News

The Town Council voted on April 21 to join three other groups in purchasing the Overlook property on the shore of the Great Salt Pond next to Champlin’s Marina and Resort. The vote was taken in a closed session with the Block Island Land Trust and announced in open session during the regular Council meeting.The […]

Block Island is a place of beauty at every time of year. With the quality of light changing from season to season, the landscape is ever-changing.It is, of course, the perfect place to take one’s camera “for a walk,” a veritable photographer’s dream. And so it was that one late afternoon a few weeksago, The

The long-awaited decision on the validity of the mediation between Champlin’s Marina and the R.I Coastal Resources Management Council was delivered on Sept.9, although there is still no resolution in the matter. Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Lanphear was tasked with determining whether that mediation, which resulted in a memorandum of understanding in December of 2020

HarborsThe Town Council approved new fees introduced by the Harbors Department and approved by the Harbors Committee for riparian moorings and a base fee for charter and commercial permit holders. Riparian moorings are those owned by a landowner whose property is contiguous with the water. Under Rhode Island law, property owners have riparian rights to

Shout out to The Oar: It’s doing everything right in the age of Covid-19. According to Manager George Venezia, The Oar has been inspected a total of four times — the first time the venue received a 99.9 rating — but the last time they aced it. A text from the state inspector’s office stated:

Mom and I have seen the stress that Covid-19 has brought to our community and so we were determined that The Mary D. Fund would do even more during this challenging time. To do so, we reached out for a grant. I quietly worked away with the great help of Donna Corey who was there

Financial Town MeetingThe FTM on May 2 at 7 p.m. will not be streamed for the public, per correspondence sent from the Board of Canvassers to the Town Council. The letter indicated that the board felt that providing an option for people to watch at home could “deter people from attending in person.” The board

Block Island experiencing a Covid breakout The past couple of weeks have seen a dramatic rise in positive Covid cases. The R.I. Department of Health had the island’s cumulative case count since the start of thepandemic up by four cases in the week of May 8, but anecdotally, the number who have tested positive is

Both the Water and Sewer Departments adopted budgets for the upcoming fiscal year that starts July 1 at their annual financial meetings on Monday, June 20. Both budgets anticipate increases in revenues from user fees, mainly as a result of increased usage throughout the year, but on the sewer side, a five-percent increase in rates

Earlier this month I visited the campus of Harvard University to see archival file folders located in the basement of the Frances Loeb Library at the renowned Harvard Graduate School of Design. For nearly 70 years modernistic architectural design plans for high-rise hotels and casinos have been filed under “Block Island Design Project, 1952.” All