Council Postpones Planning Board Appointment
By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
May 21st 2025
RICHMOND – At Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, members did not discuss the application by Nancy Hess, who is seeking to return to the Planning Board. With Hess not attending the meeting, the council voted to postpone the discussion to their June 17 meeting.
The Hess Controversy
In 2023, over the objections of Planning Board Chair Philip Damicis, a majority of Town Council members, including council President Mark Trimmer, voted not to renew Hess’s appointment to the board. Samantha Wilcox, the current council President, and Richard Nassaney, the council Vice President at the time, supported her renewal.
A supervisor at the Rhode Island Division of Statewide Planning, Hess brought extensive land use experience and knowledge of state regulations to the board, in particular, the development of the town’s Comprehensive Community Plan.
The reason given for not renewing Hess’s appointment was her manner with applicants, which Trimmer described at the time as “belligerent.”
More Objections
There was another objection this time, from former council member Nell Carpenter, who posted her concerns on the town’s social media page:
“Here’s another very interesting tid bit. [sic] Just for shits and giggles I searched the public/posted communications of April and your first meeting of May and low [sic] and behold it shows NO VACANCY ON THE PLANNING BOARD,” Carpenter wrote. “Riddle me this, the applicant Nancy Hess is applying for a position that wasn’t even advertised ?!? I mean that’s incredible for her or ANYONE to know a vacancy exists without it being advertised.
Hand picked? Recruited? Maybe she just knows a guy???
Bad bad look when your council is going to consider an application that the rest of the community had no knowledge existed. When the end suits the means, transparency means squat.
Good Luck!
Wilcox addressed Carpenter’s remarks at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Kevin Stacey resigned at the last meeting, May 6, [and] we had a request for appointment at the very next meeting,” she said. “So, I’d like to offer a little clarity, that after the council accepts the resignation, it’s then added to the vacant board list of the Town Council website. It’s shared with communications of the next agenda. That’s why you’ll see a vacancy in tonight’s materials, but not on May 6, before we accepted the resignation.”
Water Deal
The council authorized Town Administrator Karen Pinch to sign an agreement on behalf of the town with Westin Solutions for the sale of water for use in testing the quality of water at Ninigret Park in Charlestown.
“Westin Solutions is working with the Army Corps of Engineers at Ninigret Park,” she said. “Apparently, they need to purchase water from somewhere and they need that water to drill monitoring wells down at Ninigret Park. They need the water to be free of PFAS and apparently, Richmond’s water is one of the few systems that’s PFAS-free.”
(PFAS stands for per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, manufactured chemicals which are also called “forever chemicals” because they are slow to break down in the environment and in the human body.)
Westin wants to purchase 1,500 gallons of water per week, from July to December.
Pinch said the additional water sold by Richmond would benefit the town’s entire water system.
“If anything, it’s good for us to draw down some of the water, because some of the problems that we had with coliform, have been just stagnation,” she said.
The final price is still to be worked out, but it appears the town would charge $100 per month for the water for the six- month period. Westin would also pay for a new meter and backflow preventer, which will cost about $2,000. Pinch has asked the town’s water operator, Northeast Water Solutions, to reach out to Westin to discuss a contract, which will be written by Town Solicitor Christopher Zangari.
Councilors said they were pleased that the town’s water was PFAS-free and approved a motion by council Vice President Mark Reynolds to authorize Pinch to sign an agreement on behalf of the town, once an agreement has been reached.
Food Truck Insurance
The council also heard a request from Eric Weiner of PE&E Consulting regarding the insurance his company will need for the food truck events.
“We’re just asking for clarification that the current policies that we have provided are sufficient – a $3 million additional policy for P&E [sic] and a million dollars for Good Vibes are sufficient,” he said.
There had been a discussion of whether to increase the liability coverage for Good Vibes, the entity that sells alcohol at food truck events, from $1 million to $2 million.
Councilors agreed, after hearing from Weiner, to decrease the required coverage for Good Vibes to $1 million.
“It sounds like we have an agreement to help these go forward,” Wilcox told Weiner. “I’m glad we could find an agreement, I’m glad you were willing to come back here. …I think it is also important to have a discussion to make sure that we’re meeting the needs of our constituents of our town.”