LETTER: Council Majority Needs to Allow Discussion about Town Hall Move

To the editor:

Don’t look now North Kingstown but your taxes may be going up. The GOP majority of the NK Town Council is about to hand contractors a big blank check for renovating the Town Hall and School Administration building without having specific estimates on their estimated cost but that’s not all.

Despite three months of discussion and despite most of the noted building code violations fixed, the NK Town Council still doesn’t know the costs to bring the Town Hall into compliance with the state building codes. Nor do they know the costs of renovating the school administration building which will house the Town Hall staff until the Town Hall is back on-line. What is truly hard to understand is that the Republican majority (Kerry McKay, Jason Albuquerque, and Carol Hueston) seems determined to shut down public discussion on the issue. Yet the questions are pretty basic.

I. Why is the Council majority making important decisions without having accurate information to do so?.

2. Estimates of the costs to temporarily move town offices are not budgeted funds. Costs have been estimated to be as high as $700,000. Where is the money coming from? A tax hike?

3. The Town Hall and Town Hall Annex are historically preserved structures yet the Town has not sought any State grant money to supplement NK taxpayer dollars. Why pass up free money?

4. Town Council President McKay flatly denied Councilwoman Ellen Waxman’s request to place discussion of the renovations on next Monday’s agenda. What’s the harm in continuing the discussion? What’s there to hide?

5. If most of the code violations have been fixed why move ahead on the renovations of the school administration building? Why not save the town from spending money on a second renovation if both renovations will be ready at the same time?

Certainly, fixing only the Town Hall would save the added cost and disruption of moving the Town Hall staff. If required, close the town offices for Monday and/or Friday during construction. Extend the hours on Tuesday-Thursday. Have the contractors work over a few weekends. If we had the estimates of the costs and a timeline for the work perhaps better decisions could be made.

North Kingstown do we really want our taxes to go up, again? Of course not. Please show up at the next Town Council meeting. The public comment period is the first 15 minutes of the meeting which starts at 7:00 at the Senior Center. If they won’t let the minority speak than let the taxpayers speak. After all it’s a democracy.

— Donna Hutchinson