Politics & Government

Mayor: Pelletier Should Focus On Cranston

Mayor Joseph Polisena responded to a letter written by Cranston City Council Vice President Robert Pelletier.

Responding to charges levelled by Cranston City Council Vice President Robert Pelletier in a , Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena said during an interview at Town Hall yesterday that he had nothing to do with sewer and water tie-ins that Pelletier claimed are illegal.

Pelletier wrote that he felt Polisena was , two companies located at the Central Landfill, to distract attention from the sewer and water hookups to the Cranston systems.

Polisena, who said that he does not know Pelletier and "wouldn't recognize him," added that it's Pelletier who's trying to distract people.

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Rhode Island Resource Recovery is in the process of stopping its use of Cranston sewers and changing to Johnston's system, run by the Narragansett Bay Commission — potentially costing Cranston some $700,000 a year in use fees and $2.1 million in fines that the city is trying to collect for what it calls illegal untreated discharges from RIRRC, Polisena noted.

"He's rationalizing for when his constituency gets an increase in their sewer bills: Blame Johnston," Polisena said. "But the truth is, they should blame him and the other members who allowed this to happen."

Find out what's happening in Johnstonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to Polisena, "Narragansett Bay Commission has no problem" with the sewage that RIRRC would be sending into the Johnston system.

Resource Recovery Director Michael OConnell said during a phone interview this morning that the company plans to put the sewer construction work out to bid in January and award the contract in April.

"Hopefully, by the end of the year we'll be connected," OConnell said.

In his letter, Pelletier accused Polisena of "trying to set yourself up for re-election by using a legal tactic that you know will get tied up in court for years and waste your taxpayer’s dollars."

The mayor said he felt the money spent on defending the town in court was well worth it.

Pointing to two default judgments that Town Solicitor William Conley successfully overturned earlier this year — , and another for $450,000 — Polisena explained: "It's cheaper to pay the solicitor to fight this than it is to just lay down — I'm not going to lay down, I'm fighting for the taxpayers."

Polisena also responded to Pelletier's suggestion that Johnston's legal fight over the recent odor problems was belated.

"There have been a couple of comments, 'Why did you wait so long?' We were told it was going to be fixed over 'x' amount of weeks, so we waited," Polisena explained. "If we had filed a lawsuit right away, and they fixed it, we would have looked like buffoons in court and it would have wasted taxpayers' money."

The mayor said that Pelletier should focus on his own city's issues instead of trying to blame Johnston.

"He should worry about the city of Cranston's taxpayers' money, and I'll worry about the town of Johnston's taxpayers' money," Polisena explained. "If they're panicking now because they're going to lose one of their major customers, Resource Recovery, then shame on them."


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