West Warwick
West Warwick for all; the essence of education reform; declines in people births; declines in business births; the easy street to dependency. Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…
The news has now broken that not only is the West Warwick pension system in deep trouble but that it may well drag the entire city over the receivership cliff. This would be a good point, accordingly, to post the e-mail exchange between myself and the WW Pension Board of six months ago. (My questions…
Today marks nine years since The Station fire happened in West Warwick where 100 people died and many others are permanently injured both physically and mentally. With a state the size of Rhode Island, it seems that everyone knows someone that was directly affected by this tragedy. Even if you didn’t know anyone affected, try…
Gary Trott tries to apply too much common sense to public-sector budgeting: What should a Rhode Island city or town do if it suddenly finds itself with a surplus of unspent funds amounting to nearly $6 million? You’d think that it would do the responsible thing and not spend those funds in order to ease…
I’m keeping up the posting over on the Tiverton Citizens for Change Web site, including the observation that the drum that the Tiverton School Committee beat prior to our financial town meeting are now being played in West Warwick: Sports programs and part-time employees join the list of recommended cuts school officials hope will compensate…
By way of an update on West Warwick’s current public-money scandal: An Arizona real estate firm has offered to return $3 million to the West Warwick pension board after news of the investment — and the subsequent resignation of the board’s financial consultant — triggered a barrage of criticism in recent weeks. Cole Capital sent…
One of the more alarming aspects of the new revelations about the West Warwick pension fund is the lamentation by the Pension Board Chairman, Geoffrey E. Rousselle, that sunshine has been thrown on the matter. He suggested that the dispute should not have turned public. “It upsets me,” Rousselle said. “I don’t know how that…
The Newport Daily News isn’t very friendly about putting information online, so I don’t have a link to the story, but I read this weekend that the Tiverton School Committee is floating the idea of closing the town’s high school. In hopes of saving $450,000, as I recall, the town would either send its students…
As a threatening cudgel to wave during negotiations and town meetings — allowing school committees to declare that they’ll just take what they “need” and unions contriving to force them to do so — the Caruolo Act is still an insidious force in Rhode Island politics. But with the move being denied in West Warwick,…
Think about this, from amidst the continuing saga of the West Warwick school budget: After one resident learned that it costs about $15,000 to educate each child in West Warwick, she suggested that the town simply send its students to private Catholic schools. [Town Council Member Angelo] Padula quickly agreed, saying, “If we sent 200…
