Bonnita B. Van Slyke – Town Council

Bonnie’s family has long loved Charlestown and have been active participants in the community. Her mother and father, George and Jeannette Bliven, played essential roles in defeating the nuclear power plant planned for the former Naval Landing Field in Charlestown in 1979, and from 1981–2002, her father then led the effort to turn what had been an active military base into a vibrant public park. With a front row seat, Bonnie learned that protecting our community’s character and environment isn’t just about preserving beauty; it’s also about safeguarding our economy, our health, and our way of life.

When Bonnie moved back to Charlestown to live full time in 2006, she dove right into community involvement. For seven years, from 2007–2014, she served on the Board of Directors of the Frosty Drew Memorial Fund. She then was elected four times to the Charlestown Town Council, serving from 2014–2022. In December 2025, she was re-elected and currently serves on the Town Council.

During her previous eight years on the Town Council, Bonnie worked together with residents, staff, her fellow councilors, and the Planning Commission to make a real difference. Together, they

• Reduced the tax rate for residents and businesses to one of the lowest in Rhode Island and adopted a policy to reserve sufficient savings to protect taxpayers in the event of emergencies.
• Updated our long-range Comprehensive Plan, based on community input, to guide growth and preservation.
• Conducted a scientific survey of all members of the community to discover their opinions and desires.
• Secured grants that helped to preserve over 230 acres of open space for hiking trails, for access to the Pawcatuck River, and for protection of groundwater and fostered the recognition of the Wood–Pawcatuck River System as a National Wild and Scenic River, all of which supports our rural lifestyle and our economy.
• Acquired millions of dollars in state and federal grant monies for the maintenance of boating channels, salt marsh restoration, potable water quality, and other projects.
• Guided the town through the Covid-19 pandemic, keeping town offices open and providing services to our citizens.
• Protected Charlestown’s local businesses by blocking the construction of a large “Big Box” store, Dollar General, in Cross’ Mills.
• Worked to empower RIDEM to monitor and regulate fugitive dust escaping from quarries.
• Expanded recreational opportunities for all town residents, adding new recreational facilities in Columbia Heights and in Ninigret Park, improving facilities at Wicklund Field, and positioning Charlestown to receive state and federal funds for bike path construction and pedestrian improvements.
• Made Charlestown “greener,” installing dark sky-compliant LED streetlights throughout town and dark sky-compliant lighting on town buildings that saved the town money and reduced our carbon footprint, sponsoring the “Solarize Charlestown” program which made solar more affordable for homeowners, and implementing a program to help to reduce excessive lawn fertilization and stormwater runoff through best landscaping practices.
• Enacted a conservation design ordinance that protects the environment and helps to prevent well water contamination.
• Worked to safeguard our groundwater and wetland habitats by opposing the large-scale withdrawal of water from our sole source aquifer and trucking it to northern Rhode Island to cool the turbines of a proposed power plant.
• Rallied our community, nonprofit organizations, and legislators to defeat the Federal Railroad Administration’s high speed rail plan from slicing through Charlestown.

Since her election in December, Bonnie has called on the Town Council to join with other communities to challenge the top-down, one-size-fits-all mandates enacted by the Rhode Island Legislature that encourage a lot more expensive market-rate housing, not affordability, and threaten our groundwater. In addition, she has called for the town to adopt a five-year spending plan for capital expenditures, required by the Charter, so that new development proposals demonstrate clear benefits to taxpayers and environmental compatibility before moving forward.

Bonnie is running for Town Council because she loves Charlestown, is concerned about where it’s headed, and wants to make sure Charlestown stays the kind of place that drew us all here in the first place: beautiful, rural, with dark skies, and a local government that’s grounded in common sense.