Council Hears Account of Harrowing rescue
By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
June 5th 2024
RICHMOND – Tuesday’s Town Council meeting included a compelling story of the rescue of a local woman who had wandered into the woods last week.
Police Chief Elwood Johnson recounted the incident, involving a despondent resident who walked into the thick woods of the de Coppet property, an 1,800-acre state preserve on Hillsdale Road.
“We get a call, 9-1-1, from a woman who said her sister, who is 65 years old - prior suicide ideations, prior suicide attempts - had taken an overdose of prescribed medication,” Johnson said, adding that no one knew where in the woods the woman had gone, but her sister discovered that she had taken her cell phone with her.
“She was able to make contact with her, and while she was drowsy, she was able to offer some type of description as to where she walked. She had no idea where she was,” Johnson said. “So, the officers went in, and she was actually about 680 feet in from Hillsdale Road, but it’s not like looking across this hallway.”
Three Richmond police officers, Adam Andrukiewicz, Brock Taylor and Ryan Donohue, began to search for the woman, pushing through heavy underbrush and descending into ravines to reach her.
“Climbing hills, getting snagged on branches calling out to her until they heard her faint voice,” Johnson said. “They still couldn’t get to her, because she had fallen down a ravine and into a patch of briars. She ended up suffering lacerations to her entire body, her face.”
With assistance from two Hope Valley Ambulance responders, the police officers carried a soft fabric stretcher into the brush and transported the woman on the stretcher.
“It was five of them,” Johnson said. “Three police officers, two rescue workers, putting her into this stretcher and navigating their way back out of this thing. To watch it on body cam, you can hear how hard they were breathing, how much work it was to get her out.”
Johnson concluded his story with the happy news that the woman is fine, despite her ordeal.
The Technical Review Committee
The town’s Technical Review Committee, newly-mandated by the state in all cities and towns for the review of development applications, is lacking its final member, a representative from the Conservation Commission.
The council approved a motion, by councilor Michael Colasante, asking the Conservation Commission to recommend someone, whose application would then be reviewed and approved by the Town Council.
Flooding at the Dog Park
Councilor Samantha Wilcox requested and received approval to solicit bids to mitigate flooding at the entrance to the new dog park, which opened last November.
“It’s been happening with small amounts of rain. It’s due to various reasons,” she said.
Wilcox explained that the money would come from the funds remaining in the RIDEM Outdoor Recreation Grant of $70,000 for the dog park.
There are also issues with the dog park fence, which is too high off the ground, allowing some dogs to escape. Wilcox said the company that installed the fence had agreed to modify it at no additional charge to the town.
Street Lights and a Thank - You
Town Administrator Karen Pinch received council approval to transfer the ownership of street lights on state roads to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation.
“Back in 2021, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation offered to purchase street lights on state roads,” she said. “That would relieve us of the responsibility of maintaining those street lights.”
Of the town’s 118 street lights, 88 are on state roads. In Jan. 2022, the council voted to transfer the lights on state roads to the state.
“It’s taken quite a bit of time to actually iron out the paperwork,” she said. “We’re ready to go. The paperwork is signed, just looking for your approval to move forward and sign that paperwork. And secondly, DOT is also requiring a resolution from the council.”
The council approved the transfer and the resolution. The transfer of the streetlights is expected to save the town more than $170 per month.
During the Public Forum, Mark Reynolds, President of the Richmond Community Alliance political action committee, thanked Town Clerk Erin Liese and town staff for ensuring that recent elections had run smoothly.
“… The town financial referendum, that’s the fourth election we’ve had in four months, which is pretty unprecedented, so I just wanted to publicly thank Erin Liese the Town Clerk, the clerk staff, the Board of Canvassers, the poll workers, who have been going above and beyond to make these elections run smoothly,” he said.