerock open space, now the Moraine Preserve, the voluminous pretext associated with Illwind faded from the public discourse. Illwind, the SPA clone, had been bailed out at taxpayer expense, while Charlestown’s CCA-dominated Town Council looked the other way. 

The “anonymous abutters” turned out to every remaining Illwind litigant who had persevered through the 2010-2013 courtroom marathon. There were twenty-nine individuals representing sixteen households. All but two households were SPA members. Every SPA officer and director from 2010-2020 was on the list. 

The Town’s role in Illwind’s bailout cemented a mutualistic relationship between the CCA and the SPA that has lasted for a decade, due primarily to the fundraising skills of Joseph Quadrato. 

Over the next three election cycles, Quadrato maintained his CCA workload while also accepting an appointment to the Zoning Board of Review. By 2019, however, the floundering SPA required his attention as well. He knew what had to be done. He rounded up his Illwind posse and got to it.    

January 2020: SPA Treasurer Tom Gilligan contacts Andolfo Appraisal Associates to commission an appraisal report to establish the fair market value of Lot 95-5, Oyster Drive. The report includes photographs of the property’s waterfront, woodlands, parking area, boat launch, kayak rack, and picnic area. The fair market value is determined to be $426,000, if and only if the wetlands lot is buildable. Unfortunately, it is not. 

April 2020: SPA Secretary Ron Areglado files an Open Space Inquiry with the Town Clerk, leading to interactions with Megan DiPrete, Chief of Planning for RI DEM, Town Manager Mark Stankiewicz, and Town Planner Jane Wideman. Weidman files a $213,000 grant application based on the SPA’s conditional appraisal of $426,000, ignoring Tax Assessor Ken Swain’s definitive, standards-based rationale of the town’s $61,900 fair market value assessment.     

February 2021: The Charlestown Town Council decides that all negotiations pertinent to Oyster Drive Lot 95-5 property will be based on a third-party appraisal by Newport Appraisal Group, listing a fair market value assessment of $75,000. The SPA Board of Directors does not reference the $75,000 third-party appraisal in its February mailing, nor in any other subsequent interactions, with its members. Joseph Quadrato is appointed as Resource for Finance and Real Estate, a position created specifically for him. 

September 2021: CCA Steering Committee member Joseph Quadrato delivers an update on the property sale to thirty-one SPA members attending the September 16^th Annual Meeting, among them Charlestown Town Councilor Susan Cooper. Quadrato states bluntly, “… I have two contacts at Town Hall. They have told me that one individual, who I will not name, is not cooperating with us.”

President Ronald Areglado refuses to allow Quadrato’s statement into the official minutes, aware of its political implications. 

November 2021: Newly elected SPA President Ron Areglado hand-delivers the SPA’s Oyster Drive Prospectus in a 90-minute, live-streamed opus during the November 8^th Town Council Meeting, and promptly drops the ball. The Town Council lambastes his performance, noting that although the SPA’s asking price remains at $426,000, this newest SPA offering no longer includes the kayak/canoe access, the watercraft rack, or the picnic area. The Councilors’ comments indicate they recognize the bait-and-switch tactic for what it is. SPA Real Estate guru Joseph Quadrato, architect of the proposal, is nowhere to be seen. 

December 2021: President Ronald McDonald Areglado sends a snail mail update referencing the November 8^th Town Council Meeting by providing an unlinked ninety-three-character URL address - it must be entered from a keyboard - to access the video of the meeting. “Good luck with that…,” he muses.

Also included in the holiday greeting is a terse mea culpa that the association has neither the expertise nor the money to address the issues raised by the Town Council, ergo “…we voted unanimously to retain the property at this time. We will bring this recommendation to the members at our next Annual Meeting in May 2022.” There is no mention of Resource Person for Real Estate and Finance Joe Quadrato. 

If there was ever a chance that the CCA would again bail out the SPA á la Whalerock, Joe Quadrato killed it by way of his awkward braggadocio referencing his “two contacts at Town Hall,” arguably Town Manager Mark Stankewicz and Town Planner Jane Weidman. 

Implicit in Quadrato’s admission is the discomforting notion that both Stankewicz and Weidman “were cooperating with us,” and that only he, Joe Quadrato, wielded enough influence around town hall, by virtue of his Zoning Board familiarity and CCA Steering Committee status, to extract their “cooperation” for the financial well-being of the SPA. 

During routine business, in his capacity as a Zoning Board Official through June 2021, Quadrato would presumably interact with town officials, especially in Planning (Jane Weidman) and Administration (Mark Stankewicz). What he had to say, and how he said it, is anybody’s – and everybody’s – guess. Especially Ruth Platner. 

Although Charlestown’s rank-and-file employees have workplace protections afforded them by virtue of union representation, administrators and department heads are not part of the bargaining unit.

They are represented by their own “association,” essentially serving at the whim of the decade-long CCA-dominated Town Council. 

Those “whims” are explicitly defined for them by the policy-making priorities of the CCA Steering Committee, which gives Joseph Quadrato top dog billing as its top producing cash cow. 

Apparently, those “whims” don’t include a CCA Courtesy Bailout for the SPA this time around, a mere decade after the Whalerock alliance, Joe Quadrato’s fundraising skills notwithstanding. 

It remains to be seen how Mr. Quadrato will react to the CCA’s thumbs-down. If he was counting on the standard 6% real estate commission, a $426,000 sale would have netted him 25,560 clams. He may just decide to pick up his marbles - what’s left of them - and go home. 

Joseph Quadrato will never admit to the impetuous speech he gave that autumn evening at St. Andrew Lutheran Church. Indeed, his confidante, Ronald Areglado, refused to allow the verbatim text into the official minutes. And John Kaptinski, SPA Archivist, will swear that “If it isn’t in the minutes, it didn’t happen.” 

But for most folks, especially Councilor Susan Cooper, it happened loud and clear. 

The mouse that roared turned out to be the elephant in the room. 

To read the earlier episodes in this series:

For Part 1, click here

For Part 2, click here

For Part 3, click here

For Part 4, click here  

UPDATED: Follow the money, Charlestown campaign 2022

As usual, the CCA counts on money from out of state as well as its old supporters

By Will Collette

UPDATE: I added an excerpt of the financial disclosure for Trumplican candidate Westin Place who is running for state Senate District 38. He admits he is in debt to the IRS for unpaid federal taxes. See below. - W. Collette

In case you were wondering where Uncle Fluffy Tom Gentz ended up, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance campaign finance reports tell us. Our former Town Council Boss sent the CCA $500 from his retirement home in Sunset City, Arizona. 

Another CCA regular, Peter Hernstein is now in Fountain Hills, AZ and he sent in his check for $100. Former CCA leader and co-founder Kate Waterman sent in her $500 from Connecticut. Nothing from Deputy Dan Slattery wherever he may be (maybe he’s on undercover assignment for the CIA).

As I read through the CCA’s report for the quarter going from July 1 to October, aside from the out-of-state money, I was amazed at how much the CCA took in from its candidates, past and present, various ward-heelers as well as prominent players in many of the CCA’s controversial land deals. Very little money came from newcomers.

People who stood to gain from the aborted Y-Gate Scandal are still giving, including Joanne D’Alcomo of Boston ($300) and Russ Ricci ($250). 

So are Sachem Passage Association folks who benefited from the town’s $2.1 million bailout of their botched resistance to the Whalerock wind turbine project (we bought the land where the turbines were to be built). 

Later on, the SPA tried it again, attempting to get Charlestown to take a bug-infested parcel off their hands for many times its assessed value – we dubbed that one “SPA-Gate.”   

In addition to Peter Hernstein, listed above, the CCA received $100 donations from SPA members Donna Chambers (seeking another term on the Chariho School Committee), Town Councilor Susan Cooper (SPA Trustee for the duration of Spa-Gate), and first-time donor John Kaptinski (SPA founding father), presumably holding out hope that Attorney Cooper can somehow engineer one last CCA bailout for the SPA should she be re-elected.         

Conspicuously absent is SPA El Presidente Ron Areglado, who “managed” the campaign against Whalerock and the bait-and-switch SPA-Gate scam, although his moneyman in both scams, Joseph Quadrato, coughed up $150 to reserve a slot in future CCA cash & carry do-overs.

Arnolda is well represented with donors but oddly, Councilor Bonnita Van Slyke donated nothing. She is not running for re-election, as she is trying to sell her Arnolda estate on the pond for $2.4 million to someone who will develop the land into “your own palatial coastal retreat.” 

Not only did Van Slyke stiff the CCA party, but she actually took $535.72 reimbursement for mailing expenses rather than make it an in-kind donation. 

In past years, the CCA attempted to hide the high level of out-of-state donations by reporting their absentee donors not at their actual addresses, but at their Charlestown vacation homes. 

They only did that once in this election cycle (so far), listing $1000 donor Robert Thavenius at 10 Dudley Lane when his mailing address is listed on the Charlestown Tax Assessor database as Avon, Connecticut. His family owns two properties in Charlestown assessed at $5,071,700.

In sum, the CCA began the campaign season with $7,911.24 and raised another $8,750 for a total campaign war chest of $16,701. Of that, they have spent $9,790 so far, most of it to produce and mail those laughable 6-page, trifold, fine-print graphic novels they’ve mailed to everyone – twice.

Though the CCA seems to be incapable of competently managing Charlestown’s money, they seem to have a good handle on their own cash. 

You can look up campaign finance reports for any candidate on the Board of Elections website HERE. If you enter “Charlestown,” you can see the files for anyone who has run for office from Charlestown going back to when the BOE set up the database. You can also enter a person’s name. 

I think campaign finance reports tell you more about a candidate than any other piece of information. For example, Trumplican Westin Place of Westerly is running for Senate 38 against Charlestown’s Victoria Gu (D) and former Republican Caswell Cooke of Westerly. 

Westin Place started out as a joke candidate, but his prospects came alive when the state GOP did some fund-raisers for him. In last quarter’s financial report, Place says he took in $2,100 from people he can’t identify. He also took major donations from big GOP donors statewide. In his last filing before the election, the only named donor is Gunowners PAC who gave him $200. 

One reason I didn't take Place seriously is that he was late in filing his organization report with the BOE and thus missed the cut-off to file a quarterly report. However, he did file his ethics disclosure statement with the Ethics Commission where he made this disclosure:

It's not a very good look for a candidate for state Senate to start campaigning while showing unpaid federal taxes.

A remarkable amount of money gets spent on political campaigns. It’s only loosely regulated and only occasionally do offenses get caught, like Charlestown’s Sen. Elaine Morgan who ripped off her campaign account to pay for personal expenses. Though she admitted the offenses, she threw her recently deceased husband under the bus by blaming him for her misdeeds. 

She got off with a fine, but I hope the voters will take this into account when they decide whether to re-elect her or replace her with her fine challenger, Charlestown’s Jennifer Douglas (D).

The Muddy Genesis of the CCSPAA

Decade-Old Charlestown Citizens/Sachem Passage Alliance Association Emerges From The Mud Hole

By Robert Yarnall  

In small towns, it is easy for small decisions and big mistakes, local squabbles and petty rivalries to become everybody’s business. This is the story of how one neighborhood’s disputes can have a major effect on everyone, residents and town employees alike. 

 Part 4 Weaselocity :  Back To The Future

The Scene:

November 8, 2021, 8:30 PM

Charlestown Council Chambers

Sachem Passage Association President Ronald J. “Ronco” Areglado strained to do his duty as he dangled a classic bait & switch deal hand-crafted by SPA’s newly appointed Resource for Finance and Real Estate, Joseph Quadrato. 

The SPA desperately wanted to offload its money pit albatross, a chunk of highly suspect Foster Cove real estate, onto the backs of Charlestown taxpayers. The Town Council was not taking the bait. Nary a nibble. It did not go well. 

Finally, on December 6, nearly a month after Mr. Areglado’s Opus, the maestro himself keyboarded a snail-mail newsletter to the SPA general membership. It included this scantily clad reference to the evening’s performance art. Here is a scan of Item #2 from the mailing:

 For those readers who have not had the experience of two decades worth of Areglado-speak, I respectfully offer the following real-world translation. Let’s pick it up after the intro “In summary...” 

“...they asked us to respond to seven questions. At our Board Meeting on November 16^th, we realized we had dug ourselves a hole so deep, there was no way out. So we’ll just leave things the way they are. We can talk about it next spring.” 

As 2021 comes to a close, the Sachem Passage Association remains bogged down in a quagmire of its own making. Twenty-one years ago, a handful of neighbors ignored the advice of another who knew better. 

That handful, however, did manage to construct a virtual petri dish, fed with equal parts ignorance and misinformation, setting the stage for the genesis of a new breed of political animal. The time was ripe for a different kind of worm hatch. The Charlestown Citizens/Sachem Passage Alliance Association – CCSPAA for acronym junkies - was emerging from the mud.   

The CCSAPP, an inbred species of pay-to-play cash cow, began its incomplete metamorphosis one brisk autumn afternoon, over a decade ago. The precipitating event that day took the shape of a diminutive humanoid riding a retro bicycle down East Quail Run in a robust crosswind wind, earnestly stuffing mailboxes with yellow leaflets (right). Deputy Dan Slattery was on a mission to save the town.

The leaflet campaign turned out to be a CCA-sponsored citizen-call-to-arms. It alerted everyone to an October 14^th, 2010 Town Council Meeting, pointing to a scheduled vote to approve a public-private partnership with Whalerock LLC to install a pair of 410’ tall Vesta wind turbines on what is now the Charlestown Moraine Preserve. But In 2010, the parcel was owned by Whalerock LLC under the direction of local developer Lawrence LeBlanc. 

The Charlestown Moraine Preserve, Assessor’s Map Lot 17-186 depicted below, had previously been considered for a power line transmission corridor, a multi-unit condominium development, or, most recently, a wind turbine project known as Whalerock.

Sachem Passage I, being the highest density neighborhood abutting the proposed Whalerock project, became the epicenter of citizen resistance. 

Not everyone realized it at the time, but a core group of Sachem Passage residents, relative newcomers circa 2000, had been networking behind the scenes to form an activist, litigation-based organization to thwart Whalerock. The organization came to be known as Illwind. 

Illwind was essentially a subsidiary of the Sachem Passage Association. Its leader was Ronald Areglado. Its fundraiser was Joseph Quadrato. Its co-treasurers were Thomas Gilligan and Maureen Areglado. 

The final piece of Illwind’s organizational hierarchy was the most critical, an attorney to handle the litigation. Oddly enough, SPA’s retained attorney, Nicholas Gorham, just happened to be the attorney for Whalerock LLC, Illwind’s litigation target. He was, as they say, unavailable. 

Mr. Areglado delegated a lawyer search to Kristan O’Connor, his Partridge Run neighbor. Ms. O’Connor was a banking and financial services professional attached to a Boston firm. She was arguably the most qualified member of the Illwind inner circle to evaluate and choose a local attorney skilled in the legal issues facing Illwind. 

Based on Ms. O’Connor’s search, Attorney James Donnelly was selected to represent Illwind in matters pertaining to the Whalerock Wind Turbine Project. He was introduced to the general membership of Illwind on the evening of October 17, 2010, at an informational meeting held at the Areglado home.  

With all pieces in place, Illwind was ready to roll. Within a surprisingly short period of time, over $40,000 was raised, virtually all of it due to the sales skills of Joe Quadrato.  

Mr. Quadrato had developed formidable sales acumen as a survival skill, starting up a home-based office supply business in the hyper-competitive Greater Hartford area. Cold-calling and building a reliable client base was his forte´. It didn’t go unnoticed. Word got “around town” that Illwind had some clout. 

Deputy Dan Slattery (left) is the little man on the bike. The mail carrier
really resembles Tom Gentz (brother by a different mother?)

At Illwind’s organizational meeting, during the meet & greet preliminaries, Mr. Areglado yielded the floor to several people from “around town” who wanted to address the group. Thomas Gentz, Dan Slattery (left) and Cliff Vanover identified themselves as Town Council candidates sponsored by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, the CCA. 

The CCA slate told us they were there to support our efforts. They asked for our consideration at the voting booth for the upcoming November elections. They thanked us for our time, found some empty seats off to the side of the main room, and watched the proceedings unfold. 

Illwind’s co-treasurers were tasked with managing the monies raised by Mr. Quadrato to pay for litigation costs. Donors were asked to make out personal checks not to Illwind, but to “Maureen Areglado and Thomas Gilligan.” 

The wise folks in the room (there weren’t many) wanted no part of that type of financial arrangement. They demanded that their names be removed from any pending litigation. 

One neighbor said that by writing a check payable to two private individuals rather than a business entity, you gave away your right to see how the money was spent,  and the account’s owner(s) had no legal obligation to produce said statements. 

A trusting neighbor reminded everyone that having co-treasurers provided assurance that financial matters would be legitimate, above board. After all, two signatures would be required for all transactions; there was “built-in transparency.” 

People anted up. The money rolled in, and not only from Sachem Passage. The $40,000 figure clearly indicated that whatever cold-call telephone script Joe Quadrato had put together, it was working. 

If Mr. Quadrato had been an institutional fundraiser for Ivy League schools instead of an office supply salesman, he wouldn’t have been cold-calling wealthy waterfront homeowners for donations at the age of 60. He would have been buying them out by the time he was 50. Maybe sooner. 

Apparently, the CCA realized the same thing. Joe Quadrato’s eventual ascendancy to the CCA Steering Committee was a foregone conclusion. The CCA and the SPA were joined at the hip, the part of the body right next to the wallet. 

For nearly two and a half years, From October 2010 through April 2013, Whalerock was the Hydra of the RI Superior Court system. You can find Progressive Charlestown’s analysis of the four-ring circus, along with links to decisions rendered by Superior Court Justices Judith Savage and Kristin Rodgers here.

The most pressing concern for those of us with homes on East Quail Run and the eastern-most end of Woodcock Trail was is that Whalerock LLC, the rightful owners of Lot 17-186, would proactively clear-cut the lot of all trees and vegetation, just to spite the neighbors in the event the wind turbine project was rejected. 

As the litigation crawled from one hearing to another and time went on, it was obvious that lawyers on both sides were racking up billable hours. Several of us asked for updates on Illwind’s money situation, specifically statements detailing income and expenses. We were told the legal fees were indeed mounting, that we were “doing ok” for the time being. But no actual documentation was provided. Never saw a monthly statement, not once. The wise guys were right, as usual. 

It took until 2013 for the Whalerock saga to play itself out, when the town bought Lot 17-186 for $2.14 million, thereby creating the 78-acre densely forested refuge known as the Charlestown Moraine Preserve. 

I can pick up a trail in the Moraine Preserve about 600 feet from my mailbox, the place where the little man-with the helmet-on the bicycle, Deputy Dan Slattery, was stuffing those yellow leaflets over eleven years ago. 

The Moraine Preserve features densely packed hardwood and softwood trees, vernal pools with amphibians, flower power-level mountain laurel,  daylight walking trails, nocturnal hoot owls, and a rare glimpse of a solitary critter commonly known as a fisher cat (left), a member of the weasel family. 

The scientific name of the Fisher Cat is Pekania pennanti. They are primarily omnivores and are notoriously elusive. 

In stark contrast, humanoid weasels eat anything they can grab for free and swarm like locusts when they smell other people’s money.   

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the holidays. We’ll ferret out the money trail next time.

Some context for the informed voter

A brief, recent history of open space and recreation issues in Charlestown

By Linda Felaco

We all love open space

EDITOR’S NOTE: On Monday, June 1, a small percentage of Charlestown’s voters will go to Town Hall to cast their ballots for the town budget and three important ballot questions on land use. These issues have a history that goes back a very long time, back to Charlestown's founders taking land from the Narragansett Tribe. We’ve been covering that history since we launched Progressive Charlestown five years ago. My colleague Linda Felaco has gone through our articles to look at the biggest land use fights to create a bibliography to help you educate yourself before you vote.   - wc

Land use issues are highly contentious in Charlestown. In fact you could say that pretty much every issue of any magnitude somehow involves land use. Here’s a brief rundown of some of the major open space issues that have come up in the past few years. In each of these battles, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA), the town’s ruling political party, has repeatedly demonstrated the lengths it will go to to prevent town residents from having any say over how town-owned properties are used.