The North Kingstown Town Council met on Monday, September 14, 2026, at 7:00 PM in the Town Hall Council Chambers. The meeting covered a wide range of topics including approval of significant purchases for the fire department, public concerns about the Bitumar asphalt plant's odor, discussion of the Post Road sidewalk project, and appointments to various boards and commissions.
Good evening. And welcome to the people's house in North Kingstown for the town council meeting on Monday, September 14th. Let's call this meeting to order. Uh, pursuant to Rowan General Laws 42, 46-6C. Notice of this meeting's been posed to the Secretary of State's website. And I ask everyone to stand and join me with a Pledge of Allegiance. So with that, um we will go to public comment. Mr. William Tweety. Good evening, Minister Mollis, members of the town council. My name is William Tweety. I live at 426 Washington Street in Coventry, Rhode Island. I own four-paws canine training along with my wife Donna, and I've been training dogs for 19 years. I've been a let's see. I'm ready to request your support for an ordinance that will prohibit pet store puppies in North Kingstown and selling puppy sauce from commercial breeding operations, USDA, aka puppy mills. I've worked with thousands of dogs and their families for many years, and I've seen what happens when breeding is focused on producing inventory instead of producing a healthy, well-adjusted dog. A puppy in a pet store window may look healthy, but once customers get them, they have no idea where that puppy was born, how the puppy was treated, how it was raised in those first critical few weeks of life, and how it was transported across the country many times before arriving at that store. These puppies often spend much of their early lives inadequate sunlight, fresh air exercise, and improper socialization. Poor breeding, inadequate early socialization can lead to families dealing with serious problems after they bring their puppy home. Medical problems, fear, anxiety, difficulty being left alone, and behavioral issues. The emotional and financial burden then falls on the family and is believed to simply buying a healthy puppy. Responsible breeders are different. They care about the health, the temperament, the dogs they breed, they allow buyers to ask questions, see the parents, provide health information. They stand behind their puppies, and most importantly, responsible breeders don't treat puppies like merchandise that need to fill a retail display. Stopping retail sale puppies does not mean the puppy people cannot get a puppy. Families can still choose responsible breeders, shelters, legitimate rescue organizations. What it does is remove a retail outlet that can allow large-scale commercial breeding operations to profit from puppies while keeping consumers separated from the conditions in which those puppies were actually produced. North Kingstown has an opportunity to send a very simple clear message. If you profit from selling dogs in this community, animal welfare and transparency must come from before convenience and profit. This isn't about attacking the small business. It's about encouraging a better, more responsible way of connecting with the community by supplying pet products, supplies, and hosting adoption events. As a trainer, I can help families train their dogs after they come home, but training cannot change how a puppy's mother was treated, undo irresponsible breeding, and give a puppy back to those critical first few weeks of proper care and socialization. Please support ending retail sale of commercially bred puppy milk puppies in North Kingstown. And we can also try and do away with the grandfather clause. Thank you for time and consideration. Thank you, Mr. Tweety. Josh Olson. Good evening. My name is Josh Olson from 103 Oak Tree Drive in North Kingstown. I wrote this down so I didn't forget anything this time. So first thing I would like to talk about is the agenda. We've been to at least seven town council meetings so far in the last six months because of all the issues that have been going on. Every town council meeting we attend, there's a public comment at the beginning of the meeting. Once that period is over, then we actually hear the status of those projects or issues from either Mr. Mollis or from the representatives that are here from QDC. Most are because of the comments we're here to make comments or projects we're here to make comments on. That's great, but once we hear the new information, the audience is not afforded a rebuttal period, and we have to wait till the next meeting in order to make more comments. So we just stew on it for a month. So that's why I'm bringing this up now because I've been stewing on it for a month.