Not One Opposition Candidate Joined The Effort To Stop The Rail Bypass
The following letter was submitted to local newspapers and is shared with us here by the author Michael Chambers. Michael is a former member of the Charlestown Zoning Board of Review.
Over the past few years, the political bloc, referred to as the Charlestown Residents United (CRU), has made it their mission to criticize and denigrate people who serve the Charlestown community. They have attempted to smear public servants and town officials, but mostly they try to cast aspersions against the public servants supported by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA).
From its inception, CCA has committed itself to promoting and implementing a sober, thoughtful set of policies for this town. The last ten years have been the most productive and peaceful years this town has experienced in a long time. CCA has provided good government during the past decade. To provide good government, you must be a good neighbor. To be a good neighbor is to reach out and help your neighbors whenever you can.
An example of how this works is illustrated by CCA’s resistance to a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) plan that would have threatened residents’ homes, farms, historical sites, and open spaces. CCA-supported officials coordinated with regional groups, generated local support, and demonstrated their opposition to the plan at the State House. CCA spearheaded a resistance so impactful that the FRA withdrew its plans for relocating a portion of their high speed rail system in South County.
If you have the time to review the list of people who signed petitions or wrote letters to the Federal Railroad Administration, you will find that there are CCA candidates, members and supporters’ names sprinkled liberally through the records, but not one (NOT ONE) member of CRU took the time to watch their neighbor’s back. NOT ONE! Check the list of CRU candidates against the record, NOT ONE! It’s comforting to know that CCA-supported officials will go to bat for their neighbors.
Here is the record: (https://www.fra.dot.gov/necfuture/pdfs/rod/appendix_a2.pdf)
Remember that when you cast your ballot.
Michael Chambers
The banner image is a photograph of a boring machine that would have been used to create a one mile long tunnel through Shumankanuc Hill that would have destroyed farmland as part of the proposed railroad bypass.
Read CCA’s official comments on the Federal Railroad Administration Plan
Check out CCA’s page on the FRA plan to learn the history of Charlestown’s opposition to this destructive plan that would have bisected Charlestown with a new high-speed track that would have run from its western edge through homes in the bucolic Burdickville village, across a four-generation farm-to-table operation on top of Schumankanuc Hill, over Native-American tribal land through the center of the 1,112-acre Carter Preserve (owned by The Nature Conservancy), and split the Revolutionary-era Amos Green Farm, adjacent properties protected by conservation easements, and federally funded Historic Columbia Heights housing, then over Historic Kenyon to reconnect with the existing railroad near the eastern edge of town in the Great Swamp.
September 11, 2020 @ 10:18 pm
I hope our neighbors on Shumankanuc Hill Rd and the many other areas in town threatened by the FRA’s plan to re-route the Amtrak line, realize it would have meant the destruction of their homes and the certain devaluation of the surrounding properties. Who stood up for us? The CCA did, not the opposition. Please think about that as you enjoy your living rooms and backyards this election year.
September 10, 2020 @ 1:30 pm
Thank-you Michael for reminding us of this major battle that Charlestown and other communities won.
Some others that come to mind are the fight against a proposed fossil fuel power station in Burrillville who wanted water from our aquifer for cooling purposes, industrial scale wind turbines along our scenic Rte 1, a proposed Dollar General store, and I am sure that there are others.
You are correct that the last 10 years under the CCA-sponsored council members and other town volunteers (planning etc.) have been calm, reasoned and thoughtful. A welcomed and drastic change over what had come before that directly led to the formation of the CCA by calm, reasoned and thoughtful yet concerned citizens. Lets not go back to those earlier days.