Steve Primiano holds no grudge against the environment. The Barrington Town Council member said he voted against the introduction of a re-written plastic bag ban ordinance at the Sept. 8 meeting, but not because of an anti-environmental stance. He said his decision to vote against the measure had to do with its importance when ranked against other issues facing the council. "To me, it (the plastic bag ban) is symbolic. We didn't get elected to do that. Meanwhile, we're not managing the Spencer Trust the way we should. It's a distraction," Mr. Primiano said of the ordinance, which was introduced by a 4-1 vote. "Everything has its own importance. We've got the negotiations with Zion. We've got Palmer Pointe. We've got union contracts. We're buying street lights… This bag ban, to me, is peripheral." The ordinance's sponsor, councilor Kate Weymouth, said her support of the re-write was based partially on a request from a local resident. She said a Barrington woman asked for council intervention after discovering that some local retail shops had been circumventing (or ignoring altogether) the town's current plastic bag ban. For the last few months, the CVS Pharmacy and the Shaw's Supermarket located in the Barrington Shopping Center have been offering plastic bags at checkout. The Shaw's bags carry the word "reusable" on them, but are not much thicker than the typical plastic checkout bags. The CVS bags are the typical plastic checkout bags. The new ordinance would, if passed, ban the use of any plastic bags at checkout, and instead require stores to provide a bag made or paper or "primarily of cloth or other woven or non-woven textile" or one constructed of multiple layers for insulation. "We had to redefine reusable," said Ms. Weymouth in a recent interview. "Just because you stamp 'reusable' on it doesn't mean it's in the same category as cloth or synthetic." More than a year ago, the council made Barrington the first town in Rhode Island to ban the use of plastic checkout bags. The move was cheered by some environmentalists, but also challenged by some folks who felt that the ordinance placed an unfair burden on local businesses. Supporters said the point of the plastic bag ban in Barrington was to reduce the amount of plastic being brought to the landfills and scattered about the environment. At Shaw's, management initially replaced the plastic checkout bags with heavy-duty paper bags. Any customer who forgot to bring his or her reusable bag was given free paper bags to tote home their goods. Shaw's later began charging for paper bags, but then backed away from the charge and made them free again. According to officials, CVS continues to offer plastic bags at checkout. Ms. Weymouth said re-writing the ordinance was crucial to its future success, and should not be viewed as a distraction from the council's other work. "It may not be important to him (Mr. Primiano), but it is important to me," she said. "Do I want to go over this again? Absolutely not. But we do need to respond to a citizen's request. It is obviously an issue that needs to be addressed." Both Ms. Weymouth and Mr. Primiano said they are interested to see what store officials will say when they attend next month's council meeting.