I do feel that now, with the improvements in our technology, our ability to livestream meetings, that it’s an option for them to have access to each and every meeting that we have.”

Kevin Aguiar, Town Council president

PORTSMOUTH —Now that technology allows you to participate in a Town Council meeting from the comfort of your own home, is it no longer necessary for council members to trek to Prudence Island every year to meet with the residents there?

That was the question posed by Town Council President Kevin Aguiar, who put the matter on the council’s Aug. 15 agenda for consideration. The island excursion has been an annual tradition for years, with council members and town staff transported by boat for a Saturday meeting on Prudence in August or September. The meetings, which focus mainly on island-wide issues such as road conditions, ferry parking, internet access and more, also give islanders the opportunity to bring other matters to the table during an informal Q&A session.

“The basis of it was because it was hard for the residents of Prudence Island to get over here for meetings,” Aguiar said, noting the limited ferry schedule threatens to strand an islander on the “mainland” overnight. “I do feel that now, with the improvements in our technology, our ability to livestream meetings, that it’s an option for them to have access to each and every meeting that we have.”

The council started streaming its meetings on Zoom during COVID in 2020, under the governor’s directive that required government bodies to hold meetings safely but also with public participation. Since then, the council and several other town committees — the Zoning Board of Review and School Committee among them — still allow public participation during meetings via Zoom and also livestream the gatherings on YouTube.

Council member Charles Levesque — after joking that he couldn’t believe Aguiar would “stab the people of Prudence Island in the back like that,” said he agreed. He also questioned whether islanders would even care about not seeing the council in the flesh.

“What I love about Prudence Island is that they really don’t want anything to do with us, and it makes sense why they’re over there,” he said. “Other than a day on the bay, I never really saw much purpose.”

However, the argument that in-person meetings on the island were no longer necessary due to streaming technology nearly got derailed, in ironic fashion, right after members of the public were invited to share their two cents on the issue.

Islander Robin Weber attempted to comment remotely on Zoom, but she initially could not be heard by anyone in the council chambers. Others participating remotely could hear Weber clearly on Zoom or YouTube, but her voice wasn’t coming through in the room. That was a first for the council, Aguiar said.

After several minutes of silence, the glitch was corrected and Weber’s voice finally came through loud and clear in the chambers. Weber acknowledged that she found the meetings on Prudence “very painful” because some people “will ask a question that suggests they haven’t heard anything you said.”

However, she raised concerns about how islanders would bring their questions to the council if the annual special meetings were canceled.

“My understanding is that the Prudence Island Planning Commission (PIPC) was set up as a liaison between the islanders and the Town Council members because you kind of didn’t want us to show up in mass to air our grievances and disrupt the Town Council meetings,” Weber said, noting she thought the PIPC was the proper vehicle to bring islanders’ concerns to the council.

However, the PIPC indicated in two meetings she has attended that it doesn’t have the authority to put something on the council agenda, she said. “If they’re hearing our concerns and not bringing them to the Town Council, that means you’re not hearing our concerns, some of which are pretty significant,” Weber said. “I don’t think canceling the annual Town Council meeting should occur until we figure out a better mechanism to communicate our concerns to the Town Council.”

Council member Kevin Hamilton, however, said that mechanism already exists. “As citizens of Portsmouth, anyone can put in a request to have an agenda item,” Hamilton said. If a resident has an issue with speeding on Narragansett Avenue and doesn’t feel police are dealing with it properly, for example, he or she could put it on the council agenda any time of the year, he said.

More like ‘workshops’

Hamilton and others acknowledged, however, that some islanders don’t bother to bring up concerns to the council until the August or September in-person meeting. 

Aguiar made that point during his argument that perhaps the island meetings should be a thing of the past. With the remote technology, the council can address Prudence residents’ concerns in a more expedited fashion, he said.

Aguiar also pointed out that the council meetings on the island are more like workshops. “We have a Q&A session, but we don’t always have the answers,” he said, noting the meetings may not be as productive as regular council sessions.

John Spadaro, who chairs the PIPC, also commented via Zoom at last week’s meeting. Referring to the sound malfunction that took place earlier in the meeting, he said if the council decides to no longer make the trip to Prudence, the town needs to address the technical glitches that often plague remote meetings. 

Another islander who commented remotely, Raymond Masse, said he wanted the annual island meetings to continue. 

“(Prudence Island) might be a little more difficult to get to than Island Park or Common Fence Point or Blackpoint, but you are our elected officials and we would like to see you on this island,” he said.

Levesque responded that the council doesn’t hold meetings at those three locations and that the sessions at Town Hall are intended for the entire town. “We’ve always gone out (to Prudence) because of the logistics of (islanders) getting here,” he said. 

Masse replied, “Councilor, if you wanted to, you could get into your car and drive down to these places that you just stated. Would you, if you do not have to come to Prudence for a meeting or a workshop, ever step foot on this island again?”

Sept. 23 meeting tentatively set

That’s when the council decided the issue had gone off topic and agreed to travel to Prudence island next month. A meeting was tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23.

The council has been holding its island meetings at the Union Church in recent years, but there’s a wedding there on Sept. 23, according to Weber. Spadaro assured the council that he would arrange for a meeting place, possibly at the PIPC hall. Aguiar said a “skeleton” crew could make the trip to Prudence, with some town staff members participating in the meeting remotely.

Levesque joked earlier in the meeting that one of the agenda items for the Sept. 23 meeting should be: “Do they ever want to see us again?”

Coggeshall on Monday’s agenda

The council will next meet at 7 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 28, at Town Hall. 

At that meeting, the council is expected to hear from Duncan Ingraham, a local Realtor who is reviving his proposal to transform the abandoned Coggeshall School building at 321 East Main Road into a “Portsmouth Youth Activity Center.”

The proposal was listed under correspondence on last week’s agenda, but Levesque removed it so it can be placed on the Aug. 28 agenda under “new business.”

The latest plan for the property is to demolish the 22,857-square-foot building to make way for a new Little League baseball field, as the town is losing at least one such field in the north end of town. Ingraham, however, said he has partners on board that could turn the building into a community center at the same initial cost to taxpayers as demolishing it, which he estimated at $500,000.