Thursday, 29 January 2009

By ANDREW MARTIN

After an hour-long closed-door meeting Monday night, the Charlestown Town Council decided against bringing the 81-acre land purchase question to voters.

The parcel, which is located north of Route 1 on King's Factory Road, abuts Narragansett Indian tribe land and is owned by developer Larry LeBlanc. He and his lawyer, William Landry, met with the previous council on this issue and back in October, it seemed that it was going to a referendum.

But that council chose to put off discussion of the land purchase for the new council. And as of Monday night, in the words of Landry, "It's off," which he announced upon returning to the council chambers.

"The town is not interested," he said abruptly before leaving Town Hall with LeBlanc.

The council then returned to its chambers to make comments regarding their decision not bring the issue before the voters.

Council President Marjorie F. Frank spoke first. She explained that the town and LeBlanc had multiple appraisals of the land, none of which agreed. "They were all over the map from $6.5 million down to $1.4 million," she said.

"The final offer was made at $4.5 million and we could not take that to referendum … we just weren't comfortable," Frank added.

Councilors Forrester C. Safford and Charlene Q. Dunn and council Vice President Gregory J. Avedisian agreed with their president.

Safford cited the struggling economy as one of his reasons as well as the fact that the town has asked all its departments to freeze spending. And, like Frank, he just did not feel comfortable.

While Avedisian said he briefly toyed with the idea of bringing the land purchase to a referendum, he ultimately could not agree to do it. He added that it would create too much divisiveness within the town and town hall. Also, he referred to the "tough battle" the town is going to face with the upcoming contract negotiations.

"It's just a matter of timing. Maybe two years ago, maybe six months ago it would have been somewhat viable," Avedisian added.

Dunn concurred, adding that the town just cannot afford the purchase in this budget climate. The people elected the council to make tough decisions," she said, "and in all good conscience I could not bring something of that size to the voters."

The one dissenting council was Richard H. Hosp, whose motion to bring the issue to voters failed. "I think it's a potentially terribly important piece of property to the town and we should have let the voters make the decision," he said.

Ninigret Park fees

The ongoing saga of setting the fees for Ninigret Park's summer events looks to be over.

The council approved all but one of the events – the brand new Calling Planet Earth Music Festival that would be held Sept. 25 to 27. Several councilors expressed concern with the music festival, particularly regarding the police coverage required and which bands would be performing. As a result, approval of the event was postponed until more information is obtained.

The other events will face slightly increased fees this summer. The three big ones – Big Apple Circus, Charlestown Seafood Festival, and Rhythm & Roots Festival – will see their bills rise to $8,000 for three days use of the park, which is up from last year's $7,500. The Ocean State Reggae Festival, which runs two days, is up to $5,332 compared to last year's $5,000.

The only returning event left in slight limbo is the Primer Auto Show. Although it was approved by the council, the auto show's fee rate had not been set. To amend that, Parks and Recreation Commission Chairman Daniel Alves said his board will meet with Primer's promoter to negotiate the fee.