Colin’s killer goes back to jail

Killer of popular Charlestown man violates probation

By Will Collette

The redlight camera installed at the installation where Laura Reale
committed her crime.

If you’ve watched local TV news in the past few daysyou may have caught the story about Laura Reale, the convicted killer of Colin Foote, a popular local man who was riding his motorcycle through the intersection at Route One and West Beach Road on May 16, 2010. 

She blew her probation and has been sent back to jail (click here for the ProJo’s coverage).

On that day in 2010, Reale was loaded and blew the red light, hitting and killing Colin in full view of his mother and sister who were trailing behind in their car. According to his mother, it took Colin a long and painful hour to die.

It turns out Reale was a habitual traffic offender who cleverly learned how to stay on the road by gaming the system to avoid losing her license, driving either drunk or high, endangering us all…and killing Colin.

As a result of that tragedy, then state Rep. Donna Walsh spearheaded the passage of “Colin’s Law” to close off some of the loopholes Reale and other habitual offenders had used to evade losing their licenses despite terrible driving records.

Reale received a 10-year sentence with 8 to serve plus two years’ probation and a 5-year license suspension. She ended up only serving 5 years. 

At some point after her release from prison, Reale once again started using drugs – opioids, benzodiazepines and marijuana. According to her lawyer, she is currently on methadone.

Reale has also been charged with buying “urine screens” – clean, dope-free urine samples so she could pass drug tests required as part of her probation.

CCA to push another controversial land deal at Monday Town Council meeting

Consequences of one-party rule in Charlestown become more apparent

By Will Collette

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party), an offspring of the now defunct right-wing RI Statewide Coalition, controls every elected position in Charlestown, including the Town Council and Planning Commission.

That makes controversial spending and giveaway deals a whole lot easier to ramrod through, regardless of the merits or the opposition. 

Such was the case last month when the Council approved a raid on the voter-approved Recreation Bond authorization to put a bicycle track no one needs and a playground that no one asked for into Ninigret Park.

Next Monday, May 14, the CCA-controlled Council will hold a hearing on a plan to spend $600,000 in taxpayer money for a nice, but not all that special piece of land which will be added to Charlestown’s already bloated stock of open space.

The Charlestown Land Trust (CLT), a private non-profit organization in no way part of town government, secured a matching grant from the state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) for $258,750. The CCA claims the CLT is “donating” this money to the town of Charlestown, so the town should spend another $341 thousand or so to acquire this property.

The DEM would hold a conservation easement on the property and so would the CLT. This is similar to the wheeling and dealing done by the CCA Party and the Land Trust in 2012 when they tried, unsuccessfully, to scam taxpayers into buying the derelict YMCA camp on Watchaug Pond for an inflated price and dubious purpose.

This land deal doesn’t rise to the level of the 2012 Y-Gate scandal, even though there are many similarities.

The property is owned by the Sprague family through their Back Road Holdings LLC. For sale is 27 acres from two lots in Carolina with some frontage on the Pawcatuck. The family plans to retain a section of the land that fronts onto Carolina Back Road.

The two lots are currently assessed at $497,100 and that includes the portion that is not for sale, so let’s figure its tax value is roughly $450,000. According to the appraisal done for the Charlestown Land Trust, the property in the sales offer is worth $517,500 – see for yourself, HERE, at page 10.

But the price we are told we must pay – take it or leave and do it NOW – is $600,000. That’s $150,000 less than the town assessed value and $82,500 less than the Land Trust’s own appraisal. 

Based on the town assessment, we are being asked to pay 33% more than the land is worth; if you use the higher CLT appraisal, the asking price is 16% more than it’s worth.

But wait, sez the CCA Party! It’s a bargain too good to pass up!

And why is it a bargain? Well, first, the Land Trust is “donating” all that money. The CCA is referring to the $258,750 in state taxpayers’ money from DEM – that’s OUR own money – so they can tap the town for another $341,000. 

It’s NOT a donation. It’s a matching grant. And all of it is OUR money, taxpayer money, not the Land Trust’s or the CCA's.

According to the CCA, buying the land means 19 houses won’t be built on the land. Because Back Road Holdings LLC had plans drawn up for a subdivision with 19 houses, they panicked, assuming that in this mushy real estate market, 19 houses would actually get built. The CCA Party makes a lot of assumptions like that. 

I’m more inclined to see the resemblance to the Whalerock property deal where the town spent beaucoup money ($2.1 million) to block a wind turbine project that probably wasn’t going to be built anyway.

CCA thinks children are parasites

As the CCA Party sees it, you can assume that any property NOT locked up as open space automatically becomes high-density housing developments. 

Those high-density housing developments automatically attract young families with lots of Chariho school-aged children. 

Those Chariho kids will automatically spend the rest of their lives going to school at taxpayers’ expense because apparently children in Charlestown never complete schools to begin lives as productive, tax-paying adults.

Those are the assumptions behind the CCA Party’s bizarre, anti-family theory which is part of their sales pitch for this land deal. If you think I’m making this up or exaggerating, read it HERE on the CCA Party website.

The CCA Party’s novel economic theory, hatched by Planning Commissar Ruth Platner and her hubby Cliff Vanover, is that the more land you set aside as open space, the lower the tax rate due to their auto-rug-rat theory about development, families, children and schools.

Ruth and Cliffie have had eight years to test this theory in Charlestown. Let's review how it's worked out.

Consider how much of the land is locked up under federal, state and town ownership, exempt due to ownership by non-profits or religious organizations or tax-favored under conservation easements or the FFOS program that conserves farm, forest and open space.

The Interior Department's map shows that way over 50% of
Charlestown is already locked up for conservation. The yellow
lines indicate the area the feds are considering for the new
wildlife refuge.

And that ain’t all. The US Interior Department is looking to create a new Great Thicket National Wildlife Refuge to protect the habitat of the eastern cottontail bunny. Their plan calls for acquiring up to 3,200 acres of land, mostly centered on Charlestown for the new refuge.

If you look at the Fish & Wildlife’s map, included with the plan, note the brown and green areas on that map to see the amount of land in Charlestown currently set aside for conservation. The town now has more than 50% (probably more like +60%) of its land locked up.

Now imagine another few thousand acres taken off the tax base and ask yourself, “where will the town’s revenue come from?”

SCREEN SHOT from the Charlestown Tax
Assessor's webpage on the town website.

Even though Charlestown has taken more and more land off the tax base to exclude families with children from moving to town, our property tax rate has increased each and every single year since 2008 when the CCA Party seized control of town government.

We went from $7.16 in 2008 to $10.11 per $1000 of assessed value this year. That’s an increase of 41%!

If the evidence of your own tax bill isn’t enough to debunk the Platner-Vanover “Kids Are Parasites” Theory, there’s a Bryant University study that carefully studied –and shredded - their theory’s core premise (click here to read it).

The actual land in question is hardly someplace unique and special. See for yourself. The CCA Party and the Land Trust produced a little 3-minute video that presumably casts the property in the best possible light. However, to me, it looked like typical moraine property.

But the Conservation Commission thinks the land would be OK for passive recreation. The Parks & Recreation Commission also signed off. 

I think Charlestown taxpayers need to weigh in on the cost, which instead of being $600,000, should be somewhere around $500,000.

And someone has to say it: how much more of this town’s land can be set aside as open space before the bottom falls out of our tax base?

The official Town Council meeting agenda follows with my snarky comments in Bold Red.

Town Council preview

Monthly drama set to be staged to ratify decisions already made

By Will Collette

The Charlestown Town Council meets again on Monday night. Not that it matters for all that much. Given that the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) holds every seat, as well as every seat on the Planning Commission and all but one on the Zoning Board of Review (plus their seats on miscellaneous and sundry town commissions), the Council meeting simply makes public that which has already been decided.

The real seat of power is the CCA Steering Committee which consists of Town Council President Tom Gentz, Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, and husband and lead CCA Party player on Zoning Cliff Vanover, other town big-wigs plus three out-of-state residents (fitting, because 60% of the CCA Party’s funding comes from out of state). 

They meet in private at undisclosed locations at secret dates and times and there, they make Charlestown’s decisions. However, they may have accidentally disclosed the date of their most recent streering committee meeting - see screen shot, above, from the CCA Party website.

But the show must go on. At the Monday meeting, the Council will hear and rubber-stamp whatever the Ad Hoc bicycle committee, run by CCA co-founder Faith LaBossiere.

They will look at transportation priorities that consist of where the next road improvement projects will take place (e.g. finishing the repaving of Route 1). While that’s fine, Charlestown is still one of the few Rhode Island communities completely without public transportation.

They will discuss a new town ordinance that will tell you exactly where and how you must display your address numbers at the front of your property. E.g. make sure the numbers are right side up, no Roman numerals, no neon, etc.

They will discuss two items relating to quarries – control of blasting and general regulation – where they plan to send stalwart “independent” Republican-Libertarian state Rep. Blake “Flip” Filippi back to the General Assembly to ask the legislature for approval to do that which is already within the town’s power. But since it allows the CCA Party leaders to claim they are doing something without actually doing anything, that’s a win in the making for the CCA Party. After all, the appearance of activity is far more important than actual achievement.

Then they will bloc vote approval of an array of items listed under the “consent agenda.” The Consent Agenda are generally items deemed non-controversial and not worth debating, so they are voted on without discussion. They include permits for gun shops, Charlestown’s only growth industry, reports, events, small purchases, etc.

Frankly, the entire agenda is really a “Consent Agenda.”

Here is the official agenda as published by the town with links to supporting documents.

Charlestown red light cameras will now issue actual tickets

After three years delay, cameras are now fully functional

By Will Collette

Cameras to catch drivers who run red lights are widespread nationwide and always controversial. There are those who believe they invade the privacy rights of motorists while they are breaking the law and endangering the lives of other drivers. 

There are others, like me, who think the cameras are one tool to help cut down on roadway vehicular homicide. In my view, there is no expectation of privacy when you use your driver’s license to drive your state-registered car down a publicly-funded roadway…and break the law, putting innocent people at risk.

Charlestown’s Colin Foote was killed at the intersection of Route One and West Beach Road in 2010 when Laura Reale, a habitual traffic offender, ran the red light. That sparked an effort to secure a contract to install red light cameras in Charlestown, a deal that costs the taxpayers nothing but might help to save lives through deterrence and punishment.

In 2012, the Town Council heard from two bidders and chose the worst one, Sensys, on the basis of false claims by the sales rep that the company was “Rhode Island based” and knew the area. They made this decision even though I provided the town with records showing that Sensys was a Swedish company with its US headquarters in Miami. It was a dead giveaway that Sensys was going to have trouble meeting their own hype when the Sensys sales rep got lost on his way to the Charlestown Town Hall and couldn’t get his Power Point presentation to work.

Killer released, quarry bills pass, Weidman’s future, ticks, nukes (again) and lots more

Another steaming plate of Charlestown Tapas
By Will Collette

More more Mutts cartoons by Patrick McConnell, CLICK HERE

 Colin Foote’s killer released from prison

LauraReale, habitual traffic offender and drunk driving killer, has been released from prison after serving four years of an eight year sentence for killing Charlestown’s Colin Foote in 2010 when she ran the red light at West Beach and Route One and struck down Colin on his motorcycle.

Colin Foote was 27. His mother was in a car following right behind and saw her son get killed. She and Colin’s father formed ColinsLaw.org which worked closely with former state Rep. Donna Walsh (D) for stricter traffic safety laws.

The site of Colin’s death is now covered by a set of red light enforcement cameras. Those cameras, due to a variety of problems the town’s contractor can’t seem to handle are STILL not able to issue tickets to violators.

Pleasant Surprise, with an unsurprising twist

Charlestown picked the incompetent one, not the crook

Red Light Camera Exec Admits To Bribery of Public Officials

By Nathaniel Downes

Editor’s note: when Charlestown was shopping for a contractor to provide the town with a risk-free system of red light enforcement cameras, the subject of this article, RedFlex, was one of two bidders. 

To me, RedFlex seemed more competent than the contractor chosen primarily by Town Council Boss Tom Gentz, Sensys. He chose Sensys because he believed – wrongly and against evidence to the contrary – that Sensys was a Rhode Island company.

That was three years ago and today, we have a red light camera system that has not generated a nickel in revenue either for Sensys or for Charlestown. Why? Because this Swedish company with a Florida headquarters has no clue how to do business in Rhode Island. Click here for more detail on our problems with Sensys.

But their competitor RedFlex apparently has a different business model as you will see as you read on. I wonder if they tried it in Charlestown. – W. Collette

Over the past decade or so, unless you’ve been a pedestrian, it is highly probable that you’ve encountered intersection red light cameras. They have grown in use dramatically since New York City implemented the nations first system in 1993. Originally touted for safety, instead Red Light cameras have become nothing but cash machines for city and state authorities.

Now, it has been admitted that Redflex, one of the nation's largest red light camera companies, bribed public officials in return for implementing red light camera systems in their towns. In a release issued Friday, the prosecutors pursuing the case against Redflex executives and agents, revealed that the former CEO of Redflex, Karen Finley, has pled guilty to charges of bribery.

Rumble strip rumblings

Will Route One get rumble strips whether we want – or need – them?

By Will Collette

Route One paving (from the Charlestown Police Facebook page)

Based on the long list of people who have submitted comments to the Charlestown Town Council and who will probably want to speak at the Monday, June 8 Council meeting, Charlestown has itself another hot issue – rumble strips along Route One.

Rumble strips are those annoying strips of concrete (or grooves in the asphalt) that line some roadways to make a jarring noise whenever a distracted or sleepy driver runs over them. Sometimes, they simply function as a guide to keep you within a lane, like those installed at many turn-arounds along Route One. They are loud on purpose to jolt the driver who crosses them.

That’s exactly what the fuss was about when RIDOT installed them along Carolina Back Road north of the junction with Route 2. Local residents complained about the jarring noises that sometimes woke them up at night. Those rumble strips were installed because the federal rural road money for the repaving job came with the mandate to install rumble strips.

On February 23, there was a special Town Council meeting with DOT for residents to air grievances. According to the minutes, DOT explained the Carolina Back Road strips were installed to comply with the High Risk Rural Road funding and there was some data to support the need. The question is whether the right kind of strips were installed.

But now, DOT is considering whether to install more rumble strips along Route 1 in Charlestown, even though there is no federal mandate to do so. I’ve gotten a lot of reaction from readers who oppose installation of the rumble strips along Route 1.

This is your teen's brain behind the wheel

Good thing we have red light cameras (too bad they don’t work)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Science Daily

A new study of teenagers an d their moms reveals how adolescent brains negotiate risk -- and the factors that modulate their risk-taking behind the wheel.

In the study, reported in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 14-year-old subjects completed a simulated driving task while researchers tracked blood flow in their brains. 

Red Light Cameras and red faces

Dim prospects for road safety program

After three years, contractor picked by CCA Party Councilors still can't figure out how to make its system work

By Will Collette

This is the camera covering the southbound lane of Route One at West
Beach Road (photo by Will Collette)

Whether you know it or not, Charlestown has two operational camera systems on Route One designed to catch motorists running the red lights at East Beach and West Beach Roads. Those four sets of cameras at the two intersections went “live” on January 6. The plan was to issue warnings for the first two weeks (until January 20) and then issue $85/no points tickets.

However, in the nearly three months between January 6 and April 1, not one single ticket has been issued to an offender and not a penny in fines has been collected.

As of April 1, according to Charlestown Police Chief Jeffrey Allen, 52 warnings have been issued to owners of vehicles filmed running a red light at one of those two intersections. These warnings carry no fine or points. In addition, that averages out to only one red-light violation roughly every 36 hours and that's way, way off of Sensys's predictions.

Chief Allen reports that the town’s contractor for the system, Florida-based Sensys USA, has had “some technical issues with the courts and RITT [RI Traffic Tribunal] approval” so no tickets are being issued.

A different take on red-light cameras

We Are Winning One Battle Against “the Man”

By Wendy Gittleson

If you’re even somewhat engaged in the less-than-mainstream news, it’s difficult to crack open a laptop without reading about how this country is becoming a police state and the evidence is strong, especially if you are a person of color.

One big problem is the amount of surveillance law abiding citizens are subjected to every single day. While the numbers of cameras on street corners are increasing, one type of camera is becoming less prevalent: traffic cameras.

The traffic cam programs, despite accomplishing all of the goals of law enforcement, including fatal crashes and yes, revenue, are very unpopular with the people and we are letting politicians know and in turn, they are slowly disappearing.

CPD reports the red light cameras are FINALLY working

For the first two weeks, violators will receive warnings

By Will Collette

After a two and a half year delay, Charlestown's two sets of red-light enforcement cameras finally started operating Tuesday morning at 10 AM.

Charlestown Police Chief Jeffrey Allen says that “Tony Ruscito [contractor Sensys America rep] informed me that the red light cameras are up and running.  As per the original program the first two weeks will be a warning period.” That warning period will run until the 20^th of January.

These are two sets of cameras that will film cars running red lights while going either north or south on Route One at the intersections with East Beach Road and West Beach Road. During the warning period, vehicles caught on camera will get a warning. After that, violators will receive $85 tickets.

The Red Light Cameras are NOT operating….yet

Glitches stall launch

The cameras may be high-tech, but they can't see through trees
I took the photo over a month ago.

By Will Collette

Despite the best of plans by the Charlestown Police Department – and the premature and totally false report from the ever-accurate Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA Party) website - Charlestown’s long-anticipated red-light cameras are not operating.

Charlestown's official website is also running the wrong information. 

The camera units, covering Route One north and south at the intersections of East Beach and West Beach Roads, were supposed to go on line on October 24, with warning notices sent to violations. The system was supposed to go fully operational – with $85 tickets issued to violators – on November 9.

I noticed that there were two problems with the system – one was tree branches blocking the view of at least one unit and the other was the lack of permanent warning signs at the approach to each of the covered intersections. So I asked CPD Chief Jeff Allen if indeed the system had gone live and, if so, what the preliminary results are.

Lame Duck’s last quack, phoniness is not illegal and other Charlestown news bits

Charlestown Tapas

By Will Collette

Town Council meets on Monday for lame-duck session

Count on Joe Quadrato to light the way

The Charlestown Town Council holds its final session before giving way to the new all-CCA Party Council members who were elected on November 4. This will be farewell to Councilors Paula Andersen (D), Lisa DiBello and CCA’s Dan Slattery.

The agenda for this upcoming meeting is fairly light. One of the “highlights” will be for the Council to complete the CCA Party take-over of the Zoning Board of Review through the expected appointment of Joe “Bright Lights” Quadrato as a full member of the Zoning Board of Review. 

Quadrato is a member of the CCA Party Steering Committee and one of their major money fund-raisers, according to sources.

As part of my announced pull-back[1] from Charlestown politics, I plan to put less effort into covering the Town Council. Not much point, since the Charlestown Citizens Alliance now holds every elected position in Charlestown and all the levers of power. They can do any damned foolish thing they want with no one in Charlestown to stop them. RI Superior Court is going to get a whole lot busier.

You can look up the agenda for yourself on Clerkbase.

Filippi claim that his “RI Liberty Coalition” was a fake organization is upheld

Filippi - phony or fanatic? Both?

The RI Ethics Commission dismissed my complaint against State Representative-elect Blake Filippi (or is that Fake Bilippi?) that he failed to list his directorship of the extremist Tenther group, the RI Liberty Coalition, on his ethics disclosure form.

After I filed my complaint, Filippi’s principal defense was that the RI Liberty Coalition was not actually an organization since it only consisted of himself. This is similar to the way that Chariho School Committee member-elect Ron Areglado carries a non-existent organization, the Center for Ethical and Moral Leadership, on his resume.

It is not against the law for a candidate to make up phony organizations and not a legal requirement to report these fake organizations on official reports, such as the annual financial disclosure form. Accordingly, the Ethics Commission ruled that the RI Liberty Coalition was not a “business entity” (non-profit or otherwise) under the meaning of the Act. Click here to read their decision letter.

There's just so much about this guy that doesn't check out - where he really lives and why he gives so many different addresses, his radical connections, his opposition to Social Security and environmental regulation based on his Tenth Amendment beliefs (yet he pretends to care about the Copar quarry victims and about taxes on retirees), his company's labor law violations. I am wondering if it's time to start asking him to crack out his birth certificate.

Quarries on the move in Westerly

Red light camera conspiracy theorists on the job

Uber-extremist wave about to hit Charlestown

By Will Collette

Progressive Charlestown was included on the long list of recipients of the e-mail below from a group calling itself the National Motorists Association. They are a Wisconsin-based group with a non-profit arm that raised almost a quarter million dollars in the most recent tax year.

Based on their website, it appears they are dedicated to protecting drivers’ constitutional right to speed, run red-lights, drink and drive and otherwise endanger the rest of us. I guess they'd call that freedom.

Their single largest expense, $128,585 or more than 50% of their revenue, was spent on activities that are only labeled as “other” in their IRS-990 tax report. Much of their income - $197,838 – comes from advertising and from selling stuff. They run ads for lawyers who defend against driving charges and for radar detectors.

They originally formed to lobby against the national 55 mph speed limit. They have fought Mothers Against Drunk Driving over the years and have sought to discredit statistics showing the link between drunk driving and traffic deaths.

So naturally, they are go-to experts for local wing-nuts who are up in arms about Charlestown’s new red light cameras. 

Here is their letter.

UPDATED: Things you should know about red light cameras in Charlestown

CPD Chief Allen answers questions about how enforcement will work

By Will Collette

Red light cameras are really coming to Charlestown. They have been installed at Route One and the intersections of East Beach Road and West Beach Road. They should be going live just after Halloween.

Charlestown Police Chief Jeffrey Allen responded to some questions I sent him so you will have the facts on how the traffic enforcement cameras  will work.

Whether you’re like me and think they will help deter the dangerous practice of red-light running or like the many anonymous commenters on the CCA Party’s website who think they are a sign of creeping socialism, these cameras are here.

According to Chief Allen in an October 6 e-mail, “Sensys [the town’s contractor] is telling me that it will be approx. 14 to 21 days before the cameras are up and running.   They are waiting for some additional tree trimming, etc.”

In my earlier article, I noted that three of the camera units are partially obscured by tree limbs.

The town will give residents fair warning and a chance to get adjusted. Chief Allen says:

"I plan on putting something on PD and Town websites. There will be warning signs posted prior to the intersections….[and] There will be a 15 day period where warnings will be issued.” 

CLICK HERE for CPD's new info-sheet on red-light cameras. According to this flyer, enforcement will go live on November 9. UPDATE: there is a TYPO in the CPD brochure listing the start date as November 9, 2015. The November 9 date is correct, but it's November 9, 2014.

Chief Allen described how the cameras will work:

Red light cameras are HERE! (Almost)

Get ready for new enforcement measures against red-light running

By Will Collette

FIND THE RED-LIGHT CAMERA BOX IN THIS PICTURE of the southbound lane of Route One at West Beach Road. Click on "click here to read more" to see where it is.

Over the past several days, work crews finally started to install the long-delayed traffic cameras at two of Charlestown’s four stop-light protected intersections – Route One at East Beach Road and at West Beach Road. There are two cameras at each intersection to cover both directions of traffic.

Most of the basic hardware was in by October 3, though the camera boxes are far from operational and actually seem to be empty. All four units are very hard to spot as you are approaching the intersection they will cover once operational. 

The idea of installing the cameras in Charlestown was spurred by the May 2010 killing of 27-year old Colin Foote of Charlestown right at that West Beach-Route One intersection. He was hit by Laura Reale who ran the light and hit Colin broadside. His mother was following behind Colin in a car. Reale, a multiple traffic offender, was sentenced to serve eight years of a ten year sentence.

Former Chief Jack Shippee started looking into cameras for Charlestown and found there were systems that could be installed at no cost to the town – the vendor would be paid from ticket revenue with the possibility of some extra revenue coming to Charlestown. But the Chief told me the reason he supported cameras was to deter red-light running, not the potential revenue.

The legions of anonymous commenters on the Charlestown Citizens Alliance official website – I call them the “Voices of Greed” – went nuts. The CCA Party posted dozens of comments attacking red-light cameras as everything from, as one person wrote “harbingers of failed socialism” to spawn of Satan. 

Charlestown Tapas

Thirteen quick takes for busy readers

By Will Collette

Tight race in neighboring district decided by absentee ballots

Kathy Fogarty and her family

As the cliche goes, "every vote counts." That cliche was proven again in the House district that bumps right up against the Charlestown-South Kingstown line.

House curmudgeon Rep. Spencer Dickinson (D) has lost his primary battle to continue to represent House District 35 next door in South Kingston. Dickinson lost in an encore of their 2012 primary fight to former South Kingstown Town Councilor Kathy Fogarty.

On election night, Dickinson was ahead of Fogarty by ten votes. However, after all the mail-in and other ballots were counted, Dickinson lost his ten vote lead and was beaten by Fogarty by 34 votes.

Charlestown Tapas

Fourteen Fifteen quick takes for busy readers

By Will Collette

Where are the red light cameras?

I passed along a Channel 10 report over a month ago that said Charlestown’s long-delayed red light cameras for the intersections of Route One and East Beach and Route One and West Beach would be up and running by the end of August. 

They weren’t, plus there was no sign that the town’s contractor was doing anything to install them.

So I asked Town Administration Mark Stankiewicz wuzzup with the system and, on September 5 he said via e-mail:

“In regards to your inquiry, the best information I have is Sensys America will have the roadside equipment installed within a week. Sensys is also waiting on National Grid to connect the electric lines. The “best guess” is the system will be operational in approximately 2-4 weeks.”

Jobs

The Tomaquag Museum in Exeter is looking to hire a Marketing Associate to start work on October 1. The application deadline is September 19. Click here for details or contact director Loren Spears.

South County Community Action here in Charlestown is looking for a Special Needs/Mental Health Coordinator to work in their Head Start program. Sorry for the short deadline – September 10. Click here for details or send a cover letter and resume to jsimone@sccainc.org ASAP.

If you’re looking for work, you should sign up for daily e-mails from RI Community Jobs, a project of Brown University’s Swearer Center. Click here.

DEM is hiring 20 to 30 seasonal workers to staff the state parks, campgrounds and Goddard Park golf course this fall. They are hiring now and the jobs will run up to November 30. 

Charlestown Tapas

News nuggets for the insatiably curious

By Will Collette

Charlestown says it fixed open records problem but...

On August 5, I reported that an audit done on compliance by RI’s 39 cities and towns with the state’s open records law put Charlestown on the list of six non-comply towns. The audit looked to see if municipalities had the required trained individual registered with the State Attorney General as the person responsible for managing town records.

The issue of who has custody of Charlestown’s records came up a year ago when Town Clerk Amy Weinreich claimed she no longer had custody of the town’s lawsuit records and that only Town Solicitor Peter Ruggiero had those records. Ruggiero claimed he was not subject to the state open records law because, he said, he was not a town employee.

The Attorney General’s office ruled against Charlestown and specifically against Ruggiero’s claim that he was not subject to the open records law. Charlestown’s Town Charter designates only the Town Clerk as the official custodian of town records.

On August 1, I asked Town Clerk Weinreich and Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz to comment on the audit’s finding that Charlestown was out of compliance with the requirement to train and register a specific individual as responsible for records. Neither of them responded.

However, Stankiewicz told the Westerly Sun that Amy Weinreich had taken the proper training and that “it was a matter that the attorney general was not officially notified.”

According to the Sun, Linda Lotridge Levin, president of ACCESS/RI, which conducted the audit, criticized that answer. She said it was “troubling” that a town employee would take the training but fail to fill out to form to confirm that they complied with the training requirement. The Sun quoted Ms. Levin as raising this question:

“If they have neglected that requirement, how confident can the public be about their implementation of the substantive provisions of APRA when dealing with formal requests for records?”

That, based on my direct experience, is the key question.

Red light cameras due within the month?

Channel Ten recently broadcast a story that featured Robin and Maryanne Foote, parents of Charlestown’s Colin Foote who was tragically killed by a red-light runner in May 2010. The station reported that Charlestown’s long-delayed cameras to catch red-light runners were finally going to be installed “within the month.”

Charlestown Tapas

State Senate nail-bitter, and other tasty tidbits

By Will Collette

Cameron Ennis – despite break from BOE, still might not make the ballot

Cameron Ennis of Charlestown, a newly minted lawyer, filed his declaration to run as an independent against first-term incumbent state Senator Catherine Cool Rumsey. Apparently Ennis forgot to read the candidates’ rule book published by the Secretary of State and collected signatures on his Nomination petition without regard to where the signer lives.

The rulebook says each town within a district must be on a separate page so that the signatures can be turned in to the Town Clerk in each municipality – e.g. Charlestown signatures go to Charlestown, Richmond to Richmond, etc. Ennis simply turned in all of his 100 signatures to Charlestown Town Hall, thinking Town Clerk Amy Weinreich would take of this for him.

Wrong. Charlestown only validated the Charlestown signatures – 49 of them – leaving Ennis 51 signatures short of the required 100. Ennis appealed to the state Board of Elections and the BOE decided to cut him a break, even though he failed to follow the rules. They gave him an extra 72 hours to get his signatures from the other towns validated by the other towns.