Charlestown Town Council Characterizes Information As Lies And Ignores Preferences Of Residents
Charlestown once rejected partisan divisions and, in turn, enjoyed a decade of smooth, open, good, and responsive government that provided low taxes and good schools while maintaining a high quality of life. Now, the current Town Council characterizes information as lies and is ignoring the preferences of residents expressed in the 2021 Community Survey.
For example:
Ninigret Park—The Town Council has voted to “update” the 2008 Master Plan for Ninigret Park and to direct the outside consultant, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, to use a plan drafted in 2014, which contains a large performance area, new roads, and lighting, as the basis for the new plan, even though most residents say they do not want their park developed in this way. The proposed new master plan contains a wish list estimated to cost $20 million to $30 million, and residents are concerned that this development would crowd out their use of the park, cause congestion and traffic issues throughout town, be inconsistent with the mission of the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge, and threaten a valuable resource, our dark skies.
Land Use—The Town Council maintains that it should be able to appoint members of the Planning Commission. One member insists that developers should be able to do what they want. In June, the Council considered asking the RI Superior Court for a declaratory judgment regarding the legality of Charlestown having an elected Planning Commission, even though the Commission was ratified by the state, our town has had an elected Commission for decades, and two town solicitors have advised, in 2008 and 2011, that the Commission is legal. Because many citizens feared having their votes disregarded and losing the right to vote for their Planning Commission, the Council dropped the issue—for now.
Resource Protection—Environmental protection is at risk. The Town Council maintains that no more land need be conserved; declined a $400,000 Natural Heritage grant for an open space purchase that would have protected our groundwater; and has proposed changes to weaken our forward-looking subdivision ordinance, even though experts have testified the changes could adversely affect the town’s drinking water. If that were to happen, the remedy would be very expensive.
Financial Management—The financial department, having experienced high turnover, is stressed. Even though the department is severely understaffed, money approved by voters in 2022 to hire a finance director is not being used for that purpose. Other financial resources are being committed without the benefit of the normal budget process, and the Council is contemplating not collecting capital impact fees paid by developers of new residential housing, and even giving fees already collected back to developers, even though, since the early 2000s, these fees have been used, properly, to help to pay Charlestown’s share of debt incurred for construction of educational facilities at Chariho. Without the benefit of the fees, the entire obligation would need to be paid by taxpayers.
Councilor Carney’s letter to Westerly Sun (“Van Slyke Spins the Facts,” December 23, 2023) seeks to obscure the facts.
Bonnie Van Slyke, the author of this post, was a member of the Charlestown Town Council from 2014 to 2022. She was the Town Council Liaison to the Planning Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission, and Senior Citizens Commission. She is a former officer and member of the Board of Directors of the Frosty Drew Observatory & Science Center, a former Chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals in Harvard, MA and a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Harvard Conservation Trust. Bonnie is a freelance copy editor, technical writer, and publications specialist. Bonnie writes occasionally about governance issues in Charlestown.
The banner image is a photo of the Milky Way over Ninigret Park by Brian Neives. Charlestown’s dark skies, land use regulations, natural resource protection, and tax rate are all related. How well we protect our natural resources has a direct impact on our financial stability and our tax rate.
January 16, 2024 @ 9:49 am
Thanks to Bonnie and to Mike … we can only hope that the majority of Charlestown residents who clearly expressed their wishes in the 2023 survey will turn out to vote in November to elect candidates that will honor their wishes rather than disregard them.
January 9, 2024 @ 9:28 am
Bonnie brings up some valid points. This town council’s seeming lack of attention to the stated wishes of the taxpayers is disconcerting and frankly not unexpected. We have known what Deb Carney’s hidden agenda was before the last campaign, but could not convince the voters of harmful effects that Bonnie outlines. Bonnie neglected to point out that the council’s first act was to force the town administrator out of his position without cause – at least they were not transparent enough to specify the reason for their actions. No slight to the present administrator as I understand he is doing a good job. Also the “Red Wave” may have been a bust at the national and state levels but the ripple effect in a small rural town resulted in people voting for Party and not Person. We see the regressive results only one year after the election.