Tiverton

Tiverton Taxpayer Forum

By Justin Katz | April 24, 2009 |

For any and all who are free and wish to attend, Tiverton Citizens for Change is hosting a taxpayer forum on Monday, April 27, at 7:00 p.m. at the North Tiverton VFW. Admission is free, and there will be a raffle for balloons filled with scratch tickets of various value as well as food. Speakers…

How to Ensure Municipal Discord

By Justin Katz | April 24, 2009 |

The name won’t mean much to Rhode Islanders from elsewhere (except inasmuch as you’ve seen it on Anchor Rising), but I heard last night that the Tiverton Town Council is considering appointing Mike Burk as the moderator for the upcoming financial town meeting. Do they want unrest? Do they want to encourage discord across the…

Moderate Town Council Meeting

By Justin Katz | April 13, 2009 |

The first thing of note at tonight’s Tiverton town council meeting is consideration of appointments for the moderator at the financial town meeting. Apparently, the town has received a single réumé to date. It’s not like the moderator has to do anything important; as we learned last year, he or she mainly relays town solicitor…

Tivertonians: They Just Want Your Money

By Justin Katz | April 11, 2009 |

On the last page of the main section of the recent Sakonnet Times comes news of a petition that has succeeded in putting a ladder truck for the fire department on the docket for the financial town meeting. The meat of the petition is as follows: This petition seek [sic] to appropriate and expend the…

Moderating the Muddle

By Justin Katz | April 6, 2009 |

Tiverton Town Clerk Nancy Mello has reason to fear that the town council may consider her to be the default appointee for the position of moderator at the pending financial town meeting. So, as she and I spoke amidst children hunting for Easter Eggs this weekend, I promised to make some inquiries. Count this as…

A Special Town Council Meeting

By Justin Katz | March 30, 2009 |

Interested in the process of the town’s postponing the financial town meeting, I made room in my schedule to attend a special meeting of the town council at which we’ll find out whether the town solicitor believes the town can legally seek to move the meeting to September. Immediately upon opening the meeting the council…

Non-Negotiating Season School Committee Meetings

By Justin Katz | March 24, 2009 |

The contrast is huge between these school committee meetings when there’s no contract under negotiation versus when there is. An interested resident who came to tonight’s meeting and took it as representatives would surely have trouble motivating him or her self to come to others. They’re discussing the budget, but a viewer would have to…

Avoiding a Tax Increase by Increasing Taxes

By Justin Katz | March 23, 2009 |

While the town council discusses sewage-related matters, I’ve revisited a recent Sakonnet Times article and found the following more significant in light of my subsequent confusion about the sudden drop in the projected tax increase: The council adopted a new schedule of fees and fines for over 150 services that will generate revenues for the…

Back in the Town Hall

By Justin Katz | March 23, 2009 |

Missing a town meeting or two reminds the active citizen how nice it is to have nights at home. Ah, well. If we’re going to have a democracy… When I walked in (yes, a few minutes late) RI Rep. John Loughlin (R., Tiverton, Little Compton, Portsmouth) was giving the council the newly regular update of…

Stimulating Ignorance of the Problem

By Justin Katz | March 20, 2009 |

So Rhode Island — indeed, Tiverton — may be providing the first instance of the federal stimulus at work: It will surely be the first in Rhode Island and there’s a chance that a Main Road, Tiverton, rebuilding job could be the first federal stimulus job in the nation. “We’ve already had some inquiries from…