PFAS Exposure Compensation under the VET PFAS Act 2023

Charlestown old Naval Auxiliary Air Field was site of heavy use

By Jonathan Sharp 

There are still many toxic hot spots left behind by the Navy.
Those acres are now covered by Ninigret Park and the
Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) through the Vet PFAS Act 2023 now makes veterans and their families exposed to PFAS eligible for compensation and free medical care. This act eliminates the previous requirement to demonstrate a direct link between PFAS exposure and negative health outcomes. 

However, across the country, there are thousands of contaminated sites, many of which exceed new limits reported by the Environment Agency. One of these sites is Rode Island’s Charlestown Naval Auxiliary Landing Field, home to approximately 2000 people, who are now on the daily exposed to PFAS as a result of past military activities.

To date, members of the general public can only receive compensation for PFAS exposure following class action lawsuits, and the mere presence of PFAS in the blood is not enough to guarantee compensation.

Rhode Island’s Charlestown Naval Auxiliary Landing Field

The former Charlestown Naval Auxiliary Landing Field (CNALF) sits on 630 acres in Foster Cove and Ninigret Pond. Owned by the U.S. States Navy up to the 1970s, the area was later divided between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Town of Charlestown.

On the 230 acres granted to Charlestown, numerousmilitary exercises were conducted in the past, including fire drills using per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under the form of Aqueous Film film-forming foam (AFFF), and other perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) chemicals. As these chemicals are highly dangerous to human health and have a high persistence in the environment, the whole area is under investigation by the U.S. Environment Agency.

This is not a singular case in the U.S. as over 720 military sites across the country are known to have been contaminated with PFAS, or the so-called forever chemicals. In total, the U.S. Environment Agency reports over 7400 contaminated water sites related to military activities or commercial activities.

Could Nuclear Energy Power the Ocean State?

Given its history, SHOULD it?

By Colleen Cronin / ecoRI News staff

The nuclear reactor at URI's Bay Campus was built in 1960.
For more than 50 years it has provided data to researchers and students.
(RI.gov)

As Rhode Island tries to reach its climate goals, the discussions of solar panels and wind turbines are starting to include another carbon-free energy source: nuclear power.

Anti-wind power advocates have offered it as an alternative to ocean wind farms — which have come under fire after a blade at a wind farm off Nantucket failed this summer — while power brokers, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former Secretary of State John Kerry, are suggesting it might be the most efficient way to get to carbon neutral.

Fears around this type of energy, which does not produce carbon emissions but has caused several deadly catastrophes, including one in Rhode Island 60 years ago, has prevented development of nuclear power plants over the past several decades.

But improvements in technology and a push to decarbonize could make nuclear more pervasive, though obstacles still remain before large-scale nuclear power could come to Rhode Island.

Rhode Island already has one nuclear reactor, but like the state itself, it’s small. It’s a research reactor on the University of Rhode Island’s Bay Campus.

Built in the 1960s, the reactor was originally constructed to test different materials’ vulnerability to radiation, according to Clinton Chichester, chair of the Rhode Island Atomic Energy Commission, which oversees the reactor.

Today, the reactor is largely used for engineering and medical research.

Early voting, mail-in ballots start this week amid confusing ballots for Charlestown voters

Mixed up Council listings and 11 Charter revision questions make it hard to make informed choices

By Will Collette

If you are a Charlestown voter, you face a daunting challenge of figuring out how to make intelligent decisions in the face of a ballot that doesn’t really tell you what you need to know.

Two sections of the ballot are especially cumbersome: (1) the Town Council race and (2) the 11 proposed revisions to the Charlestown Town Charter. Today, we’ll deal with the Council.

The Town Council

Who’s who among the ten candidates for Town Council? The 10 are evenly split between five Charlestown Residents United (CRU) candidates and five Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) candidates.

Several factors make your choice harder. First, you won’t see the CRU or CCA labels on any of the candidates. The CRU and CCA are both PACs with radically different visions for Charlestown.

After losing power in 2022, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) broke its longstanding promise to run its candidates strictly as independents. All their newcomers are running either as Republicans or Democrats even though none of them have any actual connection to either party’s town committee.

Neither the Republican nor Democratic Town Committees made candidate endorsements in time to affect ballot placement, leaving the individual placement to a lottery.

In other words, a mishmash. Sometimes well-placed campaign signs can help with such confusion. This year, I’m afraid both the CRU and CCA wasted their money. Their signs are similar in appearance and crowded-with lists of names that are almost unreadable to passing motorists.

The mailers are somewhat more helpful because at least you can see the names of the officially endorsed candidates though the effect is diminished by the excruciating amount of detail crammed into each mailer.

In Charlestown, party labels (i.e. D versus R) matter less than CRU versus CCA. There are sharp differences on important issues between the two political committees that should guide your choice.

The Big Issues

Let’s review.

The tax rates from 2011 to 2023 show a steady rise
under the CCA. Source: Charlestown Tax Assessor.

Taxes. Everyone’s favorite. The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) claims to be the party of low taxes. Their record shows the contrary. Under ten years of CCA rule, Charlestown’s tax rate grew steadily and the actual tax paid by households increased as the CCA siphoned off town money to make shady land deals, allowed town municipal costs to climb to the highest in the state, and strangled small business growth.

In the two years since Charlestown Residents United (CRU) ousted the CCA from power, the tax rate is down. So is the actual tax residents have had to pay.

NOTE: To get much more detailed analysis of Charlestown taxes, financial management and the differences between the CRU and the CCA on these subjects, CLICK HERE. I include links backing up each detail as well as to the state Auditor General who supported my assertations that the CCA messed up the money and the CRU has been effectively fixing it. 

Town Financial Management. This was the major factor that led to the CCA’s defeat in 2022. They messed up the money. They misplaced $3 million for almost two years, ran up a huge deficit, and, instead of fixing the problems, they spent the past two years denying the problems existed, blaming the messenger and mourning the departure of the individual town officials most responsible for the problems.

According to the Rhode Island Auditor General, the CRU wiped out the CCA deficit, reduced town debt by 25%, reduced expenses by $1.5 million, increased town savings by 17% and improved pension funding. These are hard, documented facts showing a remarkable turnaround in town finances under the CRU’s leadership.

Charlestown Economy. The CCA covers its fanatical devotion to expanding open space by claiming this is good for tourism and, by extension, the town economy. They’re fine with Charlestown perking up on Memorial Day and then dying on Labor Day.

No matter how tasty, burgers are not
the key to Charlestown's prosperity

While tourism does boost seasonal businesses, it forces Charlestown to pay for a bloated infrastructure designed to handle a summer population that triples the town’s size. What jobs are created are low wage with no benefits and held by folks who can’t afford to live here. That’s really all the CCA’s got on the economy. If you don’t believe me, check the town Comprehensive Plan, hand-crafted by CCA leader Ruth Platner.

The CCA still uses Planning and Zoning to torture small businesses. Because of CCA restrictions, Route One still remains our Boulevard of Broken Dreams with its array of empty businesses.

For a preview of what a new CCA term of power would do to small business, check out their new “Design Standards.” If the CCA regains power, these micro-managed minutiae will become law and further destroy small business. The CRU by contrast, blocked Planning Commissar Ruth Platner (now a Town Council candidate) from making these “standards” an ordinance.

The Environment. The CCA claims supremacy on all matters environmental, but do their claims pan out? They claim they are responsible for Charlestown’s dark sky, yet they diddled for years on a draconian but unenforceable anti-light ordinance when they could have gotten much better lighting compliance by helping businesses and residences convert to low-impact lighting.

They added some more open space even though more than 60% of Charlestown land is a protected from development. Many of the CCA’s land deals were with insiders, mainly CCA supporters, and nearly all at way over assessed value and even land that was already classified as open space. Despite their open space zeal, the CCA bitterly opposed, and tried to block Frank Glista from selling 20 acres to the state Water Resources Board as a protected water resource.

The CCA concocted multiple fake issues about Ninigret Park conflating plans to provide temporary portable lights at the field behind Town Hall to allow Peewee Football to go a couple more hours in the fall into a major crisis. The CCA forecast such lights would shut down the Frosty Drew Observatory and trigger the federal government to take back Ninigret Park. Utter nonsense.

For more examples of the way the CCA fakes some issues and generally pumps up issues beyond recognition, read “Fear and Loathing in Charlestown Politics” by clicking HERE.

The CCA has shown little interest in any other environmental issue other than open space. They routinely ignored hazardous waste problems, especially at Ninigret Park dating back to the decommissioned Ninigret Naval Air Field. They effectively banned all wind power, even small residential units. They botched the fight against the Copar Quarry and even allowed the mob-connected owners to acquire a second quarry in Charlestown.

They claim they are leaders in the climate change fight, even though they have done nothing, other than to claim credit. Real credit goes to our state Senator, Victoria Gu, and state Representative, Tina Spears, both Democrats, for getting legislative passed and funding for climate resilience.

Charlestown Residents United (CRU) in its two years in office has not caused the environmental disaster predicted by the CCA and, in fact, kept a steady, even hand on environmental matters and clearly states it intends to protect our rural community.

Housing. The CCA has opposed all forms of new housing. Period. They have been tolerant toward some building by rich people in their voter strongholds along the shoreline, but remain adamantly opposed to affordable housing, workforce housing, family housing or senior citizens housing.

Former CCA leader George Tremblay even claimed that building elderly housing will only attract rich senior citizen speculators who will buy affordable senior housing and then flip it as market-rate housing. He based this on a debunked story out of New York City.

The CCA’s primary weapon to block housing has been exclusionary zoning accompanied by nitpicking and delay to drive up costs. Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, now running for Town Council, was the master of exclusionary zoning. She covered her practices by claiming that families with children were a plague because they would cost taxpayers beaucoup cash when the kids attend Chariho, even concocting a mathematical formula to “prove” her thesis.

Charlestown Residents United (CRU) has not been able to overcome Platner’s roadblocks, though a lot hinges on the November election. The CRU’s stated position is to support affordable housing for Charlestown’s “workforce, seniors and adult children.” Getting this done will require the CRU to hold the Council majority and change the majority on the Planning Commission.

Secrecy and cover-ups, panic and alarm. Under the CCA, we saw one shady land deal after another, often overshadowed by fake alarms and outside threats, whether from the Tribe, Amtrak or “others.” Often the truth behind these deals and bogus alarms was uncovered by diligent investigation through the town’s public records.

Stonewall Stankiewicz

The CCA figured out they might get less grief if they had their stooge, ex-Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz “weaponize” the Access to Public Records Act,” RI’s open records law. Starting with “SPAgate,” Stanwiewicz slowed responses to records request to the maximum allowed by the law, used every exemption to withhold records, blacked out vast amounts of text in whatever records were finally released, and charged the maximum fees they could get away with.

The CCA says it is pledged to “provide open, honest, responsible leadership. Their track record says otherwise.

The candidates

Both the CRU and the CCA are running full slates of five candidates for Town Council. Both are a mix of Democrats and Republicans. The only two “independents” are hardline CCA people, the aforementioned Ruth Platner and her puppet, former town Council member Bonnita Van Slyke.

Four of the CRU slate – Deb Carney, Rippy Serra, Steve Stokes and Peter Slom – are already on the Council and have a commendable record as previously discussed. The fifth CRU candidate is well known Breachway Grill restauranteur Craig Marr.

Based on their records, characters and the strength of the CRU’s performance in its first term, they’ve got my vote.

I’ve already given you ample reasons why Ruth Platner is not qualified to serve on the Town Council. Her pal Bonnie Van Slyke holds all the same beliefs, but with an added deficit of consistently making goofy arguments that are filled with lies and nonsense.

I wrote an entire series labeled “Slyke of Hand” devoted to fact-checking and rebutting Van Slyke’s nonsense. CLICK HERE for the final installment.

About the remaining three CCA candidates, to paraphrase Donold Trump, some might be “very fine people,” but all I really know about them is that they were willing to run as CCA candidates while appearing on the ballot under their registered parties, despite having no actual ties to the local Democratic or Republican committees.

I can say this about them: if you run under the CCA label, you are not a free-thinking individual. You must toe the CCA party line, meaning strict obedience to Ruth Platner, or you will be punished.

The CCA set their Politburo style right from the start by purging their first elected Town Council. They won a clear majority but turned on their own people. Why? The CCA Councilors supported wind power development in Charlestown largely because at that time, the CCA was pro-wind, especially their leader Tom Gentz.

But after the Sachem Passage Association made a political deal with Gentz’s partner in crime Dan Slattery to do a 180-degree turn to oppose wind power in the form of the Whalerock wind development, the CCA Council majority couldn’t keep up with the shift. The CCA excommunicated them.

In its second run for power, the CCA ran a brand new slate, led by former wind-supporter but now opponent Tom Gentz and Dan Slattery and ousted all but two of the former CCA apostates.

On those rare occasions when a CCA Council member has failed to obey Platner, they usually come to the next meeting to push for an opposite position. For example, CCA’s Susan Cooper initially voted her common sense to end anti-Indian Joe Larisa’s contract, but at the next meeting, after a trip to the woodshed, Cooper pushed a “Motion to Reconsider” to reverse her own vote and rehire Larisa.

The CCA truly seems to still believe in absolute obedience. When I named names in reporting on the CCA’s financial screw-ups, Van Slyke took to the letters to the editor column of the Westerly Sun to blast me for defaming the reputations of ex-Budget Commission chair Dick Sartor and ex-Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz. By telling the truth.

Van Slyke actually said “One would hope that the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee might put an end to the telling of whoppers such as this one spouted by someone who is a CDTC member.”

That may be the way the CCA operates, but that’s not how it works in a democracy. And that’s the last reason I offer for voting to keep the Charlestown Residents United (CRU) majority.

Toxics, trolls and trucks in Ninigret Park

February 26 Town Council Meeting Preview

By Charlestown Residents United

We've known about hazardous waste left behind by
the Ninigret Naval Air station since at least 1987.
Here is a 2015 map. Much of it is still there.
Current information will be part of the 
Corps of Engineers presentation at the Council meeting.

The Charlestown Town Council will hold their second February meeting on Monday, February 26.

 

First, there will be an executive session meeting, at 6:30 pm, to discuss pending litigation regarding a zoning matter.

 

The regular Council meeting will begin at 7 pm in the Council Chambers. Here are some of the topics that will be of interest:

 

• The Council will discuss, and possibly approve, the agreement with the South County Tourism Council for the placement and maintenance of the Thomas Dambo Trolls artwork in Ninigret Park.
• Consideration and possible approval of Charlestown Craves food truck nights at Ninigret Park on May 9 and June 6.
• The Council will continue the discussion about Special Use Permit changes needed to conform with State law.
• The Council will discuss and possibly approve a resolution requesting the RI General Assembly amend RIGL § 45-24-38- regarding Substandard Lots of Record. Explanatory memos from the Building Official and Town Planner are included in the packet after the draft resolution.

The entire agenda, including the procedure for streaming access, can be viewed here.

 

In 2004, former Charlestown Citizens Alliance President Virginia Wooten chaired a committee to look at toxic waste problems in Ninigret. They issued a 2.5 page long report (you can read it HERE). Above☝, you can see their top recommendation.

There will also be a special meeting in the Town Hall Council Chambers on Thursday, February 29, starting at 6 pm with a presentation from the Army Corps of Engineers concerning an update of the testing and monitoring activity in Ninigret Park and the Environmental Land Use Restrictions (ELUR) proposed to the Town. The meeting packet includes a lot of background information.

Major Sources of PFAS Contamination Identified in Rhode Island - includes Charlestown

Knowing where it is - a good start

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff

 (Photo: Seaside Sustainability Inc./Twitter)

Environmental officials last week identified six major sources of PFAS contamination as part of the state’s first comprehensive investigation into how the substances have impacted drinking water supplies.

The 200-page draft report issued by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management details where and how the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have tainted locations and environments around the state.

The investigation is part of a suite of actions from state officials to respond to the growing number of PFAS detected, as required by a state law passed in 2022. As of July, Rhode Island water systems are required to test their drinking supplies for PFAS and report the results to the state Department of Health (DOH).

According to the latest data from DOH, as of this year 11 water systems have exceeded the state standard of 20 parts per trillion (ppt), with one additional system containing PFAS levels in excess of 70 ppt.

PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” refer to a wide variety of synthetic chemicals that have existed in common household products for decades. From firefighting foam to floor wax to food packaging, PFAS substances can be found in any product that is grease-, stain- or water-resistant.

The chemicals are known for their hardy ability to persist in the environment and inability to break down into further components. It’s their persistence in the environment that’s led to their toxicity; PFAS substances have been linked to several cancers, fertility issues, and developmental delays in children, among other little understood health impacts.

“PFAS are one of the world’s most intractable pollutants, highly complex, and found just about everywhere,” DEM director Terry Gray said in a statement. “This report consolidates important scientific work on the extent of PFAS contamination in Rhode Island.”

DEM identified the following areas as sources of PFAS contamination around the state:

Department of Defense sites: Many locations around the state that have been used by the U.S military, including the Navy and National Guard, have had nearby water supplies test positive for PFAS. The chemicals were often used in aqueous film-foaming foam (AFFF) and in electroplating activities.

Naval Station Newport, singled out as one of the most complex Superfund sites in Rhode Island, was historically used in World War II as a refueling depot for the Navy. A 2.5 million gallon, partially underground tank farm and fire suppression system is the main source of PFAS contamination on the base, according to DEM’s report. Other sites of significant contamination identified include the former Quonset Naval Air Station and Charlestown Auxiliary Landing Field, thanks to their use as sites for fire training and emergency response actions.

Who doesn't like a parade?

 

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.

Charlestown Historical Society's busy summer

Charlestown Historical Society     Schoolhouse & Museum ~ Summer 2022   Dear Members & Friends,   The summer season is upon us and the CHS Museum and 1838 Schoolhouse are open on Friday & Saturday mornings from 10:00 to 12:00. Two new displays have been added this year including original artifacts from the '38 Hurricane and an additional display of the WWII Charlestown Navel Air Field which was a major center for night-fighter training during the war, sending many young pilots off to the South Pacific. Did you know that George H.W. Bush was the youngest pilot to train at the Charlestown Naval Air Field? Come in and see what's new and share your own histories and memories of Charlestown.   Recent photo donations this summer from local family histories almost 100 years in the making are already contributing to new displays and records for the CHS Archive. We thank all who come forward to share and those who visit!   At 19 years of age, George H.W. Bush was the youngest pilot to train at the CNAF.   Construction of this airbase began in the early part of 1943, with enough completed by mid-year to being training and operations. The personal 8-day diary of the '38 Hurricane of Mrs. Marion G. Wilson, owner of the General Stanton Inn from the 1930's through the 1950s. The Inn became the host of the RI Military during Martial Law immediately after the storm.     ‌       Historic Cemetery Care & Conservation   Over the course of the past few months, some much-needed care has been given to some of the aging and broken headstones at the historic Cross' Mills Common Burying Ground.   Pictured here are CHS Cemetery Chair Susan Angelo, and husband, Alan preparing a broken stone to be placed back into its site. Along with CHS member Jeff Burns, who also holds a position on the RI Historic Cemetery Commission, and other members who recently attended an all-day cemetery workshop, great care is given to these projects along with very specific materials necessary to accomplish these restorations.          Resetting the headstone after careful cleaning and preparation of both stone and earth. Final Stage of Restoration       Amos Greene Revolutionary War Encampment   October 22, 2022 10:00 - 4:00     Amos Greene Farm Charlestown, RI     Mark your calendars for October 22, 2022, when once again muskets will be fired in anger as our Patriots and their French allies clash with the British and Loyalists on the historic muster grounds of Charlestown's scenic Amos Greene Farm. Colorful uniforms, musket fire and live fife and drum music will transport you back to the days when Amos Greene prepared to defend his farm. There will be marching and musket drills culminating in a skirmish as the British are driven from the farm.   You can also tour Amos' 1760 homestead, watch displays of Colonial crafts, visit Amos' cemetery, see a working field hospital, learn about soldiers' uniforms and take in a reading of the Declaration of Independence. Bring the whole family and enjoy a picturesque and memorable afternoon. More to come as the time draws near on CHS Facebook!       Visit our website   Email Us   ‌