New Shoreham Town Council Meeting

Town Hall, 16 Old Town Road, Block Island

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

4:00 PM

 

 

Present: First Warden Keith Stover, Second Warden Nancy Dodge, Town Council members William McCombe, Tristan Payne, and Margaret O’Neill.  Also present were Interim Town Manager Amy Land, and via Zoom, Town Solicitors Nick Solitro and James Callaghan.  Deputy Town Clerk Laurel Payne was present for the recording of minutes. 

 

First Warden Stover called the meeting to order at 4:01 p.m.

 

 

1.      Review of state and local hotel tax and short-term rental tax landscape

Interim Town Manager Land gave a refresher report on the specifics of lodging taxes and how they are distributed. 

 

 

First Warden Stover asked if the 1% local hotel tax is given back to the town and consistently across the state.  Interim Town Manager Land reported that, apart from Newport, which has a different distribution, all communities should receive the 1% local hotel tax.

 

Both Cindy Pappas and Chris Warful, although not representing the Housing Board at the time, gave the opinion that there should be some advocacy for housing if the 5% Hotel Tax is collected.

 

Mr. Stover questioned the level of trust coming from the funding. Interim Town Manager Land replied that it would be easier to feel confident with more access to the information. The finance department is having trouble receiving aggregate numbers from the Rhode Island Division of Taxation.

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2.      Discuss 2025 legislative agenda, including but not limited to local property tax structure, moped rental regulation, state Zoning regulations as they pertain to Block Island, tourism and congestion impacts, expansion of hotel tax, Department of Transportation negotiations, deer mitigation, short-term rental, landing fee

First Warden Stover began by going over a list. 

·         Update the landing fee- exemption for year-round residents and raise the user fee to $5.00. He feels it should be noticeable that guests are paying the town. He is open to designating the fee for specific items.

·         Regulatory treatment- New Shoreham and Narragansett should have special recognition in the state statute.

·         Port Authority- the town should seek a state, federal or private donor grant to look into this issue and how it would work.

·         Property taxes- the homestead exemption is not as refined as he would like. Two examples are businesses offering housing to employees and 513’s. He recommended using a property tax tool to encourage this behavior.

Ms. Land mentioned a third example of a non-owner-occupied residence benefit.

·         School fund- the town only received 84/85k. 

·         DOT- the town needs to be more aggressive.

·         Sea Level Rise- the town needs to address experts in the field and pursue funding opportunities for this.

 

Town Council member O’Neill commented on the following legislative issues:

·         Property tax and possible exemptions for year-round homeowners and homeowners who rent to others year-round. 

·         Raising the Landing fee-she is in support of an increase.

·         Port Authority- if this meant having to check in with the town before running ferries. Not to limit, but to know details, especially for the police. 

·         School Funding- The state has requirements for the school, so we need to have adequate funding. She feels there should be a baseline that we could not fall under.

·         Deer- they are destroying the habitat and spreading disease, affecting the overall quality of life.

Mr. Stover suggests talking to Terri Gray from DEM, coming February 25^th to meet with the council.

Town Council member Payne commented on the following issues:

·         Deer- he would like to look at all the aspects of the deer herd before making any decisions. What would eradication look like as it relates to ticks and Lyme disease, perhaps proper management before total eradication.

·         Landing Fee - he is in support of an increase

·         School Funding-Mr. Payne asked if the school board is working with other schools.  Ms. Land commented that there have been conversations, but these don’t always support our needs, and we need to have a larger voice. 

Council member McCombe recommended that we become more actively engaged with our senators and representatives and clarify exactly what we want.

Ms. Dodge commented that, for some of the issues, it is more in our approach to the agencies, as opposed to being legislative issues.

She remarked on the following:

·         Landing fee - she feels $5.00 is too high, and noted that we should be looking at marinas and the airport also. Under the PUC they are concerned with all these activities serving the state of RI not just the ferries.

Mr. Stover mentioned that we are a host community and as such should have special consideration with the PUC

·         Port Authority- there have been studies done in the past and she would like to see if we can locate these.

·         Property Tax - there are other communities asking for mixed use and non-owner occupied rentals we could piggy back on. 513’s we would pursue on our own. 

Mr. McCombe clarified that if we give one group a tax break then another group will have an increase.

·         School funding- there are many variables which factor in school funding.  Mayfourth suggested a floor for funding.

           

            Chris Warful asked if there was a deadline for submitting ideas to the Mayfourth group.

 

Jim Hinthorn asked if we could look at commercial vs. residential property taxes since we can enact this without addressing a legislative body. 

 

3.      Continued Item: Discuss and act on approval of the agreement between the Town of New Shoreham and Mayfourth Group for lobbyist services and the appointment of Town Lobbyists: Rick McAuliff & Jeffrey Taylor of Mayfourth Group

 

Ms. Land has been working directly with the Mayfourth Group and believes they had an instrumental role in the 3.5 million grant, received from Senator Reed’s office.

 

Mr. McCombe noted that this was a lot of money to spend for lobbyist services and suggested tapping into our Senator and Representative.  Mr. Stover felt it would be a mistake not to employ them. Ms. O’Neill mentioned that even though Senator DiMario and Representative Spears are engaged with the Island we need more representation up state.  The following community members spoke in favor of continuing with lobbyist services from Mayfourth:

·         Cindy Pappas

·         Jim Hingthorn

·         Joe Loya

·         Jess Willi

·         Keith Lewis

·         Henry DuPont

·         Roberta McCormick

·         Sandra Kelly

 

Mr. Stover made a motion to continue contracts between the Town of New Shoreham and the Mayfourth Group for lobbyist services, Ms. O’Neill seconded the motion. Discussion ensued.  Mr. Payne stated that the council’s objectives should be across the board.  Mr. Stover pointed out that Ms. Land would be handling most of the communication on their behalf.

3 Ayes (Stover, O’Neill, Payne) 2 Nays (Dodge, McCombe)

The motion passed.

 

Mr. Payne made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 6:32, Mr. McCombe seconded and all were in favor.

5 Ayes (Stover, Dodge, O’Neill, Payne, McCombe) 0 Nays

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Laurel Payne

 

Date Approved: 2/19/2025