Opinion/Letters: Newport's Spring Park should not be restricted to passive uses
Spring Park should not be restricted to passive uses
After reading the April 29, 2023, Newport Daily News article about the Newport Spring project, I’m shocked that the city would agree to take over a central piece of Newport property and agree to severe restrictions to be placed upon its use and to be responsible for the cost of its upkeep.
After Newport’s nine founders discovered the freshwater spring, and what would become a deep-water port needed for commerce and transportation, they established what would be Newport in 1639 at the site of the spring.
Needing water, people built houses nearby. As the years rolled by, the parcel became home to a garage for horse and buggies, and was eventually converted to the automobile’s needs.
What's next for Spring Park: Newport Spring Park moves closer to reality
This land has always had a useful, practical role. Why restrict it now to only a passive one? Whom does that serve?
As a park, its raison d’être is to celebrate the Royal Charter of 1663 granted by King Charles II of England to the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. It famously let Rhode Island’s new settlers govern their own colony and guaranteed their individual freedom of religion. The document was authored by John Clarke, one of Newport’s incorporators, and was the first charter to offer this degree of freedom to an English colony.
Of course, this role deserves to be honored across the nation and state as well as in Newport. However, does that require that any commercial use be forbidden on this property? In keeping with the site’s nearly 400-year-old transportation role, why not install a few electric charging stations for bikes and cars? And where the garage once stood, imagine a small café where you could get a beverage and a sandwich, and learn the site’s history while waiting for your electric car or bike to charge. And install self-cleaning toilets at the site.
These uses could bring revenue to the city to offset the costs associated with this “park.”
Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince, Newport
Get involved to make a difference in your community
Our Island community is precious to all of us. It requires a balance between preservation and change. How can citizens be a part of managing this balance?
By community involvement. You ask how can I be effective, I am only one voice? Start by letting your voice, your ideas and opinions be heard. Attend town meetings or email town council members, the town manager and write letters to the editor. Join one of the town boards, very often there are vacancies and your voice will be heard. Get involved in your neighborhood association or if you don't have one start one. In Middletown there are community groups, for example the Easton's Point Association (EPA) and Concerned Island Taxpayers Association (CITA), who advocate for or at times against issues that can change the nature of our town. There are many important issues facing Middletown: offshore wind farms, affordable housing, school bonds, a new library and developing a town center just to name a few. The outcome of these projects should be determined by the citizenry, albeit if we are silent, it will be determined by other interested parties and stakeholders. If you have concerns about happenings in your neighborhood or would like more information about Concerned Island Taxpayers Association see our webpage at www.info@citaofri.org. If you would like information on EPA contact us at EPA PO Box 4055 Middletown RI, 02842.
Audrey MacLeod Pfeffer, Middletown
The proposed bond issue for a new Middletown school is nothing but a hollow promise of education. For years, election campaigns by members of the town council proudly proclaimed that tax rates have not increased. Left unsaid was the underfunding of education. Left unsaid was the lowering of test scores. Left unsaid was the elimination of teachers and staff. Left unsaid was the unending hostility by the town council toward education.
At a recent town council meeting, Katrina High spoke about the elimination of a number of positions at the school for lack of funding. These included music, art, library, social worker, deans, reading, custodians and others. Previously, President Paul Rodrigues told us that he would not vote to approve a plan unless it included space for vocational education.
This begs the question. What is the point of building a new school, and not have the funds to staff it? The Middletown Town Council appears eager to now raise taxes, an increase that will be quite large, for a new school. And yet nothing, not a thing for education. One would think that before spending $190 million on brick and steel, not to mention the stress this would place on the town's finances, one would think that the council would have considered how to improve the education of the town's children first. Here is Mr. Rodrigues responding to Ms. High: “We got to kind of balance that between the taxpayers and schools.” At the risk of repetition, a huge tax increase for a building, but no tax increase for education.
The town council has failed its most basic obligations to its citizens. It has demonstrated the inability to look ahead. It has shown us an unwillingness to make hard decisions. It has given us the spectacle of looking for easy answers when there are none. And now, it has boxed itself into a corner. Crisis management, and yes, this is what we have happening here, is hardly an endorsement of those who have put the town's well-being at risk.
Lawrence Frank, Middletown
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport's Spring Park should not be restricted to passive uses: Letters
