If history is any guide, very little in East Providence is ever clear cut, and the events of the last week did nothing to dispel that notion as several of the key issues in the city remained murky at best.
The Budget Commission met for a second time since being reinstalled for personnel matters, the overseers moving forward in their attempt to hire an Administrative and Finance Officer to serve as part watchdog over the city’s management and part conduit between the leaders of East Providence and the state.
We learned an AFO will be hired. What we failed to gleam from the meeting though was how and where exactly that person will fit into the hierarchy of city government.
The Commission also as expected reinstated Joseph Tavares to his position as Chief of the East Providence Police Department, doing so however with one significant caveat. A State Trooper will be investigating some, if not one particular charge made by an unspecified party during the chief’s recent stay on administrative leave.
We did not learn who leveled the accusation(s) nor did we find out what exactly the State Police are looking for, of course, and it may be some time until we do on either count.
Finally and under the auspices of the State Department of Environmental Management, the long-awaited “closure” of the former TLA/Pond View recycling plant on Dexter Road began. According to a press release authored by the DEM, the process must be completed in a rigid and rapid manner so as to finally end this matter once and for all.
But will it? All indications at the moment point to property owner Ken Foley being able to restart a recycling business under existing codes and parameters set by the city and the state, which certainly won’t go over well with those in opposition to the plant’s future operation.
Each of these issues, like so many others, haven’t yet been definitively decided. And if the past has so often shown to be the prelude here, then what else would you expect from East Providence?