Winter Doldrums No More-Lots of Things To Do in Charlestown
Charlestown Girls Softball League Sign Up Is Tuesday and Thursday Night
Kids Art With Miss Annie, Yoga, Chess and Free Tax Help at Cross Mills
Frosty Drew Valentines Event
Nature Walks
And MORE!
Go to http://charlestowncitizens.org/cca/local-news/cbb/
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Charlestown Citizens Alliance Steering Committee
This comment was at the CCA Facebook page:
Does anyone know if the sludge that is being pumped onto our town beach has been tested for PCB’s DDT, heavy metals, herbicides, Scott’s turf builder, Monsantos’ roundup, noxious bacteria and other cancer causing health hazards? I can’t help but think they are making our beach into a superfund site as the black ooze spreads onto the sand. Diluting the pollution which will concentrate in our own bodies through swimming, walking, sitting on the beach this summer and eating fish caught.
Good question – there is explanation about this at the CRMC website at http://www.crmc.state.ri.us/news/2012_0124_ninigret.html It says among other things “Sand dredged from the sedimentation basin will by hydraulically deposited into the intertidal beach (just offshore) at Charlestown Town Beach, so that it will naturally wash ashore to create beach habitat used by Piping Plover and other important species. Eelgrass, an important native aquatic plant that grows in shallow sub-tidal areas, functions as a nursery, refuge and feeding ground for many marine species.”
Well that is a lot of BS. They need to test the sediment for PCB’s and other cancer causing pollution, you know it’s there. we aren’t stupid, do this before they deposit it on the beach. People are more important then eelgrass. Children will be on the beach in just a few months. They aren’t doing this for eelgrass. They are putting it on the town beach so they don’t have to get state and federal permits.
To the Steering Committee -
First of all, thanks for all you do to keep us informed. Don’t think it goes unappreciated. And on another note,
what’s our town’s status re “unfunded public employee pension funds”???
Here is a fast answer. We may have a better explanation in a few days.
For the past three years or so, the Town has put about $300,000 into an account for OPEB accounts which is for retiree healthcare payments, like health insurance. We are funding that as fast as possible, and were one of the first towns in RI to handle the OPEB issue. As far as the Pension system, that is a state run plan called MERS, Municipal Employee Retirement System. The State Treasure tells the town what our contribution needs to be to properly fund the retiree pension plans. Again, we are doing exactly what the State requires the Town to do, or we lose state aid. The figures are still being calculated due to the pension reform, but we are in much better shape than other towns in RI that are in the newspaper, like municipal pension plans that are currently being addressed.
There was nothing about wind turbines that I could find on any of the links
If you use the search tool you will find lots of links about wind. The right side navigation of every page has a link with the label “Search CCA”, if you click on that link or go directly to the search page at http://charlestowncitizens.org/cca/search-cca/ . Follow the directions on that page. In this case, just type the word “wind” into the search box and hit the search button.
Hello,
Just curious if the CCA has any comment on the upcoming elections.
Thanks
Do you mean the Presidential Primaries or the local elections in November? We will certainly cover the local elections. We’ve never taken positions on national politics except for local impacts such as federal gambling policy. The Steering Committee is made up of all different political points of view on national politics.