Volunteer to Help Those In Need, Your Comments About the Nov. 14 Town Council Meeting

Volunteering to Help the Needy
One of our emailers asked where she can volunteer this week to help those in need of a hot meal for the holiday. Here are some of your responses:

• Christ Episcopal Church in Westerly serves Thanksgiving dinner. One can volunteer one’s time or make financial or food donations. Phone number 596-0197.
• I checked with Southern Rhode Island Volunteers (http://www.southernrivol.org) and they said most local soup kitchens require a 6 month commitment and don’t usually look for help for only one day. You can suggest people visit a website at www.volunteermatch.org for opportunities

Check out all the great things to do this week in the area at http://charlestowncitizens.org/cca/local-news/cbb/
There’s lots to do at the library, the annual Work Off the Turkey Walk, Turkey Trot in South Kingstown and MUCH more!

Also, congrats to Boy Scout Troop 15 Charlestown and Cub Scout Pack 15 for their Food Drive. Joe Nadeau-Troop 15 Scoutmaster-writes:
“Boy Scout Troop 15 Charlestown and Cub Scout Pack 15 Charlestown want to thank the residents of Charlestown for the extremely generous food donations during our Scouting for Food Program. We collected over 2,000 pounds of food for our local food banks! The collected items were distributed to the RICAN Food Bank and St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church Food Bank; both food banks serve all people in need. Thank you Charlestown!!”

And now to your comments about the Nov. 14 Town Council Meeting:

• The wind ordinance was huge. Something both sides wanted. But when it came down once again to the voters, both Marjorie and Ggregg buried their heads in the sand. Congrats on that!
• Where does this leave Charlestown in regards to the Chariho Budget Transparency issue? Do we not participate now? Do we bring it up again? This is totally political it seems by the voting and it is only what should be done anyway. Why would Gregg and Marjorie be against that? Any business and state agency has to balance their budget, to the penny ,and show the investors/taxpayors what their money is being spent on! I for one want to see it on paper!
• This is ridiculous. Not to mention the other arguments that were coming up in the meeting. When will Marjorie ever take a stance on anything? And when will Gregg wake up and join the meeting? Even when the council was discussing the appointments to the affordable housing commission, she suggested voting the members by who’s application was turned in first. The 3 appointed were turned in first, the council decided to vote and she once again abstained. Even though she suggested they do so!
• On volunteer issues on town commissions!! Now a few want to “interview” candidates to see if we get the most qualified candidates on these commissions. Never have we done so and when someone volunteers, unless they have a criminal background, you take them up on it. Especially since these vacancies have been there for years!! There are many ideas that everyone can contribute to the larger pot! This idea seems to set up the opportunity for the people presently on a commission to hand select the “ones” that will take their side on the issues at hand versus candidates that can help balance the commission by conveying the other side of the coin. Good luck getting more volunteers after that meeting. The lack of respect for one another would make me think twice. I was insulted!
• So, 2 of 5 voted against the Chariho request. If my math skills are still intact, those 2 votes do not constitute a majority. So, why aren’t you providing us more transparency in what happened? (Editor’s Note-you are correct. We failed to mention that Lisa DelBello voted against the request.)
• There has been a lot of discussion about Affordable Housing at the Town Council meeting on November 14 and at Planning and Affordable Housing Commission meetings this month. From those discussions we’ve learned there are 115 houses under the Affordable Housing Act currently proposed for Charlestown, where zoning allows traditionally 16 to 17 houses. Out of those 115 houses, 29 are proposed to be “affordable” which means up to $366K per house for a family of four earning up to $90K. The remainder of the 115 houses would be market rate, but it’s hard to imagine the market bearing even the price of the affordable units. The developments are proposed in areas where the land is zoned 2 or 3 acre minimum and where there are wetlands. Neighbors who expected the zoning to be followed, are finding that the state law ignores zoning and other state guidelines and plans. Developers should not be able to use the construction of a small number of affordable houses to overturn zoning, especially when the affordable houses are for families earning more than most year round households in Charlestown.

Have any comments-send them to us!

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Charlestown Citizens Alliance Steering Committee