Asphalt is everywhere, but is it bad for our health?

It's the material chosen by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) for a vanity project

By Joanna Allhands, Arizona State University

Edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan

In Charlestown, we have "Faith's Folly," a lasting monument to the Charlestown Citizens Alliance's hypocrisy and cronyism. Despite opposing asphalt use elsewhere in Charlestown, the CCA allowed tons of asphalt to be used on a bike path pushed by CCA founding member Faith LaBossiere. LaBossiere sold the project to the CCA-controlled Town Council claiming it would only cost $7000 (see below). The actual cost turned out to be $266,927 plus interest on the bond leading to a cost over-run of 4,000%.

If you piled all of Phoenix's pavement into one spot, it would be enough to cover San Francisco four times over. Roads, parking lots, and other paved surfaces blanket a lot of land—an estimated 40% of Arizona's capital city.

From the Power Point presentation shown the Council
by Faith Labossiere.

Pavement absorbs heat during the day and releases it slowly at night via the urban heat island effect, increasing the amount of energy that cities consume.

But for Elham Fini, a senior scientist affiliated with the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University, pavement's potential impact on our health deserves as much attention as its carbon or energy footprint.

"To make something truly sustainable," she said, "you cannot ignore the human side of it."

Asphalt fumes can be hard on health

Fini—a faculty member in ASU's School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment—spent years studying why asphalt breaks down so quickly.

Suliman Rashid, a graduate teaching associate in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, moves samples of an asphalt binder made from leftover forest-thinning material. Credit: Joanna Allhands

That work pointed her toward the volatile organic compounds that escape from bitumen, the black, sticky petroleum byproduct that holds asphalt together.

Two studies in the Journal of Hazardous Materials and Science of the Total Environment shed light on how the compounds that give asphalt its trademark scent change after sunset and form ultrafine particles, which can worsen air quality.

These carbon-based vapors are continuously released but become more noticeable on hot, sunny days. They can cause dizziness and difficulty breathing in the short term.

Long-term exposure also can elevate the risk of lung cancer, a major concern for construction workers who regularly breathe these fumes without a respirator.

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.

Charlestown Chunks #9: cooperation, payback and shame

See how Charlestown's registration breaks down, Ashley wins judgment, and more

By Will Collette

Eligible voters in Charlestown. Precinct 3, the heart of CCA's voting base, is also the most conservative. As of Tuesday, September 6, 127 Charlestown voters have already cast their ballots for the Sept. 13 primary: 49 by mail and 78 by voting early at Town Hall.

With the September 13 Democratic primary coming fast – early in-person voting and mail-in voting has already begun – the media are all over many of the state’s key races. While mud-slinging campaigns get a lot of attention, I was pleased to see a piece in the Providence Journal that featured cooperation between candidates for Senate District 38 (Westerly, south Charlestown, South Kingstown) on the issue of beach access.

The article featured rival Democrats Victoria Gu and Michael Niemeyer who both pledged to make beach access a top priority. As you may recall, this year’s beach access bill failed even though it won in the House unanimously because bill sponsor Blake “Flip” Filippi forgot to line up a Senate sponsor. Well, if either Gu or Niemeyer win on September 13, they will push the bill in the Senate. They face Westerly Town Council President Sharon Ahern in a three-way primary.

This article and other recent pieces also highlight the role fake fire districts – fire districts that don’t fight fires but do block off the beach – play in the access issue. Hopefully, we’ll see legislation that requires all fire districts to actually fight fires or lose their tax privileges.

Ashley gets some belated justice

Many of us in Charlestown remember our former town Planner Ashley Hahn and her frequent clashes with Planning Commissar Ruth Platner. Among the most memorable was Ashley’s 2012 discovery that Charlestown had misclassified many properties under Charlestown’s zoning ordinance, often to the property owner’s advantage.

Platner lost her argument that this wasn’t really a problem - Ashley had done her research. Platner had no option but to promise the problem would be fixed but it never has been.

Ashley left in November 2013. Platner replaced her with our current and far more compliant Planner Jane Weidman who, conveniently, had just been terminated by Block Island.

Ashley’s next job was as West Warwick’s town planner but that job ended badly. According to a detailed article in GoLocal, Ashley was terminated when she needed time off for treatment for post-partum depression. Rather than make reasonable accommodations for her medical needs, the town manager fired her on bogus grounds (the lie that planning committee members didn’t like her) and replaced her with a childless white male.

In 2015, she filed suit arguing that the town violated three sections of the Rhode Island Civil Rights Act of 1990, illegally discriminating against Hahn based on her disability and sex. 

After an unusual delay, Ashley finally got a jury trial, which she won. The Town of West Warwick has signed a Consent Judgment ordered in the Kent County Superior Court to pay her $800,000. That works out to $100,000 a year over the eight years since she was wrongfully terminated.

While “justice delayed is justice denied,” winning so decisively definitely doesn’t suck.

Preserving a sordid history

John Brown. University founder and slave trader

Area historian and author Christian McBurney of West Kingston was profiled in The Independent that featured his new book “Dark Voyage: An American Privateer’s War on Britain’s African Slave Trade.”

McBurney also produces “Small State/Big History, The Online Review of Rhode Island History.” It’s an anthology of papers by other local historians as well as his own work. Much of the material focuses on South County. You can sign up for a weekly e-mail that lists that week’s featured article. I’ve been getting it for years and enjoy it.

His new book details the sordid history of the Marlborough, a South County-based privateer chartered by the Continental Congress to attack and seize British shipping. 

John Brown, founder of Brown University, was the ship’s principal investor. As such, he received 50% of the spoils – the value of the ship and its “cargo.”

The Marlborough specialized in capturing British slave ships working with John Brown’s extensive knowledge of the slave trade. They sold the captured slaves to plantations in the French Caribbean. As McBurney put it: 

“The mastermind and primary investor behind the voyage was Providence merchant John Brown. With his experience as a slave trader — he had been an investor in two previous slave voyages.”

You can buy “Dark Voyage” from the Rhode Island Publications Society at https://ripublications.org/rips-store/, online at amazon.com, click here, or the publisher’s website.

Bad flood maps?

WPRI.com

On September 4, FEMA Director Deanne Criswell told CNN’s State of the Union: “The part that’s really difficult right now is the fact that our flood maps don’t take into account excessive rain that comes in. And we are seeing these record rainfalls that are happening.”

She said FEMA maps are “outdated” due to the excessive rain generated by climate change. She said, “FEMA’s maps right now are really focused on riverine flooding and coastal flooding and we work with local jurisdictions to update the maps,” but as we know in Charlestown, excessive rain fall can make predictable floods a lot worse.

Curt Schilling says debt forgiveness makes people lazy

Ultra-conservative former Red Sox pitcher and conman Curt Schilling condemned President Joe Biden’s executive order allowing forgiveness of between $10,000 and $20,000 in student loan debt.

He said this plan benefits “a generation of lazy unaccountable uneducated children being covered by hard working debt paying Americans.”

I have to assume Schilling is not counting himself as one of those “hard working debt paying Americans” after ripping off hard-working Rhode Islanders when he defaulted on $75 million loan for the infamous, now defunct, 38 Studio business in 2014.

What Schilling got through his debt default is equivalent to as many as 7,500 people getting student loan forgiven through Biden's plan.

Curt Schilling, once a hero but now just another right-wing asshole hypocrite.

Why do we need this?

Lehman and family. So he's the guy to get more blacks and Hispanics
to hunt?

Starting August 1, RIDEM has a new staff member, Dan Lehman, who is “filling a new position… as the hunter recruitment, retention and reactivation specialist.”

His mission is to get more people to hunt and trap our state’s beautiful forest creatures.

He’s going to focus on kids aged 12-15. Plus, he’s determined to “encourage more women, families, millennials and people of color” to go out and kill something. Or trap it, which is even more horrifying to me.

Apparently, not enough people are buying hunting licenses – 8,800 last year compared to the state’s peak year 2000 when 11,600 people bought licenses. I sometimes think there are at least 8,000 shooters in the woods behind my house.

Of all the things to spend taxpayer money on…to paraphrase Eminem, “Rhode Island’s got 99 problems but not enough shooters ain’t one.”

Speaking of 99 Problems

Have the smelling salts ready when Faith LaBossiere reads THIS ARTICLE.

 Apparently, people in bike-crazy Europe are having second thoughts about riding bikes to work and for exercise and enjoyment. 

It’s just not safe.

CCA leader LaBossiere has long been Charlestown’s bicycling gadfly, pushing bike paths regardless of cost, practicality, property rights, etc. including the infamous and largely unused “Faith’s Folly” in Ninigret Park.

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.

Today was "Earth Day." Does anyone really care?

Earth Day lost its relevance decades ago

By Will Collette

From this....

The first Earth Day in 1970 was a popular uprising against corporate capitalism primarily over the issue of industrial pollution. It was a day for militant speeches, lively marches and hope that environmental activism would add extra power in numbers to the already huge movement protesting the war in Viet Nam.

I was there. In fact, Cathy and I met that year while working at Ecology Action for Rhode Island in Providence where one of our tasks was prep for Earth Day; we worked together on anti-pesticide polemics.

In short order and over the ensuing 50+ years, Earth Day transformed from being a May Day style day of protest and action against corporate capitalism into a tool of those same financial interests we we were fighting in 1970. Instead of talking about the big issues and pushing for serious solutions, Earth Day devolved into a time to do little, feel-good things.

Tomorrow, the town will hold its third annual pick-up-other-people's-trash day, a classic feel-good event that has come to be treated by the CCA as if it was their idea (it wasn't). The CCA's resident intellectual Mike Chambers ponders the existential threat posed by roadside litter and declares "we cannot afford a stalemate" between the trash picker-uppers and the drive-by litterers who toss their empty nip bottles all over the roads.

Living right on Route One, I entirely understand the problem of litter and would certainly like to see Charlestown Police bust more litterers. I have, in the past, called for chain-gangs of vacationing New Yorkers in orange jump suits to pick up nip liquor bottles along the roadside.

Since the entire idea behind nip bottles is to facilitate drinking and driving, I think any time you see a nip bottle fly out of a car window, it's a reasonable bet the driver would fail a Breath-o-Lyser test. Bust them and prosecute to the hilt.

...To this

Next week, Charlestown will have its official little Earth Day celebration in Ninigret Park with family fun,  music, balloon animals (BAD idea!), and conservation groups handing out literature that will become colorful additions to the town's litter. Faith LaBossiere was all a-twitter talking about this event at the last Town Council meeting.  

Charlestown's way of doing Earth Day ignores so much that needs attention. Let's start with the tons of toxic waste under the ground right at the site of the town's celebration. 

These are leftovers from the days when Ninigret Park was part of a large Navy aviation training field during World War II. The CCA seems more interested in covering that up rather than deal with it.

Large swaths of Charlestown's southern shore faces inundation from storms and sea level rise caused by that industrial pollution we protested at the first Earth Day 52 years ago. Yet Charlestown is actually anti-green energy, virtually banning all forms of wind energy and offering no town assistance to help residents and businesses to break away from fossil fuels. 

Our Town Plan rejects the idea of connecting Charlestown with public transportation. We are one of the only municipalities in Rhode Island with no RIPTA service. 

On any given day, you can look out over Block Island Sound and see ocean going oil tankers, one storm or one accident away from another major oil spill.

We are 25 miles downwind from the poorly managed Millstone nuclear power station just outside of New London in Waterford.

Balloon animals aren't going to fix any of those problems  though they will contribute another dose of plastic pollution to Charlestown's landscape and waterways.

Earth Day 1970 evolved into Earth Day 2022 for reasons that have nothing to do with actually solving problems. The militant environmental movement of the 70s was bought and sold. 

Its leaders graduated from law school and started up huge environmental groups that used funding from corporate polluters to challenge small acts of blatant lawlessness and to seek small incremental changes in the laws.

Some of those leaders went on to become corporate poobahs, hedge fund managers and politicians. Local communities were left pretty much on their own to fight local challenges. 

Some of those local communities ended up like Charlestown where its environmental agenda is set by the likes of Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, Faith LaBossiere and Mikey Chambers. We worry more about what Ruth identifies as threats to our "rural character" than we do about hazardous waste under us, a toxic release or major oil spill or nuclear accident at Millstone.

There is lots we should be doing to protect our town and the health and safety of our families, but none of it has anything to do with the CCA. 

Let's take a historical look at a case in point - the leftover Navy contamination in what was the Ninigret Naval Auxiliary Air Field (NAAF). Understand that nearly all military installations have toxic contamination problems. As one Pentagon official told me in 1988, "our job is to protect this country, not protect the environment."

So lots of chemicals - waste oil, fuel, solvents, unexploded ordnance, ammunition, etc. ended up getting dumped more or less haphazardly at Ninigret as a matter of routine. We have reports showing fuel oil and PFAS contamination at Ninigret. CLICK HERE for a huge 1999 report that inventories the toxics in Ninigret know at that time.

In the early 2000s, the Town Council appointed an Ad hoc Committee that was chaired by Virginia Wooten, who later became CCA chair. The Committee was supposed to come up with ways the Town could get involved in rendering Ninigret safe. The Committee did not leave much work product behind; in fact, only two memos were found. 

One June 2004 memo released to me under the Access to Public Records Act was apparently its final report where Ms. Wooten discussed the broad concerns about contamination but decided that the immediate priority was: 

CLICK HERE to read all 2.5 pages of Wooten's "report." 

Obviously, shrubbery did not make the tons of toxic waste go away. Over the years, new information kept coming out about new types of toxic material in the Park. 

For example, in 2015, we found out - to the surprise of few - about oil that had been spilled, dumped or stored in leaking tanks:

In 2018, Ginger Glander sent a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers to see if any steps had been taken to set up a restoration advisory board (RAB) for the Park. CLICK HERE to read the entire response. But the most striking part of the reply letter was this: 

There was only one response to the Army's notice in the Westerly Sun and apparently that was Ginger's letter. From the CCA, nada.

Since then, in June 2021, PFAs pollution was confirmed at Ninigret. 

As of today, according to ProPublica's database of polluted military sites, Ninigret Park has five toxic sites, two of which are considered completed, though in my experience that does not mean they have actually been cleaned up. As you can tell from this history, toxic waste is not a CCA priority. Not as long as they can hand out balloon animals.

Here's ProPublica's data on Charlestown's Ninigret air field, Note that the estimated time for the Army to "complete" what it will call a "clean up" is 2055.

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.

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.

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.