Do not feed the trolls.

It only encourages them

By Will Collette

Several years ago, Tom Ferrio and I decided to turn off the comments section of Progressive Charlestown after we were being swamped daily with spam and troll messages. This was even before today's sophisticated bot technology that Russia used so well to promote Donald Trump's 2016 election.

There is no reasoning with bots and, unfortunately, you also can't carry on a rational conversation with fanatics, especially Trump's legion of MAGAnuts. They may be human but they're really not all there. Plus, engagement could be dangerous since at least a few of them are prone to violence.

Recently, Charlestown's Jim Mageau has been flexing his rhetorical muscles with rants in the Westerly Sun, often to attack Democrats, excoriate Joe Biden and promote his spiritual master Donald Trump. These letters have gotten Jim the attention he so desperately needs by drawing in well-meaning people who felt the need to debate him.

Big mistake.

I have to admit I was tempted, but then after thinking about it, I wrote this Letter to the Sun instead: 

Letters to the editor columns and social media get filled these days with many provocative messages often filled with lies and personal attacks. It’s hard not to get angry and want to lash out with a counterattack.

Most of the time, it’s a waste of time to do get into the argument. It adds little to rational public debate since most of these provocations are so over the top that few pay them any attention.

You won’t change the messengers' minds since they range from Russian bots designed to disrupt American civil society to pathetic old cranks looking for attention.

Don’t give them what they want – it only encourages them.

If you actually like trolls, come to Ninigret Park this summer and enjoy.

Charlestown bobcat!

 Progressive Charlestown co-founder Tom Ferrio caught this beauty on Thursday and posted it on Nextdoor:

Sticker shock from new Charlestown tax assessments

Charlestown’s tax base rockets up by 47%: how this will affect your taxes

By Will Collette

Charlestown property owners received letters this week from town Tax Assessor Ken Swain showing the results of the town’s full reassessment of property values.

Before the reassessment, Charlestown’s “Grand List,” the total value of taxable property, was $2.88 billion. The new number is $4.22 billion, a rise of $1.34 billion or 47%. This will mean higher taxes for some, lower taxes for others and for some, almost no change at all.

Big bucks being paid mostly by wealthy out-of-staters for shore property propelled this increase in the total tax base. However, on a personal level, this has meant an assessment hike for nearly all of the rest of us, averaging around 50%.

For example, Cathy and I received Swain’s notice that the assessment on our home and adjacent vacant lot, five acres total, rose by 65% to just under $1 million ($998,000).

In past articles about fake fire districts, two of which are in Charlestown, I compare our 2.5-acre north of One vacant lot to a 2.5-acre vacant lot owned by the Central Quonochontaug (Fake) Fire District. Both are zoned R3A. Our 2.5-acre lot is now assessed at $262,300 while its southern counterpart is assessed at only $33,700.

We’ll get back to that issue: how the Central Quonnie and Shady Harbor (also fake) Fire District evade Charlestown property taxes when neither Fire District actually fights fires. In reality, they are both jumped up homeowner associations who gamed the system. Anyway, more on that later.

Incidentally, Ken Swain’s office maintains a free, open database you can access for data on every property in Charlestown. CLICK HERE. All information disclosed in this article is public.

For years, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) focused only on the tax rate, noting how low it is compared to most other municipalities, including those that provide far more services for the money. 

But in the real world, what you actually pay in taxes is the product of multiplying the tax rate (projected to drop to $5.71 per $1000 in value from the current $8.17) times the assessment.

My friend and Progressive Charlestown co-founder Tom Ferrio did this analysis for Charlestown Residents United:

New Valuations and Taxes

Use our tax calculator below to estimate you taxes with the new assessment value.

The new Charlestown property valuation letters arriving in the mail have caused a lot of discussion and concern, with many property values increasing by 40% to 50%.

It is very important to understand that a new tax rate is computed every year based on the budget for the town and the total value of the properties in the town. The assessed value of your property going up does not mean that your taxes will necessarily go up - with the inflation in property values over the last several years, the effect on your taxes depends on whether your property value went up more or less than the average increase in our town.

The town website has posted an estimate of the tax rate for 2023-24 tax year based on the new property valuations and the current draft budget. That estimate shows the tax rate dropping dramatically: from $8.17 per $1,000 valuation in the current year to $5.71 for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

Incredibly easy to use. Plug in the old and new
assessments that are in Swain's letter.

We have provided this online calculator to see your current and projected taxes.

You can get your assessment valuations from your recent letter ( Old Assessment and New Assessment) or the tax database here (2021 Total Valuation and 2022 Total Valuation).

Or you can compute the taxes manually:

Multiply your 2021 Total Valuation divided by 1000 by $8.17 to get a tax bill estimate for next year.

Multiply your 2022 Total Valuation divided by 1000 by $5.71 to get a tax bill estimate for next year.

Thanks, Tom. I used Tom’s calculator to project our new tax bill. It looks like Cathy and I will be paying an additional $250.

When Cathy and I bought our house in 2000 and the adjacent lot in 2001 for a total of $396,000, we never expected to be property millionaires. Thanks to the buying binge by non-residents, lots of us full-time Charlestown residents saw the theoretical (and taxable) value of our homes skyrocket.

Can we actually sell our property for a million bucks? We can ask, but we might not get. Ex-CCA Town Councilor Bonnita Van Slyke put her Arnolda waterfront estate on the market for $3 million. After a year of no takers, she ended up settling for $2 million.

Mortgage rates are at a 15-year high and there is a limit to what the market for homes for working families will bear. While rich New Yorkers may slap down the cash here in Charlestown because our prices beat the Hamptons, it’s a different market north of Route One.

The Providence Journal notes there is an overall shortage of houses, especially acute under $500,000. Even though CCA leader Ruth Platner does not believe in the law of supply and demand, the market does. Shortages really do drive up prices, despite what Ruthie thinks. 

Right now, you need to be rich to get what you want in the housing market. The only proactive step we can take to bring prices down to some semblance of affordability is to increase the supply.

I think there are three take-aways from the new tax assessment numbers.

First, fake fire districts need to be abolished.

Unless a fire district actually devotes most of its resources to fighting fires, it is not worthy of the name. Indeed, these phony fire districts are an insult to real firefighters.

We have two fake fire districts: Central Quonnie and Shady Harbor. There are more than a dozen others dotting the coast. You can read more about them in Alex Nunes excellent series on fake fire districts on The Publics Radio. CLICK HERE.

Shady Harbor FD pays ZERO property tax to Charlestown despite owning six prime pieces of coastal real estate. Their 19.26 acres total includes a private beach where public access is strictly forbidden, a dock, boat launch, three vacant lots on Meyerand Drive and a pumping station for private water, assessed at $247,900 though actually worth millions. The Fire District pays nothing.

Central Quonnie is not tax-exempt, but its property tax assessments are insanely low, as the example I used comparing my 2.5-acre vacant lot with a similar lot owned by Central Quonnie where my assessment is eight times higher than Central Quonnie’s.

Part of Central Quonnie's portfolio, this 4.1-acre tennis 

complex is assessed at only $130,100 

(Charlestown Tax Assessor) 

They own 10 prime coastal properties totaling 38 acres with tennis courts, a sports field, private beach docks, boat launches and a beach club as well as a private water system plus five vacant lots on Surfside Ave. 

Their total assessed, taxable value for all that prime property is $738,323. If they weren't masquerading as a fire district, their assessment would be in the tens of millions. 

Almost 60 prime shore acres owned by the two fake fire districts are not being taxed fairly or at all. We are subsidizing two homeowners’ association to the tune of millions of dollars. That’s just wrong.

Second takeaway: full-time residents deserve a tax break.

The CCA, which counts on non-residents for political donations, has been adamantly opposed to the whole idea of the “Homestead Tax Credit.”

Homestead tax breaks are available in just about every state and are a common practice among coastal communities like Charlestown to compensate those of us who call Charlestown home for the added costs we pay for our summer people.

Narragansett has had this popular program for several years. North Kingstown added it a couple of years ago. Newport is adding it this year.

Homestead tax breaks can be designed in several different ways to reduce full-time homeowners’ taxes. A simple option would be to simply assign a dollar figure, maybe $1000 as town Democrats suggested in 2011, or $5000 or whatever is fair and affordable, to be credited against your tax bill. Or it could be a percentage of your assessment. I like the dollar amount for its simplicity.

Whatever the reduction in taxes for full-time resident homeowners costs the town, it's added back through the tax rate paid by all taxpayers. 

The CCA screamed about the “unfairness” of town Democrats’ proposal in 2011 calling the idea “discriminatory.” It's not, especially since part-time residents probably get a homestead exemption where they live.

Summer visitors can triple Charlestown’s population. Taxpayers support a year-round infrastructure to accommodate that surge in visitors from Memorial Day to Labor Day. We pay for their services. We pick up their trash when they leave it by the roadside. We are also paying for them through our higher tax assessments as their properties drive up housing costs.

Third takeaway: we need to make sure our tax credit system serves those who need it.

Charlestown has an array of tax breaks available to veterans, the blind, handicapped, disabled and low-income elderly. I have long advocated for a new tax credit for volunteer firefighters both as a reward for standing ready put their lives on the line for us and to aid in recruitment and retention.

Do all individuals and households who are eligible even know these tax breaks exist? Qualified property owners need to apply – no one gets the tax break automatically. Links to the tax breaks for most categories plus the FFOS (Forest, Farm and Open Space) tax break are now on the Tax Assessor’s Office web page (left-hand column). 

I would like to see the town do a special issue of the Pipeline mailed to all households.

Whether you see the huge rise in property assessments as good news or bad news, it’s all the more reason why Charlestown needs to take a cool, critical look at tax policy fairness. 

Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. While we may never develop a perfect system, we should nonetheless continue to make improvements whenever and wherever we can.

September 24 Charlestown event for Rep. Langevin

UPDATED: Goodbye and Good Luck!

Progressive Charlestown – the Final Edition

By Will Collette

The Gray People have finally won....

Well, we made it just past four years. Tom Ferrio and I put up the first Progressive Charlestown articles in January 2011. Since then, we have published more than 7,800 pieces that attracted two million page-reads.

We did our best to give you a different point of view than the one pushed by Charlestown’s landed gentry and rulers in the Charlestown Citizens Alliance. 

We also did our best to entertain and inform with everything from cartoons and Henri the Cat videos to serious articles on health, the environment and the economy.

We covered local events, promoted local non-profits and small businesses and tried not to miss any of Mystic Aquarium’s rescued seal releases.

Attention: Tom and Tom

ALEC’s Assault on Homeowners Who Have Gone Solar

Posted by: Ann Werner from Liberals Unite

A winter time reading from Tom Ferrio's energy use meter showing
his solar panels generated more power than he used

EDITOR’S NOTE: While Charlestown effectively bans residential wind energy, there is no ban on residential solar power. Indeed, even people with opposite politics views embrace solar power. Take CCA Party leader Tom Gentz and Progressive Charlestown co-founder Tom Ferrio as examples.

ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) is at it again and this time, they are going after homeowners who have installed solar panels. That would be people like me. Fortunately, I live in California, a state run by Democrats, where Republicans don’t even have any dark corners left in which to hide.

In a December report, Suzanne Goldberg of the Guardian wrote that about 800 state legislators and business leaders were set to meet in one of the super-secret, never open to the public meetings to discuss and vote on the boiler-plate legislative measures that will then go out to bought and paid for legislators willing to present them, sometimes unread – because that’s too much like actually doing their jobs – and push them through the law-making bodies of their states. Make no mistake, these pieces of legislation are designed to benefit business interests and not the interests of the citizens of the states “represented” by these so-called servants of the people.

There was a lot on the agenda and you can take a look HERE, but the thing that caught my eye is their plan to introduce legislation to penalize homeowners who have installed solar panels on their homes in an attempt to both lower their utility bills and help to contribute to a cleaner environment. The ALEC bill seeks to charge these “freerider” homeowners for feeding energy back into the grid.

Blow-by-blow of the Charlestown Town Council monthly meeting

Town Council meets. Can you stand the excitement?

On the agenda - CCA Party plans for new mandates on business
regarding shrubbery, mulch, parking and more

By Will Collette

Quick meeting tonight. Adjourned at 8:39 PM.

I had such a good time last month taking on my colleague Tom Ferrio's usual live-blog of the Council meeting that I couldn't wait to do it again. 

Not. Actually, Tom is tied up so here I am. I'll be doing a blow-by-blow as up to the minute as possible, so bear with me on the typos.  

As I noted in my preview, the Council is due to hold a continuation of its public hearings on proposed Ordinance #359 on shrubbery and mulch, and Ordinance #360 on parking.

Even though the Town Council claims our ordinances do not give the town the power to regulate bad quarry operations, and the Town Police say there is no town ordinance protecting people from gunfire from aircraft, clearly these issues must wait in line while the Council decides how to regulate the depth and color of mulch used on business properties.

And so it goes it in Bizarro Charlestown. Read on for the blow-by-blow.

UPDATED: A million here, a million there and soon you’re talking about real numbers

Progressive Charlestown hits 1,000,000 page-views

By Will Collette

UPDATE: We closed out November by setting a new monthly record of 57,929 page views. That works out to an average or 1,931 a day.

At Progressive Charlestown, we have a lot to be thankful for – mainly that we've been able to come this far with a project that Tom Ferrio and I took on pretty much as a way to blow off tension and have some fun. 

That was our original plan in January 2009. We didn't expect to run more than an occasional article – maybe one or two a week – and figured we’d be lucky if more than a couple dozen or so people read what we wrote.

The statistics count at 9 AM this morning. The meter rolled over the
one-million mark early Friday morning

Three and a half years later, we have hit one million page-views. A page-views is counted every time a reader clicks on an individual article to read it. That's different than a “hit” when someone happens to click on our website homepage. Generally, it takes about ten "hits" before someone clicks on an individual article to create a "page-views." We now average 1,900 page-views a day.

Back in 2009, contrary to what CCA Party pundit Mikey Chambers would have you believe, we formed Progressive Charlestown in spite of and as an alternative to the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee, of which Tom and I remain proud, loyal members.

Charlestown Short Takes

• DiLibero looking for work
• Sale pending for General Stanton Inn
• RI Monthly features Chief Sachem Thomas
• Larisa still tracking the Tribe
• Edward Tall Oak speaks at Yale conference on enslavement of Indians
• Buzzfeed on Rhode Island
• Charlestown’s ranking in Executive Compensation
• South County Hospital’s rating for quality
• Why do Adrian and Gillian Bayford want to give you a million dollars?

By Will Collette

DiLibero competes for Cohasset gig while Areglado campaigns for Czar of Civility

Areglado, Pontiff of Politeness

Former Charlestown Town Administrator Bill DiLibero, target of the CCA Party’s “Kill Bill” campaign, is a finalist in the competition to become Cohasset, Massachusetts’ next town manager. Among the other competitors are Grady Miller who was ousted as Narragansett town manager around the same time the CCA Party purged Bill, and Steve Hartford, who recently departed as Westerly town manager under a cloud.

The “Kill Bill” campaign ironically featured personal attacks by current Chariho School Committee member from Charlestown Ron Areglado. Areglado has been getting some press lately for his “civility” campaign at Chariho which would ban Chariho School committee members from engaging in the types of conduct that he, his wife Maureen and CCA Party colleagues flamboyantly practiced, and not just during the “Kill Bill” campaign. 

Just go back to the video of the first Whalerock wind turbine Zoning Board hearing to watch and listen to Ron Areglado personally attack ZBR member William Meyers. Click here for the video which, unfortunately, is not indexed. However, Areglado is the first person to speak from the podium.

Chambers appointment to Zoning Board may be illegal

Violates the actual Town Charter and REALLY violates the Charter change he and his wife wanted the Town to adopt

By Will Collette

On Monday night, chief CCA Party blogger Mike Chambers received an honor he has sought for the past couple of years, a Town Council appointment to the Zoning Board of Review (ZBR). 

Chambers, who calls himself “Soxman” in his many comments posted on-line with local media, is a man on a mission to convince the world that he has all the answers.

He is a stickler for the rules. He and his wife Donna not only campaigned against Whalerock but also against transgressions he felt were committed by our former Town Administrator, Town Council members past and present whom he doesn't like, town Democrats, Progressive Charlestown (me, especially) and a host of others.

When his CCA Party colleagues voted him in to to fill a newly created vacancy on the Zoning Board for one of three alternate positions, his dream was fulfilled. 

Or maybe it's just a step toward his real goal of getting the five-year term of William Meyers who was ousted as a ZBR member Monday night by Town Council Boss Tom Gentz (CCA Party). Gentz's unusual move to publicly bounce a sitting town commission member was done with support from his CCA Party colleagues Deputy Dan Slattery and George Tremblay and opposition from Lisa DiBello and Paula Andersen (D). 

Or maybe not, since his appointment seems to be in conflict with the Charlestown Home Rule Charter, and certainly conflicts with a principle that he and Donna fought bitterly to have Charlestown enact.

Let’s look at the facts.

Donna Walsh saves New Year’s Eve Bonfire

DEM rescinds ban on popular event

DEM ban on bonfire goes POOF!

By Will Collette

Rep. Donna Walsh announced that the RI Department of Environmental Management (DEM) has rescinded its “Notice of Intent to Enforce” the state’s solid waste law against the town over its annual New Year’s Eve bonfire. That notice (click here to read my article about it) effectively banned the event by labeling the bonfire an illegal municipal garbage site.

On April 1, DEM sent the town its decision to rescind (click here to read it) saying the bonfire was actually “exempt” under the state’s air pollution regulations and DEM wanted its solid waste management program to be “consistent with the DEM’s air pollution regulations.” Since the bonfire was OK under the air pollution regs, it’s now OK under the solid waste regs.

“To the Victors Go the Spoils”

CCA packs Chariho School Committee with another acolyte

By Will Collette

First, my thanks to my colleague Tom Ferrio for his live coverage of tonight’s Town Council meeting. My Cox internet connection is having “issues,” so I just didn’t have enough bandwidth to catch it.

Overall, the Council agenda was pretty light compared to last month when the Council needed two full three-hour sessions to complete its business. 

Tonight, they finished up with 15 minutes to spare.

The big item, at least to me, was the Council’s action on who to name as the replacement for recently resigned Chariho School Committee member Andrew McQuaide. There were three contenders but only one person could be named.

Their ultimate decision led to the title of this article, “To the Victors Go the Spoils,” a phrase uttered in 1828 by New York Senator William L. Marcy to explain the right of President Andrew Jackson to appoint anybody he wanted to, no matter how unqualified or sketchy, by right of winning the election. The "spoils system" - today, we also call it "patronage." 

Anonymous commenters – what’s their agenda?

The nameless ones: spammers, professional  trolls, the CCA and the others

By Will Collette

Tom Ferrio and I were talking the other day about anonymous commenters. I mentioned that one of the new growth areas for jobs is in the field of becoming a professional blog commenter. Companies hire you to cruise the internet and post comments on various blogs and websites.

Tom pointed out that, actually, a lot of those jobs are overseas. Public relations firms hire people in India and elsewhere. The PR flaks write some blurbs that these foreign workers then use to try to get the name placement of various companies’ websites on as many blogs as possible. It’s part of a cyber-age phenomenon called “search engine optimization (SEO).” Get the website mentioned on lots of websites and your placement in a Google search will go up. Until Google realizes that it’s all a ploy.

But that's just part of it.

Tornadoes in Charlestown

Bonfire creates unusual sight

One of several dozen tornadoes spawned by the fire

By Will Collette

This was my second bonfire coverage for Progressive Charlestown and this year's bonfire was even better than last year's. This year, we had live coverage from Channel 10 so the fire was lit a little early to give Mario Hilario an interesting backdrop for his live report.

Tom Ferrio douses the pyre with diesel

A nice crowd turned out to see the fire quickly take hold, thanks to the artful application of diesel fuel by my PC colleague Tom Ferrio, who is also a Charlestown volunteer firefighter. Though he didn't stick around to roast marshmallows as I had hoped, the fire-lighting went off without a hitch.

Mario Hillario does live WJAR coverage

Unlike last year, the fire spawned some pretty amazing tornadoes. At least a couple dozen. As the flames grew hotter and melted the ice and slow, the bonfire created its own mini-weather environment. Clouds of steam would form on the ground, then get organized and be picked up into twisters that rose at least 30 feet higher, maybe higher, and waft harmlessly into the crowd.

Fully involved

I asked bonfire event organizer Frank "Frankie Pallets" Glista if he had ever seen this before at previous bonfires and he told me that this was a first.

As impressive as the bonfire was, there were lots of gasps from the crowd as the twisters kept coming.

Another twister

I'm hoping that over the coming year, we'll work on some innovations for next year's bonfire, though it's hard to top tornadoes.

Many thanks to Frank, the Charlestown Fire District, Parks and Recreation and donors like Arnold Lumber (source of the pallets) and Dunkin Donuts. It was a great show!

Next year?

Tonight, a bon fire to remember

Take that, Gävle Goat!

Click to enlarge - Tom Ferrio prepares for his blaze of glory

By Will Collette

Don't miss tonight's bonfire at Ninigret Park (4:30 - 7 PM). The annual Charlestown New Year's Eve bonfire is not to be missed, especially tonight.

Under pressure to match or surpass the Gävle Christmas Goat, bonfire organizer Frank "Frankie Pallets" Glista came up with the perfect solution with the help of my Progressive Charlestown colleague Tom Ferrio.

FAQ about this year’s election

Voting in Charlestown – Basic things to know By Will Collette 

RED: Precinct 501: Meadowbrook Inn (Carolina 

Back Road near Old Mill Road)

GREEN: Precinct 502: Town Hall

YELLOW: Precinct 503: Police Station

BLUE: Precinct 504: Ambulance Barn 

(just east of the police station)

When is Election Day? 

November 6. That’s TODAY. You can vote between 7 AM and 8 PM. 

Are you registered to vote? 

More than 90% of Charlestown residents are registered. Click here to see if you are registered. But if you’re not among that number, you can still cast a ballot for President (but no other office) on Election Day. Go to Town Hall.

Do you know where you are supposed to vote? 

We have four precincts and therefore four voting places this year. Most Charlestown residents will be voting in a different place than in 2008 and 2010. Click here again because this link will also tell you where you are supposed to vote. Also check out this map, also shown on this page.

Do I need to show ID? 

You will be asked to state your name and then to show an ID. Yes, it sucks and I wish Rhode Island didn’t fall for this unnecessary voter suppression gimmick, but until it is overturned by legal challenge, bring an ID. Click here to see a list of acceptable forms of ID.

Can I vote in Charlestown if I own a vacation home in Sonquiquag? 

In my opinion, the only good thing about RI’s new voter ID law is that it will make it harder for nonresidents to vote. Contrary to what the Charlestown Citizens Alliance or RI Statewide Coalition may preach, you actually have to live in RI to vote in RI, not just own property. So if all you have for ID is a Florida or Connecticut or Massachusetts driver’s license, you should go there to vote, not here. Besides, Charlestown’s nonresidents have already cast their “ballots” by funding the CCA’s 2012 election campaign.

Welcome, new Progressive Charlestown readers

This is the site the CCA is so upset about

By Will Collette

If you are checking in to Progressive Charlestown because you read about it in a Charlestown Citizens Alliance mailer, letter to the editor or e-mailer, welcome.

This website, established in February 2011 by Tom Ferrio and I, provides an independent, progressive voice for news, opinion, culture and popular events about Charlestown and about things we hope will be of interest to our readers.

How to pick the right team

A little mnemonic help

By Scott Keeley (a version of this letter ran in the Westerly Sun; printed with permission of the author

As a relative newcomer to idyllic Charlestown, Rhode Island, I was surprised to witness, over the last few years, a town council that has publicly pursued personal vendettas, demonized mere thoughts of wind power or affordable housing, and blithely abused the power of office with special-interest real-estate deals and corrupt vendor contracts.

UPDATED: Ballot lottery puts the CCA at the bottom

And Cliff Vanover just about loses it

By Will Collette

UPDATES: To read the official certification of the ballot order, click here.

According to Town Clerk Amy Rose Weinreich, CCA Steering Committee member Cliff Vanover did not file a complaint against the town after his protest that the lottery was rigged against the CCA (read below) nor was a complaint filed against him for his highly "uncivil" conduct (these are my words, not Amy's).

To read about the batting order for the Planning Commission election, click here.

ORIGINAL STORY:
On Thursday, the Charlestown Board of Canvassers held the lottery to determine where on the ballot the independent candidates for Town Council will appear.

The candidates endorsed by a recognized party appear first, so the three candidates endorsed by the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee for Town Council, Paula Andersen, Tom Ferrio and Tim Quillen, appear at the top of the list.

“Rich?” “Elite?” “Out of Touch?”

Decide for Yourself

By Suzanne Ferrio

Recently I was made aware of some claims on the CCA website referring to Tom Ferrio as “rich”, “elite” and “out of touch with the masses” because of the photo he posted in preparation for the upcoming campaign (I love that photo!).  Tom isn’t aware that I am writing this, but I really wanted people to understand the Tom that I have known over 24 years of marriage.

Yes, we did take a vacation to Italy.  Unfortunately, the guesses as to where we visited were a little off.  We were actually in the Piedmont (not nearly as glamorous as Tuscany or the Riviera) but definitely a beautiful part of Italy. 

Tom is second generation Italian and we were there visiting some relatives and doing a little genealogy research.  The photo was taken at a lovely four room B&B where we stayed on part of our trip.  We used air miles for our flight.  We visited the jet-setting villages of Cuorgne, Pratiglione and Pont Canavesse and had a wonderful trip.