Tiverton

Times of Drasticness Begin

By Justin Katz | February 25, 2010 |

I was a few minutes late to tonight’s Tiverton School Committee meeting, and it was already underway. The high school library is pretty well filled, which means probably about 30-40 people, an apparent mix of students, teachers, and residents. The topic: closing the high school. Of course, when the union is looking for a juicy…

The Same Old Local Political Roundabout

By Justin Katz | February 23, 2010 |

As circumstances deteriorate, it’s instructive to observe the varying reactions and strategies for handling them. In Tiverton, the established order, so to speak, has redoubled its efforts to keep the negative focus on Tiverton Citizens for Change in the hopes that people won’t notice that the plans for improvement bear a striking resemblance to the…

The End Is Near; Blame Somebody Else!

By Justin Katz | February 22, 2010 |

Reading about the budget woes on both the school and municipal sides, in Tiverton, I find it somewhat striking that none of the elected or appointed officials appear to worry that they’ll face accountability for the things about which they’re complaining. For example: Tiverton’s schools could also take a $386,286 education aid hit next year,…

A Negative Approach to Governance

By Justin Katz | February 19, 2010 |

And around and around not-my-town goes: Rep. John G. Edwards (D-Dist. 70, Tiverton, Portsmouth), whose district encompasses neighborhoods on both sides of the Sakonnet River Bridge, has introduced legislation that will prohibit tolls from being charged on the bridge. … Instead, Rep. Edwards proposes placing a toll on Interstate Hwy 95 (I-95) in Westerly and…

Trading Schools for Raises

By Justin Katz | February 17, 2010 |

The Newport Daily News isn’t very friendly about putting information online, so I don’t have a link to the story, but I read this weekend that the Tiverton School Committee is floating the idea of closing the town’s high school. In hopes of saving $450,000, as I recall, the town would either send its students…

Start Installing Highway U-Turns, Now

By Justin Katz | February 3, 2010 |

My blogging time has been constricted, this week, for two reasons: First, I’ve been working on a piece of writing of the sort that dangles a thread of hope that someday I may actually be able to make a living stringing words together. Second, I’ve been rushing to get back some of the excess tax…

Too Big to Fail Towns?

By Justin Katz | February 1, 2010 |

Along with a table with the statewide results, Providence Business News has an article describing the results of “fiscal stress tests” that a state panel ran for cities and towns: Pawtucket, North Providence, East Providence, Central Falls, Warwick and West Warwick are in the most serious trouble, the Municipal Fiscal Stress Task Force reported Friday…

As the Governor Speaks; Tiverton School Committee to Parents: Flee now!

By Justin Katz | January 26, 2010 |

This is absurd. Superintendent Bill Rearick is going over budget woes with the Tiverton School Committee. First came the bad news that the district has to budget an additional $248,715 for healthcare, putting its current working budget $1.1 million over the spending cap. Rearick’s recommendations were to: Use the $229,546 that it has this year…

A Packed House for Town Council

By Justin Katz | January 25, 2010 |

The town hall is pretty well packed, tonight, probably for some combination of the “pay as you throw” trash pickup and the solicitor’s intention to suggest an anti-tax-payer interpretation of the requirements for exceeding the 3050 tax cap on municipal budgets. Representatives of RISC are here for the latter. Representative Jay Edwards (D, Tiverton) is…

Mainstreet Loses an Anchor and the Council Looks to Tax

By Justin Katz | January 25, 2010 |

So, Bank of America is abandoning the Main Street location in North Tiverton that it has inhabited for decades (most of the time as Fleet bank). According to somebody in a position to know, the branch remains profitable, but corporate executives have analyzed the prospects of Tiverton, Rhode Island, and determined that there will be…