Charlestown Residents Love Our Town’s Rural Character and Open Space
The following letter was published in local newspapers and is reprinted here with permission of the author Tom Gentz. Mr. Gentz is a past President of the Charlestown Town Council.
The Charlestown Town-Wide Survey has been completed. Citizens favor the low tax rate and keeping Ninigret Park as it is, and they do not favor more residential growth or a national company’s commercial development.
The survey company reported, “Charlestown residents enjoy a high quality of life.” Their work indicated, “About 9 in 10 residents gave positive ratings to Charlestown as a place to live, raise children, retire, visit and enjoy its rural character and open space”; 94% said the overall quality of life was excellent or good.
Citizens felt positively about safety and the overall image of Charlestown. More specifically, the citizens ranked these services in the 90’s: the local police department (90%), Ninigret Park (91%), library and its programs (92%), volunteer fire department (93%) and ambulance rescue services (94%).
Close behind were the appearance and cleanliness of the Town. Citizens gave high marks to both the overall quality of green spaces and access to them and said outdoor recreation opportunities were excellent or good. More specifically, they ranked Town-owned protected open spaces (86%), customer service of Town employees (85%), overall quality of Town services (85%), snow plowing and sanding (83%). Residents reported Town services and facilities met high standards (82%) with Town parks (82%) and recycling services (82%).
Respondents considered the sense of community as excellent or good and placed it in the 70’s. Also ranked in the 70’s were the senior center and its programs (70%), Town-sponsored events (75%), storm water management (76%), wastewater management (76%), animal control (77%), harbor management and boating (79%), parks and recreational activities (79%) and the value of services for the taxes paid (71%).
The survey also included questions on Ninigret Park. Walking and jogging trails and more restrooms were the only items that had clear, strong support. The strongest opposition was to the idea of adding a football field and more large festivals, concession stands, or a large band shell.
The survey company emphasizes, “The margin of error for this survey, with 2,270 respondents, is ±2.1%. In essence, this means that 95% of the time, any statistic given in this report will be within 2.1 percentage points of what the entire voter/homeowner population would have given had they all been surveyed.”
In short, Charlestown’s citizens are happy. Where national benchmarks were available and results compared to other cities, the survey company stated that almost all local services exceeded their counterparts. Town government is providing good value.
A link to the full survey can be found on the top of the Town’s website homepage: https://charlestownri.gov/
December 3, 2021 @ 10:32 am
Thanks Tom, and thanks to all who have and all who continue to contribute their time, commitment, energy and expertise to keep Charlestown as it says in the survey: “positive ratings as a place to live, raise children, retire, visit and enjoy its rural character and open spaces.” and where the “overall quality of life is excellent or good.”
Tom, am I correct in recollecting that you were one of the founders of CCA several years ago (10? 12?, 15?) when people with different values were running the town. Anyway thanks to all the founders of CCA and to all who have and continue to contribute to its ongoing success. Lets all help keep it going.
December 3, 2021 @ 9:38 am
It is good to see the survey confirm that the citizens of Charlestown cherish the characteristics of the town. And confirm there is appreciation of the hard work, competence and integrity of public service that it takes to safeguard what we all value about our town – my thanks to town staff, elected officials and volunteers on boards and commissions for your tireless commitment for many years.