Thanks to the town of North Kingstown’s desire to give meaningful new life to its beloved 1888 town hall, the award-winning professional talents of DBVW Architects, and formal oversight by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, the Town, residents and visitors will benefit for generations to come.

It’s the back-to-school season, which means back-to-school shopping and time to get rid of last year’s fashions and sizes. But what happens to the old clothes?  Some people resell items, some pass them down, and many of us pack them up and we donate them.  But where do they go after we donate them? 

It’s an understatement to say the North Kingstown school system faces challenges.  North Kingstown makes state, national, and even international news — not for the quality of the education but instead for the multiple lawsuits and investigations on how the district leadership has failed our students. Adding to this void in leadership was the sudden resignation of a committee member.

I am running for Senate District 38 which includes all of Westerly, a good portion of Charlestown and a portion of South Kingstown.

Back in 1999 when I was 25, I was privileged to ride on the “Straight Talk Express” with then presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.

In August, Jake Mather resigned from the North Kingstown School Committee. The NK Town Charter states in section 903: In the event that the office of a member of the school committee shall become vacant from any cause, such vacancy shall be filled by the town council by appointing thereto the school committee candidate who, in the most recent general election, received the highest number of votes among the unsuccessful candidates in said election. If such candidate … has ceased to meet the qualifications for school committee, … the council shall appoint another qualified elector of the town to fill the vacancy. In any event, such vacancy shall be filled by the town council within thirty (30) days.

Democrat candidate for School Committee Erin Earle wrote a recent letter to the editor (“We must restore trust in our school district,” The Independent, Sep. 15, 2022) Full of generic talking points and important sounding buzz words, it lacked any real substance. She sounds like a seasoned politician already.

NK Town Council President Greg Mancini likes to tout all the accomplishments under his time on the town council.  Perhaps the long laundry list he presents is meant to distract the voters from the truth as opposed to the spin Democrats like to use.

The seventh annual Peace Dale Pumpkin Patch will open on Monday at 10 a.m. and remain open from 10 a.m. until dusk every day through October 31. The pumpkin patch is located on the front lawn of Peace Dale Congregational Church at 261 Columbia St. in Wakefield.

I would like to publicly thank North Kingstown Town Councilors Katie Anderson, Kim Page and Greg Mancini for organizing the event on the afternoon of September 11 in support of North Kingstown students.

I am deeply offended  the Narragansett Library would put on it’s website that the cost to the taxpayers of a library buildout in the Pier Marketplace  would be $2.65 million. This is a gross misstatement and designed to obfuscate the true cost.

Thirteen (13) years ago, I received Town notice of the proposed Rolling Greens development which was in violation of North Kingstown’s Comprehensive Plan, Zoning, Ordinances, Water Service Map, Urban Services Boundary and in conflict with experts Horsley Witten and 4Ward Planning. In response, residents packed Town Planning and Council meetings to voice their substantiated objections as Town Officials turned a deaf ear to their constituents.

Yesterday at a five-year old’s birthday party, a mom new to town said to me with a concerned look, “I moved here for the schools.” I know that look — it’s the one I have when worrying about my children before they try something new or on days when I know things might be hard for them.

On Wednesday, September 7, sitting North Kingstown Town Council (NKTC) member Mary Brimer posted on her Facebook page an unsubstantiated claim about the presence of litter boxes in the public school bathrooms. Her post requested evidence from the community in the form of pictures taken from inside the bathrooms.

It has been great to see so many kids at the new beach play area this summer. With friends, parents and grandparents in tow, the kids have been running from the swings to the slides, and to all those other contraptions — whatever they’re called — every day since the place opened. Too bad the rest of us can’t tap into some of that energy.