July 26
Last night a resident sent me these photos, this was happening to her street. Fortunately, I saw the message and I called our Highway Chief and he sent someone to mark the area with barrels and will send a crew out this morning to find out how this happened and repair it.
If you encounter something like this or anything that you think could be an emergency like a downed tree in the road, a water main leak, etc., after hours or on weekends, call the police department at 401-468-4200. They can get ahold of the DPW and other departments. You’re welcome to message me of course but even though I check my messages as frequently as possible, in an emergency calling police would probably bring more immediate action.
July 25
We’ve confirmed reports that UPS and the Teamsters have reached a tentative agreement and a possible strike has been averted. The entire nationwide membership still has to vote on the TA and that takes at least two weeks from what I was told. For Warwick this means we won’t have to mobilize our police force, cancel events or incur any expenses.
We’re all very pleased that the company and the workers could agree on fair compensation for very hard work. See you all at National Night Out!!!
July 24
Sadly, retired Warwick firefighter Captain Richard Baker has passed away. We thank him for his courageous service to our city.
We send our condolences to his family and friends. City flags will be flown at half-staff through Wednesday to honor his memory.
(edited)
This morning I held a press conference announcing that a warning system has been developed for the Conimicut Point sandbar and it will be installed and functional in about two weeks.
I have been working on this system for a very long time. There was no “turnkey” device available anywhere. The sandbar is a very unique and dangerous area, and I designed this system specifically for it.
One of the features of the system is that we can access it remotely for any programming that needs to be done due to adverse and unusual conditions such as storms. Police and fire will have access.
The tide schedules have all been downloaded into the device. At the specific time that we’ve determined that conditions will start getting dangerous, an alarm will go off followed by an announcement warning of the danger and instructing people to leave the sandbar and will be repeated periodically. The announcement will be in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
In addition, there will be a pole at the beginning of the sandbar with police lights on it. The lights will begin flashing at the announcement and will continue flashing until the system turns it off when the tide has gone back out enough that conditions become safe again. There will be signage with graphics instructing people to stay off the sandbar while the lights are flashing.
-Most of the drownings that have occurred there happened because the victims weren’t local and were unaware of the dangers of the sandbar. This system will warn them in an emphatic way. It will save lives. The one flaw that we can’t conquer is that people will have to heed the warning.
July 23
As many of you know the Rocky Point Pier has been subject to vandalism for a long time now. A lot of the vandalism is focused on the metal screening of the railings. They get kicked or
battered, bending them. At the very end of the pier there are three missing, the area is blocked off with plastic barriers. I consider it dangerous because the barriers can be easily moved. I thought new panels had been ordered but found out from Councilman Ladocuer last week that he had spoken to the director and learned that the manufacturer is no longer in business so they’re looking for options.
In the meantime, I still consider it very dangerous to have missing panels. I had our police divers go down to search to see if they could locate the missing panels. Captain Bob Hart brought some help and searched today. They recovered the missing panels. I’ll contact the RIDEM first thing in the morning and work out a way for them or us to get them reinstalled ASAP.
Kudos to Bob Hart and crew, WPD always comes through!!!
This was sent to me from Councilman Timothy Howe. Tim Is retired Army and a combat veteran. He runs RIMO and the military lounge at the airport.
22 July action report.
Early this morning, 133 Cadets and Cadre from the US Coast Guard Academy were bused to TF Green Airport. The plan was they would walk from the buses to the tarmac and board their plane. The plane was unexpectedly delayed indefinitely.
They were immediately invited to the RIMO Military Lounge. RIAC authorized usage of their conference rooms for the cadets to wait out the delay. RIMO immediately called into action our “Quick Reaction Force” (QRF) and within an hour, we had extra food, drinks and volunteers on hand to accommodate any needs and requests of our honored guests.
The USCG members, RIMO, RIAC and the City of Warwick were preparing for a long stay and the possibility of an early morning departure.
At 1400hrs, it was determined the plane would not be in the area until tomorrow, so the academy picked up the cadets and bused them back to the campus.
July 22
There was a house fire tonight on Warwick Neck. The Warwick Fire Department knocked down the fire very quickly and although damaged, the structure is intact. All residents and their pets got out safely with no injuries. I spent some time with the residents and although they’re shaken up they are otherwise fine.
Great job WFD!!!
Some of the recent results of investing Federal ARPA funds into our infrastructure and equipment. This tractor arrived in the city yard this morning. It is similar to the one we got about a month ago. Before these two we had a tractor that was over 30 years old that we couldn’t even get parts for anymore and it’s been out of service for a long time. We had another that was more light duty and inadequate for the work and was broken down more than it worked. With the new tractor it takes one man four hours to cut the grass at Rocky Point, before that it took four men two days to do the same job using the other type of mowers than we have. Having these two pieces of equipment will free up many, many hours and allow us to get much more work done. These tractors also have the articulating arm needed to cut back brush in minutes as opposed to laborers spending hours doing it by hand.
We also have a new salt and sand enclosure. Before this structure we used tarps. We lost a lot of material to weather which is bad for not only the environment but also the wallet. We’ll now be able to buy and stockpile larger quantities.
July 21
City of Warwick Beach Advisory update.
The Department of Health has issued an advisory that Oakland Beach, City Park Beach and Conimicut Beach are all able to reopen for swimming as of July 20, 2023 @ 4:00pm.
I found this kicking around. The process for the construction of Warwick Town (now City) Hall began way back in 1892.
The total cost was $49,037.69.
The electrical work was $259.46.
The furniture was $702.70.
Just incredible
July 20
As most of you have seen in the news, the labor contract between UPS and their employees will expire on July 31.
I’ve met with both UPS management and union representatives along with Police Chief Brad Connor.
Both sides have said that negotiations are ongoing. The Union has said that employees have already voted to authorize a strike should an agreement not be reached.
My concern is how a strike would impact our city considering that UPS has a large facility here that would be a picket location which would require a large and constant police presence.
Our police department is a very competent and professional organization with outstanding leadership. They have already explored resources and devised logistical plans in the event of a strike. Colonel Connor has issued a mobilization plan for August which basically is an “all hands-on deck, no vacation or time off and on call 24/7” order.
In the event of a strike, police manpower and resources will be stretched to the limit and unfortunately that may result in the cancellation of some public events because we won’t be able to cover them.
Both management and the union have said that even if an agreement is reached in the very near future, it would take a couple of weeks for the nationwide vote to get accomplished. In that eventuality workers are expected to continue working but demonstration pickets may occur.
In this situation we are hoping for a resolution, but we are prepared to deal with whatever happens.
