To the Editor: At the Norwood Association meeting on April 12, Mayor Avedisian mentioned how Warwick still seemed broken up into villages and sometimes didn't seem like one city. Along those same lines, I say Rhode Island isn't really a state but is made
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To the Editor:
At the Norwood Association meeting on April 12, Mayor Avedisian mentioned how Warwick still seemed broken up into villages and sometimes didn't seem like one city. Along those same lines, I say Rhode Island isn't really a state but is made up of separate distinct cities and towns.
I say this because it seems our spirit of community has become lost in the provincial mindset of it takes too long to get from Pawtucket to Westerly which seems absurd when in a state like Maine it takes a minimum of three hours to get anywhere.
So after Providence closes down 19 classrooms because of mold, why is nothing more immediate being done to solve the problem as it begins to unfold here in neighboring Warwick?
Not being able to test until the temperature reached above fifty degrees is the answer I hear which I find difficult to buy. Will it be the same old excuses? What affects one of us tends to effect all of us as a whole.
The school administration can no longer turn a blind eye. A hundred or so people turned out at the Norwood Boys and Girls club to hear the Mayor and Councilman Jeremy Rix speak on issues pertaining to the city and Ward 2. Many asked pertinent questions. Perhaps stung by the last cantankerous election cycle, citizens are reacting faster to what's going on around them than ever.
Thanks to the immediacy of social media and having a smart phone, everyone with a camera is a photo journalist taking pictures of the next train wreck. It should be all for one and one for all. United we stand. Divided we fall. City business can no longer be politics as usual.
Smoke detectors not working at Norwood and Holliman Elementary schools for a month shows nothing short of indifference, sheer incompetence and negligence that cries out for accountability. Especially after funding was requested from the City Council to fix among other things, school athletic fields. Thank you school committee member Karen Bacchus for calling on Superintendent Phillip Thornton to resign.
Warwick doesn't need another Station Fire tragedy. What is it they say about forgetting our history and being doomed to repeat it?
As a Warwick resident and parent who pays taxes and votes, I am concerned for my son who attends public school. How will being exposed to mold, carbon monoxide and raw sewage affect his overall good heath? What about the future well being of his friends and teachers who already work under adverse conditions?
What are the top priorities? Where is the transparency? Where is the open communication?
A public servant is accountable to the people and not the other way around.
Russell E. Gundlach Jr.
Warwick
2 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
richardcorrente
Dear Russell,
My opinions on this matter are well known. Improving our schools is the number one priority for me. As mayor, I will not give a dime to the School Committee (SC) until we have accountability from them. The law says we can't influence them "once they receive the $160,000,000 budget" so I have decided that I will do it BEFORE I turn over the taxpayers hard earned money. I recently heard the mayor pretend he knew nothing about the fire alarm problems. That was a lie Russell. I took pictures in December of 2015 of fire alarm boxes with green paper covering them showing that they were inoperable. Those fire boxes were IN THE CITY HALL! And the mayor didn't see it?!
You say it shows indifference. I am not as nice as you. I have described it in words that I can't print here. Warwick needs a mayor that cares enough to react to these issues immediately. As mayor, I promise to do that and to be 100% accountable to the 80,000 taxpayers that are paying the tab. People like you Russell. 2018 is around the corner. Call me at 401-338-9900. I'd like to continue this conversation.
Happy summer everyone.
Rick Corrente
The Taxpayers Mayor
Thursday, April 20, 2017 Report this
Justanidiot
grate comments from someone who has to get the taxes dragged from his cold dead hands
Thursday, April 20, 2017 Report this