To the editor:

Warren needs fewer far-left extremists and more common sense.
Even when watching Town Council meetings remotely, the presence of extremism is troubling. The need for virtue-signaling and airing personal agendas seems to outweigh the need for some Council members to work real issues and serve their constituency, which is exactly what they were elected to do. Let’s ask ourselves some simple questions.

When the new owner of Dunkin Donuts on Main Street seeks a simple license transfer, is that quickly granted given that no changes to the business are proposed, or does this become Keri Cronin’s opportunity to complain about DD trash in her yard and elsewhere offsite? Recently I found three old tires by the side of the road in Touisset. I took it upon myself to simply pick them up and take them to the transfer station to help keep our community clean. By our councilwoman’s standards, should I have assigned the blame to Firestone and Goodyear for those tires being improperly disposed of, or does the blame lay with the individual who carelessly and illegally disposed of them? And what is the solution to offsite DD trash? Serialize all paper bags, cups and straws and tie each to a named order? At the end of the day, assigning blame to a business owner while proposing no solutions is not a productive way to conduct business.

Another great example of extremism gone awry is to propose resolutions against other town’s resolutions. Recently Burrillville, RI, passed a resolution objecting to newly proposed gun-control. While towns have the right to do this, we all agree it’s nearly meaningless and holds little weight with state lawmakers. Town Council meetings should not be a platform for our Council members to pontificate regarding their own personal dislike of other town’s resolutions, or for that matter firearms. The councilwoman in question has every right to not like firearms, not buy firearms, and not like people who choose to own them. What she has no right to do is waste the Council’s time by objecting to other town’s resolutions and using Council meetings as her own personal platform, while once again offering no proven solutions to gun-related crime plaguing cities like Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls.

Moving forward, I suggest we elect Council members that worry more about Warren town issues, like the condition of Elizabeth Drive that does not have one square foot of solid roadway, or Mill Street, which floods with every rain storm and freezes solid in the winter, or calling on the state to finally repave Child Street, where vehicles drive in the bike lanes for blocks in each direction to avoid tire damage, rather than members who use the Council as a platform to voice their own personal agendas.

Tim White
1 Stonegate Road