Charlestown Chunks #16: food, friends and foes

Local news you may have missed

By Will Collette

Pollen is back. High levels return as maple, elm and junipers start to bud. You can check the daily pollen count at the forecast at Pollen.com

This is the latest edition of “Charlestown Chunks,” the successor to my former long-running series, “Charlestown Tapas.” Both series digest news items that caught my eye that might be of possible interest to South County residents. Corporate media moguls own most Rhode Island news outlets and gutted news staffs to the point where South County is almost a news desert. We try to be a news oasis.

Rhode Island’s NPR station, The Public’s Radio, is also an exception with a full-time South County editor, Alex Nunes. There’s also a brand-new on-line non-profit news source called Rhode Island Current. EcoRI also contributes a hefty amount of South County coverage as well; they frequently run pieces by Westerly Sun veteran Cynthia Drummond, now retired from the Sun. All three are non-profits and deserve your support. 

Let’s start with some great news for a fine local restaurant. 

Sly Fox Den Too makes the cut 

Sherry Pocknett, chef and owner, advanced in the competition for the coveted James Beard Award (the Oscars for foodies), beating out two Rhode Island competitors to become a finalist in the New England region. 

Here’s her bracket: 

Best Chef: Northeast (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)

• Valentine Howell, Krasi, Boston, MA
• Christian Hunter, Community Table, New Preston, CT
• Sherry Pocknett, Sly Fox Den Too, Charlestown, RI
• Yisha Siu, Yunnan Kitchen, Boston, MA
• Renee Touponce, The Port of Call, Mystic, CT 

The final winners will be celebrated at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony on June 5 in Chicago. 

Sly Fox Den Too occupies the space that was the longtime home of the popular Gentleman Farmer. Ms Pocknett’s menu is primarily indigenous cuisine with a gourmet twist. I’ve eaten there and the food is distinctive and delicious. 

Thanks, Frank 

I had meant to do this earlier but haven’t done a Charlestown Chunks for a while. I was pleased to note the commendation given to my friend and fellow cartoon fan Frank Glista at the Charlestown Town Council’s February 13 meeting. 

Frank was honored for his many years of service, most notably the years he’s put in hustling wooden pallets and constructing Charlestown New Year’s Eve bonfire. 

While those events were memorable and lots of fun, Frank’s service extended far beyond that, with many hours put in to improve Charlestown’s environment, business climate, Ninigret Park and to recognize of veterans of the Ninigret Naval Auxiliary Air Field and more. 

Over the years, I seen Frank take abuse for several of his good deeds. These included utterly debunked 2011 claims of mismanagement of funds collected by Friends of Ninigret Park.  

Then there was the bizarre 2014 attack on Frank from the CCA – specifically from former Councilor Dan Slattery and Planning Commissar Ruth Platner – over his sale of undeveloped land to the state Water Resources Board to be set aside as open space to preserve underground water resources. 

With Frank, it seemed that no good deed went unpunished, so I was really happy to see the Council recognize his years of service. Thank you, Frank, and may your service to Charlestown continue for many more years. That’s pretty much assured with Frank’s appointment to the Parks and Recreation Commission by the Council on March 13. 

South Kingstown seniors have until May 15 to apply for Homestead Tax Credit 

In previous articles about Charlestown’s need to adopt a homestead tax credit to compensate full-time residents for the costs we bear for an infrastructure built to accommodate our summer visitors, I missed the fact that South Kingstown has such a program too. I had noted that Narragansett, North Kingstown and Newport all have broad tax credits for full-time homeowners. 

South Kingstown’s program is more conservative than the other towns, limiting its credits to low-income seniors whose annual incomes are $45,197 or less. That’s roughly double the maximum monthly Social Security payment. 

Their program is also more complicated, using income brackets to determine the amount of the credit. 

More information is HERE. 

How safe is Charlestown? 

According to Safewise, a rating service for public safety, Charlestown failed to make the top ten list of the safest towns in Rhode Island. Top ranking went to Bristol and tenth place went to Warwick. 

South and North Kingstown came in at #2 and #3, respectively. Westerly came in #6. Rhode Island ranked in the Top Ten nationwide. 

The rankings were largely based on crime statistics. 

It’s getting hard to find a doctor. 

According to Wallethub, ranking service that covers a broad range of topics, Rhode Island is the second worst state for doctors to practice medicine. 

Other articles have highlighted how it is especially hard to find general practice doctors – internists, family practice, etc. 

My own doctor of 20 years left her practice to go to work for URI’s student health service, telling me the paperwork was killing her.  

The Wallethub study cited comparatively low pay, as well as “opportunity and competition” and “medical environment.”

The top ranked state is Montana. Hawaii ranks just below Rhode Island for last place. 

Peeps news 

Winning entry is Progressive Charlestown's first
and only diorama contest (2014)

As long-time readers may recall, I have a thing about Peeps® the candy. People love to make fun of Peeps. For example, this year there is some buzz over getting Smoked Salmon Peeps for Easter at Seattle’s famous Pike Place Fish Market, although the story turns out to be a hoax. 

They are my favorite remedy for diabetes-induced hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) especially when they are stale as rocks. They are also a favorite for people to use to create some really wonderful dioramas. I’ve featured Peeps in numerous articles in Progressive Charlestown. 

We even held a diorama contest of our own! 

So it is with profound sadness that I must report that Bob Born, the “Father of Peeps,” died on January 29 at the age of 98. In the 1950s, he bought a small candy company that made marshmallow candies and figured out how to turn them out in shapes and in bulk. 

He lived a long life, full of gooey sweetness. A source of fun for many, he will probably be most missed by dentists around the world. 

Schartner’s green-lighted? 

This is the plan. From Schartner's Facebook page

One of the things that made the long drive to Providence from Charlestown along scenic South County Trail (Route 2) was passing Schartner’s farm, especially during holiday seasons when the crew would create witches and goblins from hay bales at Halloween, hay turkeys at Thanksgiving and Christmas characters. Their farm stand and nursery were always busy. 

In 2015, a huge fire destroyed all but the greenhouses. The family declared they would rebuild, but in time, they took a different direction and instead proposed an industrial-scale hydroponic greenhouse complex that would produce as much as 42,000 pounds of tomatoes a day. 

Work commenced in laying the frames in 2021 but because they lacked permits, they were hit with a cease-and-desist order that has held until February when the town lifted the order. Schartner’s will need to meet several procedural requirements to make the conditional lifting of the order permanent, but that seems to be a given. 

As you might imagine, there are pros and cons to this kind of farming, but certainly among the pros is boosting the local farm economy and keeping a South County institution in business. 

Rightwing actor loses nuisance case against his Exeter neighbor 

Actor James Woods lost his suit against the town of Exeter. Woods, 75, tried to stop a neighbor from building a modest two-bedroom home abutting the Woods family estate. 

Superior Court justice Sarah Taft-Carter ruled Exeter’s decision to allow building a single-family home on a legally non-conforming lot in the two-acre residential zone was permitted by right under Exeter’s zoning ordinance. 

Though born in Utah, Woods grew up in Warwick leading to many media references to him as a “native Rhode Islander.” He currently resides in West Hollywood.

He is described as a “staunch Trump supporter” and espouses many hard-right views including the anti-Semitic George Soros conspiracy trope. However, he obviously doesn’t subscribe to the tenet that property owners should be able to do whatever they want, within reason, on their own land.