VIDEO: Council kills proposals to sell town-owned beach path, rebuild Ninigret Park tennis courts

Proposed budget OK’d – up for voter approval on June 2

By Will Collette

There’s weeping and gnashing of teeth by the owners of properties on Charlestown Beach Road. Their plan to get the town to sell them a town-owned beach path so they could close it off to people they don’t like went down in flames at the May 12 Charlestown Town Council meeting.

While the Council unanimously approved the general budget proposed for FY 2015 that begins on July 1, the two “warrant items” (ballot questions) that cover two separate issues did not fare as well.

The Council voted unanimously to withdraw the proposed ballot question that would direct the town to sell the land to the highest bidder, with a starting bid of $4,000. 

The local property owners, most of them non-residents, have wanted to eliminate this beach path for quite a while to keep riff-raff and undesirables from getting to that portion of the beach that is not covered by life guards.

These owners claim that these riff-raff misbehave on the beach, drinking, smoking, being loud and using some of those words that George Carlin famously referred to as the Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television. They claimed that some of these undesirables were trespassing on private property and were using the underside of the beach houses as public toilets.

Nick Augelli (and not Kyle Donovan as I had originally reported) said that on Prom Nights, you can find some kids doing the nasty under their beach houses.

If you're still trying to remember George Carlin's Seven Words, here's a refresher:

Town Council meeting TONIGHT, Monday, May 12

Final look at the budget before town-wide vote

By Will Collette

Look very closely...your eyelids are getting heavy...you're getting sleepy...

The most important item on this month’s regular Council meeting agenda is the last look at the Charlestown town budget for next year before it is sent on to voters on June 2 for a vote, along with two additional ballot questions.

The meeting will be held at 7 PM at Town Hall on Monday. Prior to the regular meeting, the Council will meet in closed, executive session. The only agenda item is Councilor Lisa DiBello’s two-year old conspiracy lawsuit against the town. I keep saying that this one is ripe for a settlement, and it still is.

For a full run-down on the Charlestown budget, click here. The big subtopic is whether to send voters a ballot question asking them to authorize the town to sell a beach path that a group of mostly non-resident beachfront property owners want to buy – and close off.

For detail on why this is a BAD idea, click here. Hopefully, the three CCA Party boys – Boss Tom Gentz, Dan Slattery and George Tremblay – who voted YES on this question when it first came up will change their minds and join Councilors Paula Andersen (D) and Lisa DiBello in killing this ballot question.

There are also slots in the agenda for more discussion about the botched ordinance to regulate quarries in Charlestown and Councilors Slattery and Gentz’s beef with Hopkinton and Richmond over Chariho. Both matters have been talked to death already, but that’s what these guys do best.

Here’s the agenda as it will actually be heard:

Town Council makes one good decision, one bad one and opens up a can of worms

Classic example of how to screw up a consensus

By Will Collette

It was no surprise that the Town Council decided to go ahead with the $2,114,415 purchase of the site of the proposed Whalerock wind farm. 

This issue passed the point of getting on everyone’s last nerve months and months ago, and had been causing mass hysteria on the moraine. 

Support spans the spectrum – even Ruth Platner and I were on the same side, at least as far as the merits of the town buying the land.

However, the CCA Party Council majority rejected calls from many citizens that a purchase this big should go before the voters to honor the CCA Council members’ past promises and past precedents, if not the strictures of the Town Charter. But Town Council Boss Tom Gentz insisted that this is the way it had to be, and hey, he IS Boss Gentz and he had the votes of his two CCA Party colleagues (Deputy Dan Slattery and George Tremblay) and their ally Councilor Lisa DiBello.

Only Councilor Paula Andersen (D) voted no, not because she opposed the purchase, but because she wanted the Council to honor the democratic process, past promises and precedent.

Dueling experts, dueling lawyers and one surprise

Whalerock Zoning Board hearing, Part Deux

LeBlanc tells the ZBR he will pull the application if there's science showing
anyone will be hurt by Whalerock

By Will Collette

The second Act in Charlestown’s summer stock theatre run of the play entitled “Whalerock: Threat or Menace” is done. There will be at least two more acts and probably more. Tonight, the Zoning Board of Review (ZBR) only heard two witnesses, but at the very start of the hearing, there was a surprise witness.

That was Whalerock’s owner, developer Larry LeBlanc. 

In an emotional ten minute sworn statement, LeBlanc acknowledged “there is a concern among my friends and neighbors” about the health and safety issues that have been raised about the Whalerock project, which consists of two, 410 foot tall industrial wind turbines that would be sited right off Route One near King’s Factory Road.

“Those who make anonymous postings are cowards”

Anonymous blogs, tax revenue plans, and objectivity

By Joe Dolock. 

A version of this letter was published in the Westerly Sun on October 26, 2012. Reprinted with permission of the author.

My name is Joseph S. Dolock and I am running for the Planning Board here in Charlestown.

Over the past two weeks there have been two letters published by your paper regarding anonymous postings to different blogs in Charlestown.

First, I would like to give my opinion regarding anonymous postings.

I think those who make anonymous postings are cowards. By being anonymous, they can cheat, pass out half-truths, misinformation and even disinformation. They can try to ruin a person and his or her families’ reputation in the community. But there is no free lunch for cowards. You will never know when, where, or who will expose you.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Episode 10

Snagged on the Epilog Epic-Log

By Robert Yarnall

Read the rest of the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot series:
Episode 1 – Getting Ready To Fish
Episode 2 – Watchaug Bites
Episode 3 – Avoiding Car Sickness
Episode 4 – Bait & Switch (Not!)
Episode 5 – Still Baiting, Still Switching…
Episode 6 – Mother Gooser & Friends
Episode 7 – Under the Radar with L-T
Episode 8 – Steering Committee Syndrome Unleashed, The Prelude
Episode 9 – Steering Committee Syndrome Unleashed, The Kiss
Episode 10 – Snagged on the Epilog Epic-Log

"I think I fish, in part, because it's an anti-social, bohemian business that, when gone about properly, puts you forever outside the mainstream culture without actually landing you in an institution."   -  John Gierach

I had hoped to be done with Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by now, planned to wrap up the entrails of the Whalerock blowfish in last month’s cyber-newspaper and bury the remains in the compost partition of my aging Macbook hard drive. 

Batting order determined for Planning Commission candidates

Can’t tell the players without a scorecard

By Will Collette

Charlestown is the only town among the 39 cities and towns of Rhode Island that still elects its Planning Commission. State law requires planning boards to be appointed, to take the politics out of the process, but Charlestown insists it has the “grandfathered” right[1] to keep electing its Planning Commissioners.

While you can never reasonably expect to take the politics out of Planning, Charlestown is the only town that actively and deliberately makes its Planning Commission a totally political animal. And we have paid the price. But since this is the system we have, expect a lively contest for election to the Commission with the candidates arranged on the ballot in the following order:

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Episode 9

Steering Committee Syndrome Unleashed, The Kiss 

By Robert Yarnall

Read the rest of the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot series:
Episode 1 – Getting Ready To Fish
Episode 2 – Watchaug Bites
Episode 3 – Avoiding Car Sickness
Episode 4 – Bait & Switch (Not!)
Episode 5 – Still Baiting, Still Switching…
Episode 6 – Mother Gooser & Friends
Episode 7 – Under the Radar with L-T
Episode 8 – Steering Committee Syndrome Unleashed, The Prelude
Episode 9 – Steering Committee Syndrome Unleashed, The Kiss
Episode 10 – Snagged on the Epilog Epic-Log
There it is.

Judge Judith Savage slaps the proverbial  “Return To Sender” rubber stamp on the Whalerock All-You-Can-Eat Lawsuit Buffet, and drives assorted piggies digging deep for any truffle of a rationale, snorting analytical snippets that have all the style and substance of toddler mucus.

Speaking as a check-writing, check-writing, check-writing (check three, I’m outta’ here) Illwinder, I could see this coming from Day One when Whalerock Abutters & Beyond, LLC, first met as a group of stakeholders, or maybe vampires, depending on your point of view.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Episode 8

Steering Committee Syndrome Unleashed, The Prelude  

By Robert Yarnall

Read the rest of the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot series:
Episode 1 – Getting Ready To Fish
Episode 2 – Watchaug Bites
Episode 3 – Avoiding Car Sickness
Episode 4 – Bait & Switch (Not!)
Episode 5 – Still Baiting, Still Switching…
Episode 6 – Mother Gooser & Friends
Episode 7 – Under the Radar with L-T
Episode 8 – Steering Committee Syndrome Unleashed, The Prelude
Episode 9 – Steering Committee Syndrome Unleashed, The Kiss
Episode 10 – Snagged on the Epilog Epic-Log

Out of respect for the timely release of the Dolock Decision, wherein Superior Court Associate Justice Judith C. Savage sent the ill-farted Whalerock wind farm proposal back to the compost heap of local government for a thorough destinkification, all fishing is hereby suspended until further notice, or Veterans’ Day, whichever occurs first. This is about as close to a deadline as I ever want to be. Don’t like it. Choppy water.

From last week’s episode of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, you may recall that the Illwind activist group, fronted by a core quintet conveniently dubbed  “The Partridge Family” because they live within a three-home cluster of not-so-affordable housing on Partridge Run, gave Joe Dolock’s business-based turbine-fighting strategy a politely dismissive “Thanks, but no thanks” seal of disapproval.

Remember, it wasn’t so much that the PF-er’s had dismissed Dolock’s comprehensive anthology of All Things Whalerock that bothered him. After all, Joe was a veteran of the cutthroat battles of Wall Street, not to mention the jungles of Southeast Asia. In either environment, the battle was as much about survival as victory.

What really galled Joe was that The Partridge Family knew damn well that he was actively running for Charlestown Town Council and that his candidacy was based on his professional assessment of the Whalerock Wind Energy project and its associated partnership deal with the town.

Simply stated, Joe felt betrayed that PF-ers had unilaterally donated his Whalerock expertise, a chronology compiled single-handedly over a six-month period, to his cross-town political rivals, the CCA-endorsed trio of Dan Slattery, Tom Gentz, and Cliff Vanover.  

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Episode 7

Under the Radar with L-T

By Robert Yarnall

Read the rest of the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot series:
Episode 1 – Getting Ready To Fish
Episode 2 – Watchaug Bites
Episode 3 – Avoiding Car Sickness
Episode 4 – Bait & Switch (Not!)
Episode 5 – Still Baiting, Still Switching…
Episode 6 – Mother Gooser & Friends
Episode 7 – Under the Radar with L-T
Episode 8 – Steering Committee Syndrome Unleashed, The Prelude
Episode 9 – Steering Committee Syndrome Unleashed, The Kiss
Episode 10 – Snagged on the Epilog Epic-Log
Time to stow the fishing gear this week while area ponds are restocked with hungry trout for the autumn season, courtesy of our friends at the Division of Fish & Wildlife. We bass anglers usually take a hiatus as well, stocking up on 2012 Patriots jerseys and wiping down crusty boat hulls with otherwise useless 2012 Red Sox non-memorabilia.

Unbeknown to most folks in Charlestown, neighborhood resistance to developer Larry LeBlanc’s industrial wind energy proposal began a good six months before a pair of congenial front men began pulling fire alarms in the neighborhoods abutting Whalerock.

Soft-spoken former U.S. Army 1st Lt. Joseph S. Dolock, a Vietnam veteran of an actual yearlong live-fire combat tour of duty, had caught wind of a pending town council agenda item that roused his considerable business instincts.

BREAKING NEWS: Judge dumps Whalerock wind farm lawsuit back in Charlestown’s lap

Irate judge blasts town staff, Zoning Board, citizen plaintiffs and Whalerock for sloppy and incompetent work

By Will Collette

On Thursday, RI District Judge Judith C. Savage issued her long-anticipated ruling in the consolidated case involving developer Larry LeBlanc’s controversial Whalerock wind turbine project that would have placed two huge turbines on the peak of the glacial moraine that runs north and parallel to Route One.

Judge Savage’s 51-page ruling sends the case back to Charlestown to be done properly. Through the 51 pages of her decision, Judge Savage blasts the town of Charlestown, the Zoning Board of Review, Larry LeBlanc’s lawyer and the abutting residents to the land where LeBlanc proposed the wind farm. 

She labels their various filings as incomplete, uncertified, irrelevant and a waste of the court’s time. She blasts the town and the Zoning Board for failing to follow state law and Charlestown Code.

In her words, “This Court is appalled at the state of the record…” (page 35). Read the entire decision here.

Tom Gentz in Wonderland, Part 2

Did Gentz do ANY due diligence at all on the Y-Gate deal?

By Will Collette

In Part One of this two-part analysis of an extraordinary letter to the Westerly Sun penned by Charlestown Town Council Boss Tom Gentz, I showed you how Gentz’s view of what happened during Charlestown’s Y-Gate Scandal had almost no basis in fact.

In his Sun letter, Gentz claimed there was no deception, no false representations, no withheld information, no secret meetings and no backroom deals. In Gentz’s fantasy, there were only diligent and selfless volunteers trying to do a nice thing for the town by lining up a deal for Charlestown taxpayers to pay $475,000 for limited rights to walk around in a rural junkyard.

The records show that Gentz is either deluded or deceptive. You be the judge, today and on November 6, since Gentz seems determined to run for re-election as the champion of Y-Gate.

In this installment, we’ll look at Gentz’s basic failure to exercise the kind of prudent judgment and minimum standard of care we have the right to expect from a person in his position.

Did Gentz fail to notice the many signs that Y-Gate was a rotten deal? Did he even read any of the documents placed before him? Did he ask the right questions? Did he simply do what Planning Commissar Ruth Platner told him to do? Did he even write the Westerly Sun letter, or did Ruth write it for him? Or was Gentz part of the Y-Gate scam from the beginning?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot - Episode 5

Still Baiting, Still Switching…

By Robert Yarnall

The Tribe's original deed

Read the rest of the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot series:
Episode 1 – Getting Ready To Fish
Episode 2 – Watchaug Bites
Episode 3 – Avoiding Car Sickness
Episode 4 – Bait & Switch (Not!)
Episode 5 – Still Baiting, Still Switching…
Episode 6 – Mother Gooser & Friends
Episode 7 – Under the Radar with L-T
Episode 8 – Steering Committee Syndrome Unleashed, The Prelude
Episode 9 – Steering Committee Syndrome Unleashed, The Kiss
Episode 10 – Snagged on the Epilog Epic-Log

It’s just too damn hot to fish today.  It’s too humid, too dead of summer, too easy to remand myself to a subterranean dehumidified basement and reflect on the topical item for this week’s blog submission - an eighty-one acre chunk of terminal glacial moraine well known to ancestors of the Narragansett Indian Tribe living in the area about 7,000 years ago. 

I wonder about the daily routines of those early indigenous people, the array of tasks – fishing, hunting, food gathering – that they practiced right here, not as diversions, hobbies or recreational adventures, but as daily struggles for survival.  It occurs to me as I overturn rotting logs and small rocks in a pretty pathetic search for a couple of grubs or crickets to dress out my lures for yet another Watchaug Pond fishing visit, that the earliest Narragansetts probably caught a lot more fish with much more efficiency because they were highly motivated by their will to live, as opposed to my will to escape home maintenance tasks.

Time also to escape hazy, hot, and humid early August, kick back and reflect on Tax Assessor’s Map 17, Lot 186, site of the Whalerock Twin Tax Credit Turbine Proposal.  

Speculations on the aftermath of Y-Gate

Uh-oh, I was afraid of this…

By Will Collette

This is what happens when a Progressive-Charlestown occasional contributor who prides himself on ignoring deadlines gets head-locked by writer’s block in spite of himself…and stumbles upon the Breaking News post of the Y-camp sale. [E-mail re-printed with Bob's permission]

-----Original Message-----

From: Robert Yarnall

Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 11:35 PM

To: Will Collette

Subject: y scoop

Petition Drive underway to buy YMCA Camp outright

News release on plan to collect 400 signatures by July 23rd

From James Mageau

(Charlestown, July 13, 2012)   Several Charlestown residents today launched a petition drive to collect the 400 signatures needed to call a Special Budget Hearing/Financial Referendum for the purpose of acquiring full title to the Ocean Community YMCA property at 50 Bayberry Lane, Charlestown, for active recreational use.
 
The petition would also appropriate up to Six Hundred Thousand ($600,000.00) Dollars, from the Town’s undesignated fund balance (surplus) for the purchase.

The List

Lots of candidates to choose from - 12 for Council, 10 for Planning

By Will Collette

The deadline to file a Declaration of Candidacy was 4 PM yesterday. This morning, we found out who filed.

Fasten your seat belts, Charlestown. 

Here's the List:

First Review: Town Council meeting tonight – very short, mostly boring

But another moment of clarity about who the CCA Council members really represent

"Please Mr. Slattery, please Mr. Gentz,
I really am truly needy"

By Will Collette

The two lead Town Council members who ran as the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) slate, President Tom Gentz and Vice-President Dan Slattery, made it absolutely clear that they represent the interests of Charlestown’s economic elite, the high-value shoreline property owners and non-residents. They made it clear they feel it is too divisive and unwieldy to try to give struggling middle class property owners any tax relief.

Gentz and Slattery were only interested in considering help for the “truly needy” – provided they could prove they were truly needy, and not in need because of some mistake they made – and also provided it doesn’t raise taxes for the high-end property owners.

In an otherwise short (90 minutes) and generally sedate, if not boring, Council meeting, the debate over tax policy was the most interesting part of the meeting.

Before I go into detail, here’s a recap on the rest of the meeting:

Mageau joins the CCA and assumes leadership

Or so it seems

By Will Collette

There was a remarkable 842-word tome (“Charlestown Democrats shouldn’t be critical of CCA tactics”) in the Westerly Sun on Tuesday from former Charlestown Town Council President Jim Mageau. I wish I could give you the whole letter but it’s tucked behind the Sun’s pay wall.

Emails from Jim

Last Friday, 4 days after the last Town Council meeting, I received an email from Mr. Jim Mageau.

At first I was hopeful that it would lead to something interesting, but I found that hope fades. 

by Tom Ferrio

A great year ahead for the Westerly Sun

Frank Glista soliciting donations for maintenance of the
Charlestown Naval Airfield Memorial

The performance of Jim Mageau and Joe Dolock at last week's Town Council meeting was a sufficient cue to start watching the letters to the editor in the Westerly Sun.

And we weren't disappointed! Competing letters by Frank Glista and Jim Mageau in Tuesday's Sun set the tone for things to come.