North Smithfield Town Council Meeting - July 21, 2025
Regular Meeting — July 21, 2025
Meeting overview
Agenda at a glance
| Agenda item | Summary | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Community Choice Aggregation — Freedom Energy | CEO Bart Cromath presented opt-out electricity aggregation program. ~80% of NS residents on default service auto-enrolled with 30-day opt-out. Projected ~10% savings. Budget-neutral to town. Policy disagreement over opt-out mechanism. | Informational; no vote |
| Liquor License Transfer — Yama Fuji | Transfer from Yama Fuji, Inc. to Fuji RI, Inc. at 900 Victory Highway Unit 3. Change in ownership; no change in use. | Approved 5-0 |
| Mobile Food Truck — Rollin Ice Cream | License for town events. Application delayed in processing. | Approved 5-0 |
| Charter Review Committee — Timeline | DeCristofaro presented July 2025–November 2026 timeline. Target: 3–4 referendum questions for November 2026 ballot. | Timeline approved |
| Hollowell Multi-Gen Building Committee | Design development docs complete; out for cost estimating. Food pantry will not participate in Phase 1. Donation mechanism discussion deferred. | Informational |
| Police Station / ECC Update | 100% CDs sent to BidNet mid-July. Mandatory walkthrough July 22. Bids due mid-August. Monthly council updates going forward. | Informational |
| Material Sand & Stone — Quarry Update | GZA still working through testimony. Re-advertisement required. Target: Aug 18. | Informational |
| Code of Conduct — Boards & Committees | Revised version with enforcement language removed. Compliance section rewritten as aspirational/monitoring only. Solicitor suggested adding ‘official actions and communications’ to scope. | Approved 5-0 |
| Groundwater Committee — Resignation | Lee Ann Gillette resigned. Letter read aloud: ‘effort in futility,’ council doesn’t listen. | Accepted; TA to follow up |
| Public Arts Advisory — Appointment | Elizabeth Matthews appointed through Nov 30, 2026. | Approved 5-0 |
| Town Clerk Land Records Contract ($107,478.56) | Five-year sole-source contract with Avenue/Carosoft. Includes fraud alert feature. Funded from land records retention fund; transition to general fund share starting FY27. | Approved 5-0 |
| Payment of Bills | FY24–25: $1,440,793.78; FY25–26: $1,398,178.52. Books reconciled through June for first time in years — monthly reconciliation now standard. | Approved 5-0 |
| June 16 Minutes — Amendment | Alves corrected two items: NRI Now gun control article characterization and PAR Engineering spelling. | Approved as amended |
| Executive Session | Dudley Development (2 cases), Garcia/Zoning Board appeal, potential land acquisition. Two votes taken; sealed. | 2 votes; sealed |
Key issues and discussion
Community Choice Aggregation — Freedom Energy Logistics
The meeting’s most substantive policy debate. CEO Bart Cromath presented a program allowing the town to form a bulk electricity buying group for the approximately 80% of residents on RI Energy’s default service. The mechanism is opt-out — residents are automatically enrolled after a 30-day notice period and can leave at any time with no penalty. Projected savings: roughly 10%. Budget-neutral to the town (Freedom Energy paid 0.1 cents per kWh from the aggregated rate).
Opposition centered on the opt-out mechanism: enrolling residents who weren’t paying attention, even with the opt-out window. Cromath acknowledged this is the most common objection and explained why opt-in has historically failed ($150/customer acquisition cost). He noted Burrillville had rejected the program for the same reason. Seven RI communities currently participate. No vote was taken; the TA said he’d follow up.
Code of Conduct — Adopted Unanimously
After months of back-and-forth, the Code of Conduct for boards and committees passed 5-0. The key change that brought unanimous support: all enforcement provisions — including public censure — were removed. The compliance section now reads as aspirational/monitoring language only.
The most interesting policy debate was Punchak’s question about scope: does the code apply only in an official capacity, or at all times? The solicitor’s resolution — add ‘official actions and communications’ to the applicability section — effectively narrowed the reach. Alves’s concern was that officials posting derogatory attacks on Facebook after meetings would fall in a gray zone. The code was passed without incorporating the solicitor’s suggested language change — cited as a baseline document with room to grow.
Groundwater Protection Committee — First Resignation
Lee Ann Gillette resigned from the Groundwater Protection Committee. Her letter, read aloud at her request, contained a pointed critique: the committee works hard but its work ‘falls on deaf ears’ with the council and other decision-makers. She called volunteering ‘an effort in futility.’ The TA responded by noting he had never spoken with her and wanted to reach out — naming a basic communication breakdown between volunteer committees and town administration.
This is the first documented resignation in this record and foreshadows the wave of resignations that surfaces at the September 2 meeting, where multiple members quit simultaneously with similar complaints.
Charter Review Committee — Timeline
DeCristofaro presented a July 2025 through November 2026 timeline for the full charter review. The target is 3–4 referendum questions for the November 2026 ballot. Excess questions will go into a permanent repository for future cycles. A question was raised about staying ‘laser focused’ given the 2016 experience where the committee generated too many ballot questions. DeCristofaro committed to the 3–4 maximum.
Senior Services — Linda Thibault Update
Linda Thibault gave a detailed update on the Scouters Hall senior program. Classes running Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday with three more added for August. Wednesdays being built out as education day (Blue Cross Blue Shield, URI Pharmacy, URI Nutrition — all at no cost). A former Radio City Rockette teaches Zumba. Veteran Appreciation Dinner planned for November and National Senior Center Month celebration in September, both with secured funding.
The administrative structure: run the program as a Camp Phoenix-style town operation this year (stipend-paid staff, no separate nonprofit), while planning a more formal 501(c)(3) organization for FY2027 that could eventually operate the Hollowell facility.
TA Report — Grants, Route 146, Finance
Three congressional appropriation requests in Senator Reed’s pipeline: $1.5M for Hollowell, $3.3M for Providence Pike waterline extension, $2M for St. Paul water main. The town’s priority is Hollowell. Additional applications: MTAP for Route 146 Phase 2 and a USDOT Safe Streets and Roads grant covering nine town roads with a $40K in-kind match. Route 146 TIF revenue analysis nearly complete; draft report expected August 8.
On finance: for the first time in recent memory, the books were reconciled through end of June before the new fiscal year opened. Monthly reconciliation set as the new standard.
Public comments
No public comments were recorded at this meeting.