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Source: RI Water Resources Board |
This article first appeared as a Letter To the Editor in The Westerly Sun on June 5. Note: Former Town Council President James Mageau also wrote a
letter in response to Mr. Jacobsen. It can be read here.In a recently published letter by Roy Jacobsen entitled, “Charlestown should
be worried about water” (May 27), Mr. Jacobsen questions when the new Town
Council will address the need for property that will serve as a source for
fresh water. As a supporter of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, one would
wonder why he didn’t approach the CCA Town Council regarding this matter during
their 12-year reign of power?
He also fails to acknowledge that the CCA
attempted to deny a property owner’s right to sell their family’s land to the state
of Rhode Island’s Water Resources Board back in 2015. This purchase eliminated
the development of eight residential and two commercial buildings while
providing 20 acres of open space, a wildlife habitat and a protected a water
source for future generations.
Keep in mind that the CCA Town Council
majority and Planning Commission Chairwoman Ruth Platner worked tirelessly to
undermine this private sale. Not only were attacks levied against me and my
family, but also against former Water Resources Board General Manager Ken
Burke. But now, thanks to the Water Resources Board, this property is protected
in Charlestown in spite of the efforts of the CCA.
In 2016, there was a meeting at the Quonnie
Grange which was attended by a number of residents from Quonochontaug, where
Mr. Jacobsen lives.
One of the speakers at this meeting was
Lorraine Joubert, who at the time represented the Department of Natural
Resources at URI. After answering a number of concerned citizens’ questions,
she finally summed it up by telling the Quonnie crowd, “You are all drinking
recycled wastewater.” Or, to put it bluntly, you’re drinking your neighbors’
sewage.
So “yes,” there is a water problem in
Charlestown.
In his letter, Mr. Jacobsen asks, “What will
it take?” Well, as long as he and others continue to support CCA candidates
like Platner, you will never have potable water in Quonnie ... or anywhere else
in Charlestown.
He also asks, “Would it not be prudent for the
Town Council to reserve land for future fresh water access?” He continues,
“This is the ‘monkey in the room’ that is being ignored.” As I see it, the only
“monkey in the room” is the CCA, and fortunately, they were ignored during the
last election.
EDITOR’S END NOTE
By Will Collette
I covered the jaw-dropping 2014-15 story of the
CCA Council majority and Planning Commissar Ruth Platner’s battle to BLOCK the
state Water Resources Board from purchasing land from Frank Glista to be set
aside as open space to protect groundwater resources.
Given
the CCA’s endless claims that it is the champion of open space and clean water, their
desperate struggle to block this deal went beyond hypocrisy and into the
Twilight Zone.
Their
personal assault on Water Resource Board’s Ken Burke shredded the CCA claims to
“civility” to the point where they actually had to apologize.
Now
Frank, good man that he is, won’t say this but I will: the only reason the CCA
dug in against this transaction was because they hated Frank.
Now to be fair - kind of - the CCA has also been willing to throw out its sacred beliefs, such as its hatred of asphalt, to do favors for patrons, like CCA-cofounder Faith LaBossiere, when they poured tons of asphalt on Ninigret Park for a bike path no one uses. Faith promised the Council it would only cost $7,000. The final cost was $266,927 plus interest on the bond leading to a cost over-run of 4,000%.
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The Slattery Doctrine in a nutshell |
Deputy
Dan Slattery tried to rationalize the CCA’s irrational position by making up a
new policy: he claimed that no state or federal agency had any right to do
anything in Charlestown without the Town Council’s expressed prior approval. I dubbed
this invention “The Slattery Doctrine.”
In
fact, in August 2016, the CCA Council majority authorized this:
“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
Incidentally,
the mandate of the state Water Resources Board is to acquire and protect lands
to preserve clean water supplies. They don’t need Charlestown’s permission to
conduct a private transaction to advance that mandate.
For
that matter, the federal Departments of Interior, Justice, Labor, Forest Service, EPA, Mine Safety
and Health Administration, OSHA, IRS etc. do not need
Charlestown’s permission to enter Charlestown to conduct their lawful duties.
Neither
do the state Departments of Transportation, Health, Environmental Management,
Children and Youth Services, State Police, etc.
I
am so sick of the CCA insulting the people of Charlestown by assuming there are
no records or institutional memory of all the crazy crap they did when they
ruled Charlestown.
Here’s
some of the articles I wrote about anti-water CCA crusade back in the day:
Progressive
Charlestown: Charlestown’s new water war (progressive-charlestown.com)
Progressive
Charlestown: VIDEO: New border regulations for Charlestown
(progressive-charlestown.com)
Progressive
Charlestown: Ruth Platner leaves fingerprints (progressive-charlestown.com)