Richmond to Partner with Hopkinton on Community Center

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
September 20, 2023

RICHMOND – Members of the Town Council voted at Tuesday’s meeting to partner with neighboring Hopkinton on a long-awaited community center.

The council also approved zoning amendments for cannabis retailers.

Community Center

Town Administrator Karen Pinch described the proposed community center partnership to the council.

The state, she explained, has federal American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funds for community projects.  Richmond has already declined the funds, because there is no “shovel-ready” project as required.

“The funding has to be for construction or renovation of a community center,” she said. “Those community centers have to provide three specific types of learning, so to speak. One is education, one is health monitoring and one is workforce development. Those things have to be carried out for a five-year period after the center opens.”

Pinch noted that Hopkinton was already planning to build a new community center at Crandall Field.

“They have asked us if we would, since we had already said we were going to give up our funding, if we would designate our funding to their community, so that our residents could share in the use of that facility,” she said.

Richmond has been allocated $569,284 in federal ARPA money for this initiative and Hopkinton was allocated $627,315. The applications are due by Oct. 6.

If Richmond declines its share of the funds, that money will be distributed to other cities and towns. However, the town can give its share to Hopkinton.

Under the partnership, Hopkinton, which has three full time recreation department employees (Richmond has one part time recreation director) would welcome Richmond residents to the new center. There might even be buses to transport Richmond residents to the Hopkinton facility.

Council members were unanimous in their approval of the allocation of the town’s funds to Hopkinton and the town’s support of the “Community Center Learning Compact” that specifies the three learning services that the community center will be required to provide.

Cannabis sales

At a public hearing at the start of the meeting, the council discussed where recreational cannabis sales should be permitted in the town.

Council President Mark Trimmer said that neighboring Exeter is offering recreational cannabis sales, and residents are driving there to purchase it. Richmond, he said, is missing out on tax revenue, which is 3% for the hosting town.

“I just think it’s an opportunity that we need to jump on before somebody else eats our lunch – again, because so many places have come wanting to locate in Richmond, and because we moved too slowly or we put too many stipulations on it, before you know it, they’ve moved somewhere else. We’ve lost out on the tax revenue and everybody gets to pay more taxes next year,” he said.

The amendment would allow retail cannabis sales in several zones: general business, light industrial, industrial, planned development, planned unit development-village center and by special use permit in the neighborhood business zone.

Two new use codes were created, cannabis retailer and cannabis business.

Councilor Helen Sheehan, who opposed cannabis sales in the town’s general business district, said she would nevertheless approve the motion because she intended to respect the will of voters, who had approved it. Councilor Michael Colasante and Council Vice President Richard Nassaney voted no with Colasante turning to Sheehan after the vote and gesturing his disapproval.

Agreement with YMCA

There was a lengthy discussion of a proposal to rent the new Community Room at the Arcadia branch of the Ocean Community YMCA.

The room would be used for learning activities associated with the state’s Learn365RI initiative, which Richmond has agreed to join.

The room would be available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The rent, $350 per month, is covered by the state Learn365RI grant.

Trimmer said he welcomed the opportunity to partner with the YMCA.

“We have long talked about partnering with the YMCA,” he said. “This is a first step, and Capstone, who holds the lease on that building, is looking for town participation in that building as well.”

Sheehan said the two-day arrangement would not adequately serve the students.

“It may serve the seniors, two days a week, but it’s not going to really serve the students,” she said.

Colasante repeated his earlier proposal that the Learn365RI activities should take place in a school.

“Teachers are there, some of the aides are already there,” he said. “The buses are going to be there to bring the kids back. …The big thing is, the kids are already there, they’re there for a reason, and it would be easy to shuffle them over to one or two empty classrooms at that point.”

Trimmer said that while the funds had been given to Richmond, two other towns, Hopkinton and Charlestown, were also part of the school district.

“Running that program at a Chariho school would be an expense to all three towns,” he said.

Resident Louise Dinsmore suggested the town contact Wood River Health Services in Hope Valley, which has recently expanded its facility and will have a new community room, due to open this month.

“My understanding is, it’s at no cost if it’s something during the day,” she said.

Human Services Director Kate Schimmel, who is overseeing Learn365RI and the state grant, told the council that the school district would use the community room at the YMCA as a quiet homework room, two days a week.

With Sheehan and Colasante opposed, Trimmer, council Vice President Richard Nassaney and councilor Samantha Wilcox approved a motion, made by Wilcox, to approve the rental agreement with the YMCA.

Executive Minutes

In the interest of increased transparency, Wilcox introduced a motion to un-seal minutes from the council’s executive sessions of Jan. 3, Jan. 25 and June 6, 2023.

Trimmer said he believed that executive sessions, which often addressed sensitive personnel matters or legal topics, should remain sealed, except in the case of a federal investigation.

“We speak freely with the expectation that what we say in those executive sessions are never going to make it to social media, make it to the public,” he said.

Trimmer added that the only purpose he could see for un-sealing executive minutes would be “a political one.”

Wilcox responded,

“I don’t appreciate that you’re claiming it’s political,” she said. “We entered executive session specifically to discuss a job performance, and then when we left, we continued to discuss it in open session. I thought to myself ‘why did we even seal those if it’s all public anyway?’”

Wilcox said opening the minutes would improve council transparency, but she did concede that un-sealing the Jan. 3 session would not be feasible, because it involved pending litigation.

Colasante moved, and Sheehan seconded, a motion to keep the minutes sealed.

Town Solicitor Karen Ellsworth added that there were circumstances under which the discussions of matters, such as the possible purchase of property, should stay sealed but can be released after the purchase.

“But, whenever you’re talking about someone’s character health, job performance, I think sometimes things are said during a closed session with the expectation that they will remain in private,” she said.

Dinsmore told the council that information about the town’s embattled electrical inspector, Jeffrey Vaillancourt, had appeared on the Beaver River Valley Community Association website and asked how that information had come to light, implying that the information could have been leaked from the executive session.

“There was a post by the Beaver River Valley Community Association on August 30 saying the following: ‘Vaillancourt, who was hired in March, is currently under probation following an incident at Pasquale farms during which he is said to have been impolite to the owner,’” she said. “Now, I went through all of the Town Council meetings from open session. I don’t ever remember or I could not find – I went through this painstakingly and it took a long time to go through these Town Council meetings, that there was no discussion in open session about Pasquale Farm – that business. So, that would lead me to believe that if Pasquale Farm was discussed in executive session, that someone disclosed that to the reporter from the Beaver River Valley Community Association. …I would like to understand how Miss Drummond and the Beaver River Valley [Community] Association was privy to this information.”

Trimmer responded that the information was “all around town”  and “common knowledge,” and that he had had people approach him about the incident before the council discussed it.

Resident Bob Sayer raised the possibility that representatives of Pasquale Farm could also have spoken about it.

The council voted unanimously to keep the executive session minutes sealed.

Other business

The council discussed a resolution authorizing the town to issue up to $2.5 million in general obligation bonds. Finance Director Laura Kenyon explained that the funds would be used for road improvements. Voters approved the issuance of the bonds at the June, 2023 Financial Town Meeting.

Colasante said he had obtained $404,000 for road repairs under the state’s RhodeWorks initiative and suggested reducing the bond by that amount.

“My idea is to save the townspeople money, is that they voted to go out to bond for $2.5 million so with that $404,000, that was a big windfall to the town, so it’s my idea, and I’m just throwing it out there, that we should actually just go out to bond for $2.1 million.”

Kenyon said the authorization was for up to $2.5 million and added that she would talk with Department of Public Works Director Scott Barber to determine how much work the roads would need.

The motion passed, with Colasante and Sheehan opposed. 

Pinch updated the council on progress on the Beaver River playground. The old equipment has been removed and the installation of the new equipment will begin this week.