The North Kingstown Town Council met on Monday, September 23, 2024, at 7:00 PM in the Town Hall Council Chambers. The meeting covered a wide range of business including the appointment of a new Water Supply Director, approval of a school construction application, multiple consent agenda items, a town manager's report, proclamations for Indigenous People's Day and VFW Day, and appointments to several boards and commissions. An executive session was held for personnel, litigation, and real estate matters.
Items 8-32 were approved except items 13, 15, 19, and 30, which were pulled for separate discussion:
I know I know when I post the meetings I get the same time. Okay, we're good. Thank you. Um good evening and welcome to uh North Kingstown Town Council meeting for Monday, uh September twenty third. And uh welcome to the People's House of North Kingstown. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Uh pursuant to Rhode Island General Laws forty two dash forty six dash six C. Notice of this meeting has been um posted on the Secretary of State's website. Uh before we salute the flag, I would like to note that our community has lost uh two members of our community who have uh been longstanding members and um they'll also be felt uh Charles Bauer and Kathleen Devine. Kathleen in particular has uh raised her family here and uh her family's very active, particularly her daughter in the community, and I know Kathleen was too. Um when we do the solar flag, I'd like us to take a moment of silence on behalf of Kathleen Devine and uh Charles Bauer. So thank you. Um asking the General Assembly to uh put up some sort of sound barriers which were supposed to be put up when four oh three is constructed. So although the General Assembly is not going to be in session until uh January, we will act on that promptly. Well thank you. And for that reason why I have any questions. Oh my god. And we want a wild all of the flag holes. And what comes to the world is all of the yeah, I'm going to take them today. Thank you for all your time. Thank you, Mr. Panoyer. Before we go to the next speaker, I do want to um miss enough pointing out that uh counselor or president of Pro Tem Dr. Kim Page is uh finish up her class uh that she teaches and she is on her way and she'll be here. Oh, she is in route. So anyways, she's from Connecticut. Um next is uh Jennifer Lima. Hi, uh my name is Jennifer Lima. I'm speaking here tonight in my capacity as the president of Towards an Anti-Racist uh North Kingstown Tank. Before I get into my comments, I just want to commend the town and the North Kingstown 350th anniversary committee for the family day that was held earlier this month. It was an excellent day for the community, and I can only imagine the logistics and the planning that went into making sure that it ran smoothly. I also want to say I've never been so simultaneously fascinated and appalled by that foam thing. Like that was absolutely amazing. So last year around this time I stood before you and talked about how the myth of Columbus discovering America is one steeped in violence and racism, that we live on the unceded land of the Narragansett people, and that we can acknowledge the history behind Columbus Day without continuing to celebrate it, and that instead we should be honoring indigenous people and recognizing that they existed before Columbus arrived and that they're still here today. At that time, I had asked that the town reach out to the Tomaqua Museum and get the education necessary so that we could have a meaningful observation of Indigenous People's Day moving forward. So, you know, as part of the town's 350th anniversary celebration, Lorenz Spears, who's the executive director of the Tamaqua Museum, she gave the first lecture in the year-long speaker series that you all had. I know that there's been outreach to the Narragansett tribe to throughout the year to participate in other various events, and tonight there's a proclamation on the agenda recognizing Indigenous People's Day. I want to thank the town for taking these first steps in what needs to be an ongoing process. Um, you know, personally, I wish that the proclamation included some more specific language relating to the dispossession of the land that we're on, and that it acknowledged the settler colonialism and that traumas that befell the Narragansett nation as a result of that displacement. But I recognize this as a start, and I want to thank you for it. I am, however, requesting you consider one change this evening before voting on it. Indigenous People's Day is about commemorating the resistance and the resilience of the indigenous people, not just in the past but in the present. And you know, the Narragansans didn't just inhabit this region prior to the colonization, they're here today, and I don't think that that proclamation really recognizes that to the extent that it should. And I don't think that that proclamation really recognizes that to the extent that it should. So, you know, I'll close by noting that the progress has been made over the past year, and my hope is that the town will strive for further inclusion of indigenous culture and history in our town. There's no Rhode Island history without Narragansett and other indigenous history, and there's no U.S. history without Indigenous history. So thank you. Thank you. Rhett Mallory, please.