A political party, even at the town level, must stand for something

Home » Page 2
Posted on May 11, 2012 by Michael Chambers

Guest Post by Michael Chambers
————————————-
A political party, even at the town level, must stand for something; preferably on behalf of the town residents and not specifically for their own benefit. There is a common saying in planning and management that goals are outgoing statements and objectives are inward evaluations. Goals serve the people or the clients; objectives show how the group is to try to achieve those goals. In reviewing the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee web site, it is apparent that there are no goals laid out for the residents of Charlestown - in other words, a platform. Their only statement is to provide an ”alternative point of view on political event”. This is a reactive role and does not compel the CDTC to take a proactive role in the town. Without a platform, this town’s Democrats react, usually in a negative manner to Town Council initiatives, as required by their mission of providing an alternative point of view.

The ”Topics Around Town” tab on the CDTC website focused on as the only topic, a November 2010 letter of complaint about the Charlestown Citizens Alliance for not reporting their campaign finances. That was the only topic around town up to the present. Which is more stagnant, the town or the Democratic Town Committee? It isn’t the town, so what has the CDTC been up to? Maybe they will tell us one day. I mean besides complaining about topics around town. The rest of the website is internally directed - how to help CDTC and how to contribute to their group. Why would anyone contribute to a group that has only filed a complaint over the last two years and has no platform as its raison d’être?

As part of its role as provider of an alternative point of view, the CDTC on their website states that they want to debate issues with the Charlestown Citizen’s Alliance. What they want to debate is whether the CDTC has issued an imprimatur regarding the resignation of the Town Administrator. Because the CDTC officers have spoken and written about this issue, an official sanction, without an official disclaimer, is not necessary. In claiming that there has to be an official stamp on a piece of paper is disingenuous at best. Further in a letter to the Westerly Sun, the CDTC Chairperson accuses, without proof, that the Town Council Chair and Vice Chair attacked the Town Administrator and his staff. No finger pointing, just the facts are two elements of the CDTC mission; obviously just formal words without meaning. Also, nowhere can it be found that the CCA and its members claimed, as CDTC said it did, that the town must yield control over Ninigret Park to the Federal Government. Had that claim been footnoted it may still be questioned, but without citations, it is unbelievable. Also in that letter, the CDTC chairperson repeats “honesty matters”, but does little to promote that point of view.

Posted in Charlestown Rhode Island, Charlestown Town Administrator, Mailbox, Ninigret Park | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

What happened to the dark skies ordinance?

Home » Page 2
Posted on May 10, 2012 by Michael Chambers

Guest Post by Michael Chambers
————————————-
What happened to the dark skies ordinance? It seems that, except for a few businessmen, the idea of protecting our dark skies was a no-brainer. Somehow all this got lost in the illumination of Ninigret Park and nighttime sports in the park. As a friend told me, there is no need to include all of Charlestown in the night sky plan because some people need the lighting to demonstrate their patriotic fervor by lighting an American Flag all night long. It is good to know that my neighbors are patriotic even as they slumber. There are lights for flagpoles that shine downward. They can be purchased without a lot of expense. I asked about taking the flag down at dusk and was told that was too much trouble. Ah patriotism!! You’re fine as long as it remains cheap and passive.

But even more important than that is the fact that people feel safer when their property is lit with flood lights all night long. In this way they can feel safe whether the intrusion is from the left, right, ground level or from the air. Using shielded lights will keep the left and right and ground level intrusions in plain view but not the overhead intrusions. Ok, so we have to worry about those paratroopers - second story men who prey on the elderly and infirm. How can we survive an attack of such marauders without flood lighting the skies? People want maximum lighting for maximum protection against those who would attack them from above. Maybe these folks would feel safe with the WWII klieg lights and searchlights scanning the skies.

Finally, the commercial entrepreneurs, who feel that they have a vested interest in this town, and Charlestown should have a vested interest in them. This to the tune of offering them grants to put a $15 shield per flood light on their premises. As I recall, homeowners, who needed to change their cesspools to septic tanks at more than $10,000 per unit, were offered 2% loans, not grants. How can such grants be justified? It sounded very much like the commercial sector was doing the citizens of our town a favor by locating in Charlestown. Charlestown is a good place to conduct business. Perhaps the commercial sector prefers to locate in towns with a higher rate of crime than in Charlestown so they can vertically illuminate their property. I, like many of my neighbors, make a special effort to deal with local businesses even though the costs may be higher. I would expect that the businesses would be happy to work with the town even though lighting may cost slightly more.

People like being in Charlestown for many reasons, one of which is the night skies. Probably the most ardent arguments for dark skies came from the person on the street who moved here from a more urban area and was awestruck by the celestial display that was theirs for free. How people spoke in reverential tones about their feelings when first seeing the stars, not one or two, but billions! They spoke of the legacy they leave their children, the skies, stars, clarity of the moon, how awe-inspiring the skies became here in Charlestown. Here I need to interject. Those skies are not a legacy from us to our children, but are ours on loan to us from our children.

Posted in Charlestown Rhode Island, Dark Sky, Mailbox, Ninigret Park | Leave a comment

If it swims like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must belong to the Anatidae family

Home » Page 2
Posted on May 9, 2012 by Michael Chambers

Guest Post by Michael Chambers
————————————-
We are six months away from Election Day. The next half year will be an interesting time for the residents of Charlestown. Never have the issues been so clearly defined and sides been so definitely drawn. Over the next few months, we can look at some of the participants.

The mission statement of the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee (CDTC) is to give an alternative point of view on political events in Charlestown, without the name-calling and finger-pointing that has tainted political debate both here in Charlestown and across the country. It is curious that the mission is to promote a point of view rather than truthfully present the issues to Charlestown residents. Additionally, the statement refers to finger-pointing which until recently was the way the CDTC conducted business through their connection to the PC Blog.

The CDTC further states that they will present the facts, information sources, and well-researched and reasoned points of view. Presenting the facts is different than presenting opinions. Most high school students can tell the difference between the two. When a researcher presents a fact, the source is usually cited in a footnote or expounded in the rest of the text. Because the presentations are to be factual, citations and sources should be clearly identified. Also, if the information is to be well-researched, it would be no trouble for the reader to find those sources of factual information. A point of view can be the result of the accumulation of facts, but to present points of view without listing the facts, the result is just a point of view, an opinion. A review of the writings of the CDTC will show a decided lack of footnotes or identification of sources.

Naturally, the CDTC will take no credit for the PC Blog items, even though the members of the CDTC frequently use the Blog to promote their opinions and point their fingers at people who do not subscribe to their points of view. The connection between the Committee and the Blog is so striking it reminds one of the saying, “If it swims like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must belong to the Anatidae family.”

Posted in Charlestown Rhode Island, Mailbox | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Transit of Venus

Home » Page 2
Posted on May 9, 2012 by Outside Source

Get ready to Observe a Last-in-a-Lifetime Event, a Transit of the Planet Venus Friday, May 25th, at 7:00 P.M. at Frosty Drew Nature Center & Observatory

On June 5th, 2012, the planet Venus will do something it will not do again for over a century: Pass directly across the face of the Sun. This phenomenon occurs only four times every 243 years, so this is a sight that you might want to mark on your calendars.

Previous transits of Venus were very important in learning the size of the solar system. For centuries, there were no other means of determining the yardstick for measuring the distance between the Earth and the Sun - the astronomical unit. It was known that all the planets were proportion in distance to their motion around the Sun, but to actually measure that distance was very difficult. It was Edmund Halley, of comet fame, who realized the mathematical significance of a planet passing directly across the Sun, and the information that could impart.

On Friday, May 25th, Astronomer Francine Jackson will introduce you to Venus transits, and lead you through the centuries of discovery and observation. She will tell you of many explorers, some of whom risked their lives trying observe this unique phenomenon in order to learn one of the most important measurements in science: The size of our solar system.

Francine Jackson is Director of the Frosty Drew Observatory in Charlestown, RI. She also is on the staff of Brown University’s Ladd Observatory, a Lecturer at Framingham State University, and performs programs at the University of Rhode Island Planetarium. She has studied the historical aspect of transits of Venus for over thirty years.

Please note that the viewing of the Transit of Venus will be held at 4 p.m. on June 5, 2015, in Ninigret Park. There will be activities and food will be available.

Posted in Charlestown Rhode Island, Dark Sky, Mailbox, Ninigret Park | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Democratic Committee following an agenda that will hurt town

Home » Page 2
Posted on May 6, 2012 by Michael Chambers

Guest Post by Michael Chambers
————————————-
Today, May6, the Editor in Chief (EIC) of the Westerly Sun chided the political activists in Charlestown for their passion which seems to expand small issues into large disputes among the residents. In a sense that is a fair assessment. The EIC was reacting to the number of column inches his newspaper has expended on the resignation of the Town Administrator. Point taken. When attacked, some people fight back with the same vigor and in the same manner as the attacker. The attackers from the CDTC and the PCBlog would rather have had people remain silent, and therefore, silence by agreement would be invoked. Sorry, good citizens don’t turn tail. But why the passion?

A look back over the recent past in this town shows that the CDTC and the PCBlog are following an agenda that can and probably will hurt this town. They backed industrial scale wind turbines in a residential neighborhood saying that they are “green.” When a residential turbine ordinance was passed, none of the CDTC Progressives applied for a permit. Based on their actions, it’s all right if someone else’s money is used.

The Homestead Exemption Act, also supported by the CDTC and PCBlog, would have picked the pockets of out-of-state homeowners to benefit instate homeowners, not the poor. Then the egg-on-the-face authors of the proposal left Deborah Carney sputtering about “the poor”. The proposal was diseased from the beginning. Deborah Carney is still trying to hang on to that deck chair as the ship sinks.

The CDTC and PCBlog then took aim at the Charter Review Committee. They scored a hit there and now can live to regret it because they just shot themselves in the foot, a la James Watt. They tried to remove a question to the voters that would have made the YMCA land sale a little more difficult to complete. If the attacks and insults to that committee have their desired effect, the attackers may end up eating crow.

The resignation of the Town Administrator was another banner raised by the CDTC and the PCBlog. Simply because the Town Council had no choice but to let the Town Administrator walk, the attackers took the opposite stand and actually sided against two of their favorite councilors, Marge and Gregory.

As this foray into the way the town is run becomes less smooth for the loyal opposition, their underlying motives are slowly seeing the light of day. The lack of town services (unspecified by the CDTC and the PCBlog) seems to become a point of departure. What those services are will probably be itemized in the near future. Progressives are that way. They want more and more services and that means more and more taxes, but being tax NIMBYs, they want everyone else to pay the bill.

Posted in Charlestown Rhode Island, Charlestown Town Administrator, Mailbox | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Charlestown – the almost ideal community

Home » Page 2
Posted on May 4, 2012 by Michael Chambers

Guest post by Michael Chambers
————————
Every time I see a state-base map showing the economic condition of the towns and cities in Rhode Island, I expect to see Charlestown at the bottom of the list suffering from housing problems, high taxes, low median income, low housing values, difficulty selling properties, median sale prices, population loss and other Census Economic Indicators. That is if you believe the Democratic Committee. It isn’t happening. Charlestown’s economic health is good; its population seems to be living in an almost ideal situation, given that it is in Rhode Island.

In the May 2 Providence Journal, housing sales and median sales prices of single family homes increased 13.5% in Charlestown. Only five towns showed increases over 12%, Burrillville, Foster, Coventry, Charlestown, and Jamestown. As a geographer I look for commonality within spatial relationships. The five towns are either rural (low housing densities) or coastal (summer residential areas) or both (primarily Charlestown). We are not in economic distress. We are a desirable relocation area. We offer a variety of things that many towns in Rhode Island cannot offer. High density housing, burdensome tax rates, traffic congestion, and other characteristics of urban and suburban Rhode Island towns are not found in Charlestown. A solid Comprehensive Plan, conservative zoning regulations, and a hard working town staff guided by an informed town council combine to keep Charlestown progressing deliberately and inexorably forward.

When was the last time steady growth, economic solvency, and a satisfied population needed change? Check out the Journal article and ask yourself how many of the towns in RI would gladly change places with Charlestown. Better yet, ask the people in those towns if they would trade places with the residents of Charlestown.

Posted in Charlestown Rhode Island, Mailbox | Tagged | Leave a comment