Council Defers Electric Pole Decision
By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
August 21st 2024
RICHMOND – At the Tuesday meeting, council members considered a request from Rhode Island Energy and Verizon to place a joint pole on Shannock Hill Road.
Members also heard a request to increase the salary of Town Clerk Erin Liese, and a request from the Hillsdale Housing Cooperative for a tax abatement on a mobile home.
The regular meeting was preceded by a special meeting, in executive session, to consider appeals of 105 property tax assessments, from 2020 to 2022, by The Preserve at Boulder Hills.
When the councilors returned to open session, Liese announced that all five members had voted in favor of a resolution stating that the town is willing to enter into mediation to attempt to resolve the appeals, which would be filed in R.I. Superior Court.
Pole Decision Postponed
After receiving a letter from the attorney representing a Lewiston Avenue property owner, John Peixinho, the council agreed to defer a decision on a request by Rhode Island Energy to install a new pole, which would also be used by Verizon, on Shannock Hill Road.
Signed by attorney David Martland, the letter, dated Aug. 20, states,
“My client is concerned about the placement of the pole and any guy wires. The plans submitted with request are bereft of any details showing the location of the poles, anchors or guy wires in relation to my client’s property. Rhode Island Energy does not have permission to enter my client’s property or place any poles, anchors or guy wires on my client’s property. I would ask that you continue this matter until you receive more detailed plans and confirmation from RI Energy that it will not encroach onto my client’s property. “
Council member Samantha Wilcox said she felt that the council should determine whether the pole would infringe on Peixinho’s property before making a decision to approve it.
“There’s concerns that it will cross over somebody’s property,” she said. “I don’t want to not approve it, but I think we should just pause it … and make sure it doesn’t.”
It is not clear why the utility intends to install additional poles. In an Aug. 20 memo forwarded to the BRVCA by Town Administrator Karen Pinch, Town Planner Talia Jalette states that Town Council had approved the installations of two poles adjacent to Shannock Hill Road at the July 16 council meeting.
Jalette also notes that any changes to the interconnection, including additional poles, would require a new special use permit.
“The array was permitted by the Zoning Board (upon remand from the Courts) through a Special Use Permit,” she wrote. “Special Use Permits cannot be amended – to change any element of the proposal, a new Special Use Permit must be sought and granted. The necessity of applying for a new Special Use Permit has been communicated to John Mancini, their attorney, by [Town] Solicitor Zangari.”
Wilcox made a motion to postpone the votes on the joint pole and on another request by the utility to install three additional poles, also on Shannock Hill Road. All five councilors voted in favor of postponement.
Town Clerk
Karen Pinch submitted a request to use some of the contingency funds in the budget that had been set aside for wages, for a raise for Erin Liese.
“During the budget process, we had discussed increases for certain personnel and the town clerk was one of those positions,” Pinch said. “Erin really has an awful lot of work on her plate. It’s definitely increased since we initially hired her. A lot of it is specific to COVID and elections.”
Citing examples of clerks’ salaries in other towns, Pinch asked the council to approve an increase to $82,000, from Lise’s current salary of $77,255.
Council members had several concerns.
“I know it has implications for all the employees of the town,” councilor Helen Sheehan said, also noting that a salary increase wouldn’t lessen Liese’s heavy workload.
Councilor Michael Colasante said he believed the request should go through an established protocol, which involved going before the Finance Board, the Town Council and finally, a public hearing.
“This is kind of like circumventing all that,” he said.
Council President Mark Trimmer said he didn’t believe that every salary increase should have to go to a public hearing. Wilcox said the raise would come from the contingency, which was approved by voters when they approved the budget.
With Colasante abstaining, the council voted to approve the salary increase, which will take effect on Sept. 1.
The Hillsdale Issue
The council approved a request from the Hillsdale Housing Cooperative for an abatement of property taxes in the amount of $35,083.93 on a mobile home at 465 Gardiner Road.
Attorney Jeffrey Garabedian, who represents the cooperative, told the council that the mobile home itself is uninhabitable and should be demolished and removed from the site, but the work cannot begin as long as there are taxes owing.
Richmond Building official Anthony Santilli condemned the structure in 2023.
The unit was owned by Carlton Coburn, who passed away in 2006, and then occupied by Carlton’s widow, who now lives elsewhere and is not considered to be mentally competent.
Trimmer said as long as the decrepit unit was on the pad, the cooperative could not rent the pad to another mobile homeowner.
“The park can’t re-rent that unit, and not only are they at a loss for removing that, they’re also at a loss from the income that they could get from being able to rent that pad to someone else, so I myself am leaning towards approving this and moving forward. What is incredibly disturbing to me is the fact that we’re up to $35,000. How did we get that far?”
Garabedian explained that Carlton had paid the monthly rent on the pad, but had not paid his property taxes. Wilcox added that because the unit had no value, the town could not have a tax sale to recoup the taxes.
“I want it resolved, but I want it resolved properly,” she said. “This feels like just a little bit of a skirt around making sure the probate’s properly closed.”
“I’m not sure we’re trying to skirt anything,” Garabedian replied. “We’re basically trying to address the tax issue.”
Trimmer said he didn’t want to hurt the park, which is the most affordable senior housing option in the town.
Liese explained the administrative probate process, but Garabedian said it would cost too much and take too long.
“This man’s been dead for 19 years,” he said. “There’s nothing left here. I don’t see spending good money after bad at this point. We just want to move forward, put a new mobile home in there that’s valued at $200,000. …We’re just trying to be a good neighbor. We’re trying to present this here and do it the right way, rather than go through the process.”
Colasante said he favored removing the derelict trailer.
“There’s squalor there, and my biggest concern right now is not even so much for the Hillsdale Trailer Park themselves, the entity, but the people that live right next to that,” he said.
“That’s first and foremost my concern, for the people that live there, that have to pass that every single day and the value of their property if they decide to sell and move on.”
Wilcox said she was concerned that that a similar situation might occur again.
“As a town, we are kind of stuck,” she said. “So, I just feel like we’re bailing them out a little bit.”
Garabedian acknowledged that a large amount of money was owed to the town.
“It is a large amount of money, but I’m not sure how Hillsdale could address that, because it’s not their debt. … There’s not much we can do. We can evict them, but I can’t force them to pay their taxes, not can I force the town to collect. We can’t really make a contingency for that.”
The council voted to approve the abatement, which will allow the removal of the remains of the trailer to proceed.
A Sobering Comment About Noise
During the public comment period, Dave Bengston told the council that he felt that noise levels in the town were at the point where they might constitute an environmental hazard.
Bengston said a rock concert at Richmond Smoke on July 20 had been excessively loud.
“That got me thinking about cumulative noise, for lack of a better term” he said. “There’s always noise from the shooting at the Preserve, there’s always highway noise, etcetera.”
Bengtson asked the council to consider the cumulative impact of noise generated by multiple sources when they were asked to approve entertainment licenses.
“Last spring, our son was down from Pawtucket where he lives, and I was having dinner and we were listening to the gunfire on the Preserve and there was another concert at the cigar lounge, highway traffic was pretty noisy, and he said ‘it’s definitely quieter in Pawtucket than it is here’. So just think about that for a minute,” he said.