Cranston Herald 2/27/08

Letters: Remember Cullion deal at the polls

Wed, Feb 27 08

To the Editor:

 I saw two letters in the Feb. 21 Herald I hoped to respond to. Mr. Lavoie is correct in that the leaders of the city faltered and fell when protecting the residents. He is incorrect in saying that the mayor caved into a small but noisy special interest group. I am in that group, and was on the board of directors recently, as was Mr. DeMarco, the other letter writer. Fortunately, in this country we can all have differing points of view and remain friendly.

Mayor Napolitano did not cave in to a special interest group, unless that group was his re-election committee. True, he took office with this hot potato, this concrete plant fiasco, put in place from our former mayor, Mr. Laffey (who did an otherwise fine job of getting the financial issues of the city in order). Mr. Napolitano ran on the issue that he would not let the concrete plant be had, but hemmed and hawed for a bit, until he finally realized that the environmental issues and the health issues that the concrete plant posed on the city were too much to let get by, so he offered the Cullion people a golden parachute. (We can look forward to a few more appraisals of our houses based on the spending by our current mayor, meaning new tax levies.)

Let me assure you, many of those of us on the board of directors of CCRZD, and in its 200-plus membership [CCRZD Editor: The correct number is over 1000 members] would have rather fought in court with the Cullion groups for 10 more years than to have offered them any money! The mayor saw this as a quick fix to something he inherited, rather than to have taken the right stand and fought for what is right and just. When voting, unfortunately, most folks remember only what you did yesterday, not what you have done or are doing that is right. For Napolitano, the quickest, safest and surest thing was to give them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Unfortunately, we will pay for it. The $700,000 being discussed is only a fraction of $1.9 million (36.8 percent), so that seems like the other 63.2 percent is coming out of our hides, or in taxes.

 Some would rather pay the new taxes than have a concrete plant ruining our health. Though I am hoping it will be gone, and the proper zoning be made in the city so it won’t occur again, I’d have been in for a good fight in court. I really don’t think they would have won. Sure, some political faces might have wound up with pie on them, but that would be a bonus. Remember, this is what you get when you continue to re-elect the same people every time. Seems only one or two councilmen didn’t want to pay a cent to them. Think before you vote this year.

 Patrick Clark

Cranston