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What: Continuation of the Dollar General hearing before the Planning Commission
When: Wednesday, June 27th at 7pm
Where: Charlestown Elementary School
At this meeting the Planning Commission will decide whether or not to approve the applicant’s Master Plan. The Dollar General store is proposed in Charlestown’s Traditional Village District, which is also in the Historic Village Overlay District.
Sad to report, Robert’s public voice has been silenced by a series of medical crises precipitated by an illness that had him hospitalized.
There has been much interest in the Charter Revision Advisory Committee that will review Charlestown’s Home Rule Charter and advise the Town Council of its findings. Charlestown’s Charter review has begun. The Committee is soliciting input from all who would like to comment, and I encourage anyone interested to attend meetings or send comments to the Committee
Alone on the river it can feel like you are in a wilderness, 1000 miles from anywhere, just you and a startled beaver and the splash of sun bathing turtles diving into the water.
Robert Malin was a candidate for Charlestown Town Council in the 2016 election. He has also been very active in the opposition to the Invenergy Power Plant in Burrillville and many other issues and causes. Robert’s family have set up a Go Fund Me page where you can read more about his situation and learn how to help.
On April 23, Peter Gaynor, the Director of the RI Emergency Management Agency (RIEMA), wrote to Joe Warner, the Charlestown Zoning Official, to say that RIEMA would examine alternative locations for the radio tower they had proposed for the DOT Salt Barn property at the Cross Mills exit on Rt. 1.
Next Meeting:
What: Continuation of the Dollar General hearing before the Planning Commission
When: Wednesday, May 23rd at 7pm
Where: Charlestown Elementary School
Read the post for a review of April 18 meeting by Town Councilor Bonnie Van Slyke.
Before the budget presentation, Town Moderator Leo Mainelli presented a history of the origin of the town of Charlestown. Leo read from the colonial act that divided Westerly into two towns, with one remaining Westerly and the other becoming Charlestown.
In this video noted biologist, Ginger Brown, describes why protecting the rivers of the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed is important because they have the largest populations of dragonflies and damselflies.
In this video series, US Fish and Wildlife Service tells the story of the Pawcatuck River from formation to restoration. The Pawcatuck River forms the entire northern border of Charlestown.
EcoRI: “The solution is to site projects in places that make sense environmentally and societally. The current policy, though, is nothing more than a collective shrug and the repeated claim that it’s cheaper to cut down trees than redevelop disturbed areas.”
On Monday, April 9, the Town Council voted to authorize the Town Solicitor and other Town officials to take action to ensure the public health and safety of residents in relation to the 178-foot radio tower proposed for the DOT Salt Barn at the Cross Mills exit on Rt. 1. One of those actions will be to enforce the Town’s Zoning Ordinance.
A six acre parcel of wooded land on the south side of the Town Hall property has been offered to the Town for $75 thousand. The access to Puchalski Field, […]
When: Monday, April 9 at 7pm
Where: Charlestown Town Hall
What: On the agenda for discussion and a possible vote by the Town Council at Monday’s meeting is an authorization of the Town Administrator, Town Treasurer and Town Solicitor to take action to protect Charlestown with respect to the 178 foot radio tower proposed for scenic Rt. 1.
The last time fish could migrate unimpeded on the Pawcatuck River, the United States was not yet a nation. George Washington was a surveyor, not a general or a president. But now, thanks to The Nature Conservancy, the Wood Pawcatuck Watershed Association, and other groups, the Pawcatuck River is ready for this year’s herring and shad runs — all 34 miles are passable for the first time in US history!
Town writes to FCC in opposition to new radio tower, citing procedural, environmental, and historic preservation issues.
The deadline to send your own comments is Tuesday March 27.
Before a new tower is located in this important tourism and wildlife location, the impacts to wildlife and tourism should be thoroughly studied. Alternatively RIEMA could find another location at a higher elevation that would allow for a well screened shorter tower with fewer visual and wildlife impacts.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the regulatory agency that will make the decision on whether to approve the tower. Comments must be sent to the FCC on or before March 27.
Changing the Charter as the CDTC suggests, to require the automatic appointment of the “next highest vote getter” from among the defeated candidates, is not following the voter’s choice. The voter’s choice can only be measured in an election, and when there has been time for a special election the voters have chosen to defeat again the “next highest vote getter.” We should leave our Town Charter as it is.
Why: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has proposed opening up waters off Rhode Island and the rest of New England, to oil and gas exploration and production.
When: Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 3:30 p.m.
Where: North side of the Rhode Island State House.
Attend the Environmental Council of Rhode Island Press Conference just prior to the Rally
When: Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 3:15 p.m.,
Where: The State Room at the State House
Now that the Narragansett Tribe and Invenergy have terminated their contract to truck water from Tribal land in Charlestown to Burrillville to cool the turbines of Invenergy’s proposed power plant in the forest of that town, Charlestown has lost its intervenor status. That is great news for the wetlands of the Indian Cedar Swamp and for anyone who lives or travels in the path of the proposed tanker truck caravan. Yet despite escaping this threat to our local roads and wetlands, Charlestown remains connected to the forests of Burrillville in several important ways.
Invenergy writes to EFSB: “the Water Supply Agreement between the Narragansett Indian Tribe and Clear River Energy LLC, executed on September 19, 2017, has been terminated and is null and void”
This story in the Journal Nature explains that the world is lit at night like never before, and ecologists are assessing the damage.
Locally, Charlestown is the darkest spot along the coast between New York and Boston, but we lose a little darkness every year.
Citing several concerns, Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin today announced his opposition to the construction of the Invenergy power plant in Burrillville and his intention to seek permission from the Court to file an amicus brief in Rhode Island Superior Court challenging the plant’s water-supply plan.
Invenergy’s application calls for water to be withdrawn from the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed—a watershed designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as the ONLY source of our drinking water. This water would be withdrawn year after year over the lifespan of the power plant.
This is alarming because sea level rise and warming temperatures will affect Charlestown in particular during this time period because of our geology. This plan will impact our ability, and that of other coastal communities within this watershed as well, to manage these effects.
The applicant’s actions undermine the open, deliberative process required for public confidence in government decision-making. Please reject this proposed supplemental water supply plan because it is vague, ambiguous, misleading, unnecessary, environmentally detrimental and a risk to the public health, safety and welfare.
I am concerned about the complete lack of transparency regarding the contract between Invenergy and the Narragansett Indian tribe for water as well as the weak merits of the overall plant proposal.
The siting board should decline the Invenergy application based on the applications lack of transparency as well as the proposal’s lack of merit.
The Energy Facility Siting Board should not accept Invenergy’s proposal to withdraw groundwater from within the Town of Charlestown to satisfy any requirement for a water supply.
This application is before the Energy Facility Siting Board, but if it were an application before the Planning Commission, our Planner would stamp it incomplete and send it back to the applicant. The EFSB should do the same.
The following letter was submitted to the Energy Facility Siting Board on the subject of water withdrawal to cool Invenergy’s power plant, and is shared with us here by the […]
It is now up to Invenergy to prove that a dot on a map in a wetland is sufficient and environmentally acceptable. I don’t see how they can do that and hope that as soon as the Show Cause Hearing is held, the EFSB will require that the water withdrawal plan for Charlestown be removed from Invenergy’s application.
On Tuesday, December 5, the Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB) held a hearing in Charlestown to hear testimony on Invenergy’s proposal to truck water from Tribal land in Charlestown to Burrillville to cool the turbines of Invenergy’s proposed power plant in the forest of that town. Hundreds of citizens attended the meeting, dozens spoke against the water withdrawal plan, no one spoke in favor of the plan. Many speakers asked questions, but Invenergy provided no answers.
Post includes videos of the speakers.