North Kingstown Town Council Meeting June 24, 2024: Energy Aggregation, Hazard Mitigation, Appointments

The North Kingstown Town Council met on Monday, June 24, 2024, at Town Hall Council Chambers, 80 Boston Neck Road, North Kingstown, R.I. The meeting opened with an executive session at 6:30 p.m. concerning potential acquisition and development of 55 Brown Street; the regular meeting began at 7:00 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence for Linda, a community volunteer and cyclist fatally struck on Boston Neck Road days earlier. Major items included a public hearing on the Good Energy draft Community Aggregation Plan, a consent agenda, the town manager's report, board and commission appointments, a hazard mitigation plan update, a Pride Month resolution, and a return to executive session.

Public Hearing - Good Energy Draft Community Aggregation Plan

• Good Energy representatives Dawn Oyer and Rachel Ferdinand presented the plan to make North Kingstown Community Electricity the default electricity supply, with Rhode Island Energy continuing to handle billing and distribution. They cited a 30-day opt-out period, a PUC review timeline of about two to two and a half months based on Middletown, and savings to date of $8.2 million statewide and 22 million pounds of CO2 avoided across seven participating communities.
• Public commenters included Ricky Thompson (194 Plain Road), who questioned the statutory opt-out design and requested tracking of savings; Kathleen Garino (139 Summit View Lane), who asked whether the town could return to the status quo; George Brennan (70 Boone Street), who said he was not in big favor of the plan and expressed skepticism about minimal savings and the cost of the intermediary; and Joe Tech Silver (200 Delano Drive), who asked what energy resources would be tapped and what the current kilowatt-hour price difference is.
• Council discussion: President Mancini said he had checked with Providence officials and was comfortable; Councilor Anderson said she had heard nothing negative from contacts at the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission; Councilor Page supported the renewable-energy step; Councilor McCoy asked about Good Energy's Rhode Island registration. Councilor Mandel said he was skeptical, wanted a longer track record such as Illinois history, and questioned how a profit-making supplier could save money.
• Good Energy responded that the supplier profits via an adder of 0.001 cents per kilowatt-hour, that the opt-out design creates a buying pool large enough to bid competitively, and that average household savings were roughly a couple of dollars a month or about $50 a year, with Providence reporting about 5 percent savings.
• Note: The plan materials described the default product as a 10 percent renewable increase over last-resort service, but a Good Energy representative later referred to a 5 percent renewable increase; the figure was not resolved before the council deferred.

Public Comments & Testimony

• Mary Waraback (25 North Road) said she was excited about the hazard mitigation plan update but stressed that successful plans include financing; she cited Portland, Oregon's 1 percent clean-energy surcharge on large retailers and Denver's voter-approved 0.25 percent sales tax generating about $40 million a year, and asked how the town would protect against future Rhode Island Energy distribution-rate increases.
• Joe Tuxero (200 Delano Drive) asked about the first-reading procedure for the $60 million public safety bond ordinance and confirmed a public hearing would be held at the July 15 meeting.

Consent Calendar

• The council approved items 7, 9, 10, 12, 14 through 19 in one motion: approval of minutes from April 29 and May 20, 2024; a $40 donation; acceptance of a message center sign for the Wilson Park pickleball courts from the North Kingstown Pickleball Community; purchase of two Ford F250 4WD pickup trucks with plows and safety lighting for $115,190 through the MPA contract; a holiday sales license renewal for Seacoast Fitness/Planet Fitness; transfer and renewal of holiday sales and victualling licenses from Dania Food Mart LLC to Madni Food Mart LLC; a new peddler license for Ocean State Novelty; a joint pole relocation request for Brookside Drive; and a first reading of amendments to the competitive bidding ordinance.
• Item 8: The council approved abatement of uncollectable taxes totaling $83,584.79, described as mostly motor-vehicle excise taxes more than 10 years old that the town is barred by law from collecting.
• Item 11: The council approved the $19,192 purchase of recycling carts from Cascade Engineering via the Sourcewell cooperative purchasing agreement.
• Item 13: The council approved a sole-source contract with Wright-Pierce for engineering, construction oversight, and administrative services for replacement of Water Department Wells Nos. 3, 7, and 8 in the amount of $385,710. Water officials said the overall project is estimated at about $1.1 million, with a $1.4 million good-faith estimate, and that funds are in the water utility budget with potential reimbursement from a PFAS-related lawsuit.
• Item 20: The council approved the first reading of an ordinance amendment to Section 11-37 concerning no parking or limited parking on Roosevelt Avenue and asked that Intrepid Avenue signs also be reviewed.
• Item 21: The council approved the first reading of an uncodified ordinance authorizing up to $60,000,000 in bonds and notes for public safety projects including a new police station and a new fire station. A typo on the last page in Section 11 would be fixed before advertising.

Town Manager Report

• The town manager reported that Revolution Wind's pipe pile driving is 70 percent complete; the Water Department rain-barrel program has drawn more than 45 participants; the municipal parking lot and streetscape improvement program will kick off soon; RIDOT's Route 4 pavement project will cover more than five miles through North Kingstown and East Greenwich and is expected to be complete by the end of November 2024; and ADA beach improvements are planned, including two beach wheelchairs and accessible rubber matting, possibly ordered on a conditional basis before the July 15 council approval.
• He also reported that traffic and speeding enforcement is significantly up over prior years, noted an officer recognized for DUI enforcement, and discussed a three-to-six-month review of human-resource policies related to inclusivity and benefits.

New Business - Board and Commission Appointments

• Arts Council: two vacancies; action deferred while the town manager prepares a proposal to reduce the council's membership.
• Asset Management Commission: Diane Izzo and Joseph Gentile were approved as two at-large representatives; a financial representative and a town council representative vacancy remain.
• Building Code Board of Appeals: Max Reynolds was appointed.
• Economic Development Advisory Board: the council will return with a first-reading ordinance amendment eliminating the first and second alternate positions.
• Leisure Services Advisory Committee: John (Jack) Pyne and Richard Lipsett were reappointed.
• Planning Commission: Steven Borowick was reappointed.
• Probate Judge: Brian Fielding was appointed to July 1, 2025.
• Veterans Day and Memorial Day Parades Committee: deferred.
• Veteran's Liaison: Tom Riley did not reapply; the council decided to reach out rather than re-advertise.

Hazard Mitigation Plan Update

• Planning Director Nicole LaFontaine and GZA's Mike Gardner presented the five-year update to the town's 2019 Hazard Mitigation Plan, required for federal hazard-mitigation grant eligibility. The 2019 plan contained 37 actions; the draft update proposes 21 new actions: 10 addressing multiple hazards, 7 flood-specific, 3 climate-related, and 1 severe-weather action.
• Gardner noted that coastal and riverine flooding and hurricanes or tropical storms are the top hazards; the town's public survey has received more than 100 responses, compared with 11 to 12 in a neighboring town. Next steps are a draft plan, local adoption, and submission to REMA and FEMA.
• Council members asked about funding and staffing for the proposed actions, underground-utility policies, and the CRS verification visit scheduled for November.

Pride Month Resolution

• The council unanimously approved, as amended, a resolution recognizing June as North Kingstown Pride Month and honoring the LGBTQIA+ community. The amendment added a whereas noting that the federal government, Rhode Island legislature, and governor have declared June as Pride Month. The resolution cited the Stonewall Uprising of 1969, Rhode Island's anti-discrimination laws covering sexual orientation since 1995 and gender identity or expression since 2001, the 2007 conversion-therapy ban, and statistics on LGBTQIA+ youth suicide risk and discrimination.

Correspondence

• Councilor McCoy read a correspondence log spanning June 10-24, 2024, including emails about the Pride flag, speeding on North Quidnessett Road and Fletcher Road, the Good Energy program, the Machinist CTE program, and 55 Brown Street.

Key Outcomes

• The public hearing on the Good Energy aggregation plan was closed. A motion to authorize the town manager to finalize and submit the plan failed when the second was withdrawn; a subsequent motion to defer discussion until more data, including a longer track record from Illinois and Massachusetts, was passed, with a target of the July 15, 2024 meeting.
• All consent-calendar items were approved as described above.
• Appointments were approved as described above; Arts Council, Parades Committee, and EDAB alternates were deferred or referred for ordinance changes.
• The Pride Month resolution was approved unanimously.
• In executive session, the council took a unanimous vote to defer any decision on sending a notice of intent regarding 55 Brown Street until further notice and direction by the council; the executive session minutes were sealed.

The meeting adjourned after returning to open session.