Going Green

Meeting Tonight on Shellfish Management

DEM, URI and CRMC officials are asking for public input on shellfish management.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, with support from the University of Rhode Island, are developing a Rhode Island Shellfish Management Plan.  There will be an RI SMP Stakeholder Meeting, to promote the participation of individuals and businesses concerned with the future of the commercial and recreational issue of shellfish on Wednesday, May 15 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Corless Auditorium at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography’s Narragansett Bay Campus. This full stakeholder meeting will include an update on the SMP, including the plan's progress, on-going projects, and proposed next steps. In addition, the meeting will serve as the…

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Letters To The Editor

Letter: CRMC, SK Leaders Let Matunuck Down

Susan Rivera Russo, a former resident of Matunuck, criticizes its treatment from the town and the CRMC.

To the editor, It took them – the Coastal Resources Management Council and the Town of South Kingstown – almost 40 years to "decide" on how to preserve Matunuck from disaster and oblivion.  The resolution was to build a wall and have it built by October.  Granted, as of this writing, there are six days left in the month to execute "their" plans, which is more like trying to work a miracle.  It appears that the only thing to be "executed” will be Matunuck. Shame on you, Mr. Alfred. Shame on you, present and past members of the South Kingstown Town Council. Shame on you, CRMC. But once again, what do any of you care??? You do 'not' lose your home, your job or your business. You lose "nothing."    There is just so much that people can take, …

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CRMC to Allow Retaining Wall Along Matunuck Beach Road

Reversing course, the Coastal Resources Management Council voted on Tuesday night to allow the town to build a retaining wall along Matunuck Beach Road to protect it from rapidly approaching beach erosion.

CRMC: Matunuck Shore Not Manmade

The CRMC nixed the town's effort to reclassify Matunuck as a man-made shoreline, ensuring that a seawall to stave off erosion would not be in the village's future.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Despite the riprap, scattered seawalls and foundations that now kiss the ocean on Matunuck’s coast, its shoreline is not manmade, according to a vote Tuesday by the state Coastal Resources Management Council. The vote was the second denial of town efforts that would have allowed Matunuck’s home and business owners to erect hard structures to help stave off erosion and further loss of property. However, residents were not left without hope for a solution that could save homes, infrastructure and even re-grow the sandy beaches that were once characteristic of the area. At the opening of the meeting, the council voted 7-0, with Anthony Affigne abstaining, to reconsider its April 10 denial to review the town’s application to …

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CRMC To Reconsider Matunuck Tuesday

Town officials announced on Monday that the CRMC would reconsider its April 10 decision to deny the town's application to erect a 202-foot steel sheet-pile wall to protect public infrastructure at its meeting on Tuesday at South Kingstown High School.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Town officials announced during Monday night’s town council meeting that they would once again urge the state Coastal Resources Management Council to allow for the fortification of the Matunuck shoreline. The future of Matunuck’s receding shoreline will be decided in two votes at Tuesday’s CRMC meeting, as the town has petitioned the council to reconsider its April 10 denial to armor the village’s roadways and utilities against further ocean erosion. During the meeting at the University of Rhode Island Bay Campus in Narragansett earlier this month, the CRMC voted to deny the town special exception status for the installation of a 202-foot steel sheet-pile wall that would have protected Matunuck Beach Road – and interred …

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Town Presents Matunuck Case to CRMC

The town sent its response in to the CRMC on Wednesday, Jan. 11, making its case to erect a steel sheet pile wall to combat erosion at Matunuck's southern edge.