In the expected narrative of town politics, one would think it would be the selfish anti-tax Tiverton Citizens for Change–type newcomers to town who would squash an annual charity event that allows amplified music well into the hours of prime time television. Of course, that popular narrative has always been incorrect.
The “community-minded” long-time residents aren’t selfless souls pleading with their fellow townsfolk to put Tiverton ahead of themselves when times require it. Some of them are protecting the substantial pay and benefits of their public-sector jobs (or those of friends and family). Some of them are protecting favored programs from which they individually benefit. And some of them simply want the town to be run according to their vision for it, with contrary views humored but not incorporated.
And so, as Tom Killin Dalglish reports:
By a vote of 4-2, the Town Council Monday night imposed new time and sound limits on the musical fund raiser “Singing Out Against Hunger” scheduled for early September at Evelyn’s Drive-In and Coastal Roasters.
The event must now end at 7 p.m., said the council, not 9 p.m. (or 9:30 p.m. as the sponsors were hoping for this year). And there may now be “no amplification.”
Councilors Jay Lambert and Cecil Leonard voted against the restrictions, and Hannibal Costa was absent, which leaves Louise Durfee, Joanne Arruda, Don Bollin, and Ed Roderick imposing the rules. Durfee made the motion and spearheaded the opposition, and it isn’t surprising at all that a Town Council that permits its appointed Town Administrator to send false documents to the state en route to a massive tax increase and that Town Council members who would then sue the president of the local tax-payer group, David Nelson of Tiverton Citizens for Change, for complaining about that action, would squash a good cause that fills the community’s late-summer air with music.
From the Sakonnet Times:
At the hearing, Councilor Louise Durfee said she had gotten complaints that the music went on after it was supposed to, and that other noise went on after the official ending time. The neighbors nearby, and across Nanaquacket Pond could hear the music and Ms. Durfee later said she could hear the music from her home on Highland Road. …
“You’re on a postage stamp piece of property. Your neighbor goes to work at 4 a.m.,” she said.
From the Newport Daily News:
Council members hear complaints about the noise every year, Councilwoman Louise Durfee said. She made the motion at the council’s meeting last week to prohibit amplification and to cut back the hours. Money should not be raised “at somebody else’s expense, and that is what is happening,” she said.
No businesses. No charity. No public events. And high taxes. Sometimes sleepy little towns aren’t bucolic; they’re dying.
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