RVIA Meeting Minutes
October 3, 2016
Attendance: Dean Johnson, Laura Testa, Dean Testa, Marc Genest, Pauline Genest, Judy Colden, Officer Matt Moretti, Linda Hagstrom, David Woisard, Kevin Eisemann, Kathy Eisemann, Stephanie Shuster, George Welly, Nancy Striuli, Bill Sears, Janet Schuster, Karen Bachus, Officer Moretti’s
Reports:
CRIME:
Riverview is the quietest neighborhood. Two isolated instances with guns (domestic).
Bachus asked about sale of drugs and alcohol on beach: Moretti: no records of any arrests over the summer. Some incidents on beach were reported (bottom of Pender and Van Zandt) disturbances did not lead to any arrests.
TRAFFIC:
Centerville Rd will be closed by Burger King roundabout in October for an undetermined amount of time- expect delays in that area during high traffic hours.
New construction across from Dave’s (Dollar General new construction) causing some backup delays.
That corner has a lot of new construction including a new KFC.
Bill Sears asked about when Tidewater will be re-lined (yellow line down middle separating traffic). Discusses how no line has people taking wide turns and driving toward on-coming traffic.
Moretti: will get back regarding that-He believes the re-ligning is scheduled after final paving of road after installation of sewers-however the sewers will take up to 2 years – (RVIA will contact Ladouceur regarding this issue).
EMAIL AFTER MEETING FROM OFFICER MORETTI: He has requested that the Halloween Parade start on different road then Cady due to on-going issues at corner of Pender. I (Pauline) said we would accommodate this request.
Officer Moretti told group there are several comfort homes in the area. It is legal for them to be smoking marijuana-you can tell which homes based on smell in air with de-criminalization and health dept. prescriptions. Nothing can be done unless it is known that a house is “dealing”. High (no pun!) amounts of traffic will be watched by police.
Meeting minutes from April 27 were discussed:
Ed Ladoueceur was not in attendance so no new news regarding the horseshoe crab issues.
Question was posed whether or not the light on Lippett had been fixed (it was in April 27 minutes that a request to fix it had been placed).
Bill Sears proposed that RVIA meetings should be scheduled around City Council Meetings that way Our Councilor can attend and bring city-wide info to the neighborhood meetings. The room concurred.
Going forward: RVIA meetings will be held on the 2 or 4 Mondays of the Month.
A final quarterly meeting for 2016 is scheduled for NOVEMBER 14- 7PM at 15 Riverview Ave.
It was discussed that a new meeting time and location was needed for stockholders meeting.
The board meeting will be set as well.
At the close of the meeting, each person running for School Committee was given 5 minutes to introduce themselves and propose their plans. David Testa, Karen Bachus, Dean Johnson were in attendance.
Danny Hall (a correctional officer) was unable to make the meeting due to work responsibilities
The floor was given to the Warwick School Committee candidates:
David Testa: Warwick resident since 1992 wife is Lifelong Warwick Resident children in public schools – oldest child graduated from Pilgrim in 2015. Platform: 1-advocate for public schools-why can’t Warwick be in the top-it pays as much per pupil as top districts. 2-make consolidation work for all students and families-currently special ed. And middle school are not being given what they need. 3-new teacher contract. 4-newest school is 45 years old- there has been no updates or maintenance in 25 years-this needs to be fixed asap – schools aren’t in code for 1991 ADA compliance. 5-heating in pilgrim and vets are original (1954) He has a private sector background
Wants to expand vocational tech.
Dean Johnson: Hollimon PTO Still on PTO even though both his special needs students had to be transferred to St. Peters. Built and paid for improvements at Hollimon and is planning on other elementary school’s improvements. His desire is to fix the schools and have his children back in public schools (he went to Warwick public schools as a student). He has a military background: “No-band-aids- fix the problems”. Wants new schools and facilities rather than retrofitting schools. School committee needs to work alongside city and state.
Karen Bachus: Worked in Child Protective Services for 27 years.
Degrees in English and Education. Graduate degree in Clinical Psychology. Tollgate is considered the flagship HS in Warwick and it is ranked 32 of over 50 schools in state. Secondary Ed. Re-organization went to fast- plans kept changing- didn’t stick with original timeline now schools are overcrowded, and infrastructure is behind schedule while students are in school. Only the front entrance of Vets was finished when school started Special Ed. Services are lacking children with IEP’s and 504’s are not being helped Now school committee is trying to rush re-consolidation of elementary schools. She believes district should finish secondary consolidation properly- addressing all the problems BEFORE starting elementary consolidation. Has plans to link vocational tech to URI and RIC.
Meeting was concluded and neighbors spoke with candidates individually.
Karen Bachus and Judy Colden 35 Van Zandt joined RVIA and paid their $15 dues
