Lively action at first skim-boarding competition in Charlestown

Organizers hope to do a training camp at the next event

By Will Collette

Photos courtesy of Cheryl Dowdell

It was a nice finish to a new Charlestown event that had a very tense beginning. 

On June 23, Charlestown hosted its first skim-boarding competition under the auspices of the North East Skim Tour (NEST) along a sparsely used stretch of Charlestown’s town beach property, the Town Beach Annex near the Breachway.

That was then, this is now

CCA used to be irate about "secret" meetings, even perfectly legal executive sessions. Now they’re fine with them

By Will Collette

There was a time when the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) claimed to be the champion of open, honest, transparent government. After all, this was their rallying cry when they organized to oppose former Town Council President Jim Mageau (2006-2008).

They even continued to trumpet this cause after they won all five Town Council seats in the November 2008 elections.

Here’s an e-bleat the CCA sent out on June 23, 2009 attacking the Affordable Housing Commission for going into executive session to discuss the acquisition of property next to Town Hall which was then being considered for a new affordable housing complex.

Is There a Y-Gate deal afoot?

What were representatives of the Westerly Y, Charlestown Land Trust and Sonquipaug Association doing in the Town Council Executive Session?

By Will Collette

Sources report sighting several of the key players in the Y-Gate scandal emerging from the Town Council’s closed May 14 Executive Session prior to the belated start of the regular Council session.

Spotted were Westerly YMCA Board Chair Malcolm Makin, Sonquipaug Association leader JoAnne D’Alcomo, and Karen Jarret and Russ Ricci, Charlestown Land Trust President and Treasurer, respectively.

Charlestown moves forward on red-light cameras, but under a caution light

Councilors still nervous the deal is too good to be true

Did their "preferred vendor" SenSys tell the whole truth?

By Will Collette

The May 14 Town Council meeting ended on the last of Council President Boss Tom Gentz’s record-setting string of unforced errors. He was about to adjourn the meeting when several other Council members pointed out that he forgotten about action on the two proposals the town received from vendors interested in setting up red light cameras at the town’s four intersections. See here and here for earlier articles on this topic.

However, the biggest unforced error may be the Town Council selecting one of the bidders, Sensys America, as its “preferred” choice based on a series of mistaken assumptions and possible misrepresentations by SenSys’s representative at the May 9 special Council meeting. 

Updated: The Planning Commission's Blacklist

UPDATED: Planning Commission turns down qualified candidate

Seems like she didn't charge enough, or is it something else?

By Will Collette

An update on this continuing story: at the Monday, May 14 Town Council meeting, the Council approved spending up to $4888 to hire an intern who will do various special projects, including Planning Commission member George Tremblay's pet project - cooking data on affordable housing to prove the state's law isn't working.


Council President Boss Tom Gentz told Town Planner Ashley Hahn-Morris that he wanted Tremblay's project (described in more detail below) to be the intern's top priority. Tremblay describes his plan in much greater detail on the CCA's "Oppressive Charlestown" blog - click here. If you read on and see Tremblay's e-mails on this project, this intern is in for a pretty rough summer.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Last December 7, a months-long struggle over Charlestown’s position on affordable housing came to a head. Throughout much of 2011, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance’s elected town officials, Planning Commissar Ruth Platner and Town Council President Boss Tom Gentz, had been pushing a radical agenda that would have Charlestown lead a mob of rural Rhode Island towns in an effort to repeal the state’s affordable housing law.

Platner’s Planners Plot Power Plunder

New Ordinance #349 proposes more Planning Commission authority over town businesses

By Will Collette

"You Will OBEY"

The Charlestown Town Council proposes one of its biggest power grabs ever since Planning Commissar Ruth Platner made herself Charlestown’s most powerful political figure.

With the dull, innocuous title, “An Ordinance Amending Chapter 218 Zoning, Historic Village District and Development Plan Review,” Platner hopes to assume sweeping powers not only of the area on and around Route 1A, but over non-residential property all over Charlestown.

If you are an owner of “non-residential property,” such as a small business or non-profit (e.g. church, Grange, Fire District), you need to pay careful attention to Ordinance #349, since it will subject you to microscopic, agonizing scrutiny over the future use of your property.

This ordinance is long and detailed, too much to analyze in one sitting, so this is the first of several parts. 

Read the entire proposed Ordinance #349 here. .It comes up for a public hearing and possible Town Council vote on June 11..

In this first installment, we'll cover the section that deals with the "Historic Village District," the area on and around Route 1A, Old Post Road

Town Council follow-up: What’s next for Y-Gate?

Now that the $475,000 for the Y campground is out of the budget, is this out of our hair?

By Will Collette

Charlestown taxpayers narrowly averted having their pockets picked to the tune of $475,000 last Monday night. The Town Council bowed to public opposition and took out the controversial $475,000 expenditure from the town surplus which was to buy a worthless conservation easement from the Charlestown Land Trust who would then buy an over-priced abandoned campground from the Westerly YMCA, primarily for the benefit of a neighboring cluster of vacation homes.

Y-Gate’s prime-mover, Councilor Gregg Avedisian, asked for the funds to be pulled since town lawyers say it would have to go to the voters as a separate ballot item, where it would surely be defeated.

So now what? Is Y-Gate over?

Town Council, the instant review

Y-Gate Scandal, Slattery’s War on Ninigret - the nightmares might be almost over

New battles ahead over Platner power grab and CRAC’d recommendations

Edna Mashl, recipient of the Boston Post Cane as
Charlestown's oldest resident (99)

By Will Collette

The Town Council covered an extraordinary number of agenda items at its May 14 regular meeting. They went through the entire agenda of 675 items and will not need to do a second May meeting after all. So if you had May 21^st penciled into your calendar for the second round, erase it.

There’s a lot to cover – and I will not try to do it all tonight – but here are some biggies:

• Y-Gate. The Council ok’d the Town Budget to go to the voters on June 4 minus the $475,000 the Budget Commission had recommended spending from the budget surplus for the Westerly YMCA’s abandoned campground on Watchaug Pond. If the town taxpayers are going to get stuck with the tab for buying this site, it will have to be done by some other method. This is a major setback for the promoters of this outrageous raid on taxpayer money, but I don’t believe anyone has driven a stake through its heart.

Two ways the Westerly Land Trust is different than the Charlestown Land Trust

Hint: one of them involves money

By Will Collette

At tonight’s Charlestown Town Council meeting (that’s Monday, May 14 at 7 PM), there should be some decision about whether town taxpayers should pay the Charlestown Land Trust $475,000 so they can buy the abandoned, over-priced 27.5 acre Westerly YMCA Camp on Watchaug Pond.

Too bad the Westerly Land Trust wasn’t the one at the core of Y-Gate, because if they were, we might not have such a divisive issue before us.

The “B-List”

In addition to many red-hot major issues, there are lots of other items listed on the under-card

Sometimes, the undercard is better than the main event

By Will Collette

Tonight’s Monday, May 14 Charlestown Town Council meeting is so overloaded, the Council already plans to hold a second meeting next week (May 21).

On tonight's agenda are huge issues like the Town Budget, including “Y-Gate,” the likely denouement of Deputy Dan Slattery’s jihad against the town’s management of Ninigret Park (especially after his spanking by the Sunday Westerly Sun), the first Town Council outing of a major power grab by the Planning Commission, a major affordable housing project, and continuity of town government after Deputy Dan forced the resignation of Town Administrator Bill DiLibero. 

Whew! We will also see honor bestowed on Charlestown’s oldest living resident, at least 16 scheduled speakers and, if all that wasn’t enough, at least a dozen and a half issues that I would lump together as, no offense intended, the Council’s B-List.

Deputy Dan Slattery gets SPANKED by the Westerly Sun

Sun Editorial condemns Slattery's conduct on Ninigret Park

By Will Collette

Today's Westerly Sun carries an important editorial, "Let Parks & Rec Take Care of Park." Click here to read it. Better yet, go and buy a copy so you can cut out the article and frame it as a reminder when Deputy Dan asks you to re-elect him in November.

This editorial dissects the wild and baseless attacks made by CCA Town Council member Deputy Dan Slattery on the town's management of Ninigret Park. 

So much to do, so little time

On the agenda: Y-Gate and the Budget, Deputy Dan's Revised Ninigret Plan, Planning's Power Grab, Charter Changes, the Boston Post Cane and at least 16 speakers

I want MORE!

By Will Collette

Next Monday, May 14, there will be another episode of Charlestown’s long-running soap opera also known as our Town Council. VP Deputy Dan Slattery noted that there are 16 speakers already listed on the agenda and the usual array of contentious issues, so in all likelihood, there will be a second round to the May meeting on May 21^st.

Monday’s meeting will bear only a passing resemblance to the agenda posted on Clerkbase, since most of the agenda items have been juggled to accommodate various speakers and guests. First up, for obvious reasons, will be 99-year old Edith Mashl who will receive the “Boston Post Cane” as Charlestown’s oldest living resident.

Also on the agenda – Deputy Dan’s transmogrified Ninigret Park MOU, a first official look at the Charter Revision Advisory Committee’s final proposals for charter changes, beach passes, the first reading of a major Planning Commission power grab, Pat Anderson’s contract as acting Town Administrator and the formation of a search committee for a permanent (well, as permanent as usual) Administrator, the Edwards Lane affordable housing project, the police officers’ contract, and a bunch of other stuff.

Plus, ahem, the Town Budget, which includes some disposition of the issue of the $475,000 Y-Gate expenditure. That is listed as the 11^th item on the revised agenda.