Rhode Island
North Kingstown country club on rocky terrain in quest to keep illegal wall • Rhode Island Current
It’s hard to miss the 600-foot-long seawall separating Quidnessett Country Club’s golf course from the salt marshes feeding into Narragansett Bay.
Even larger than the physical barrier is the ideological divide over its presence, showcased during a two-hour-long public hearing before state coastal regulators Tuesday afternoon.
Throngs of pastel-clad country club members descended by busload upon the Rhode Island Department of Administration building to insist the wall, while built without the requisite state permits, was needed to protect not only the iconic 14th hole, but the entire club, including its employees and community beneficiaries. Their impassioned pleas were matched by equal outrage from environmentalists, who blasted the club for knowingly building the illegal structure without permission, jeopardizing sensitive waters and obstructing public access to the shore.
Much of the back-and-forth centered on whether the seawall, constructed illegally in early 2023, should be allowed to stand. But the question before the Rhode Island Resources Management Council is not exactly that.
(Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current)
Instead, the council through its Planning and Procedures Subcommittee is reviewing Quidnessett’s April 12 petition seeking to reclassify a quarter-mile section of waters adjacent to the seawall. The existing, Type 1 “conservation area” designation bans permanent structural barriers because of their potential harms to environmentally sensitive waters and wildlife. Downgrading the water designation to the less stringent, Type 2 “low intensity use” could allow for the stone wall, known as a riprap revetment. Coastal regulators “may” allow for stone seawalls in Type 2 waters, but they don’t have to, as Jim Boyd, former deputy director to the CRMC, pointed out.
Build it first, change map later
And reclassifying the waters fails to address what critics consider the most “egregious” element of the whole debacle: that the country club built the seawall first, then sought permission.
“The only reason that the country club has put forth this petition is to cover up for an illegally contracted wall on their property,” Boyd said Tuesday, speaking for the first time as a member of the public since his retirement from the CRMC two years ago.
Attempting to head off potential pleas of ignorance, Boyd referred to a 2012 application by the club seeking to build a less obtrusive sheet pile barrier in the same spot. The project never moved forward after council staff recommended against the permanent barrier in favor of less damaging “nonstructural” shoreline protection.
A decade later, the stone riprap appeared, seemingly out of thin air. Work on the seawall began in January 2023, following a December storm that caused “significant damage” near the 14th hole, Patti Doyle, a spokesperson for the country club, said in an email on Tuesday night.
Six months later, CRMC and Save the Bay each separately caught wind of the illegal structure.
“I was in complete disbelief,” Mike Jarbeau, Narragansett baykeeper for Save the Bay, said in an interview prior to the Tuesday hearing. “It’s such an egregious violation, such blatant disregard for regulations, that I didn’t believe it at first. I thought, ‘There’s just no way.’”
But there it was, visible from a mile-and-a-half away in Narragansett Bay, Boyd said.
The CRMC in August issued a series of violation notices against the club, demanding they remove the seawall and levying $30,000 in fines.
Eight months later, the club through its attorney Jennifer Cervenka — who formerly served as chair of the CRMC’s appointed council — submitted a petition asking for the water reclassification.
The April 12 petition points to increased residential development and recreational use in the area, including the Bayview Rehabilitation at Scalabrini nursing home directly north of it, as reason why the waters should be reclassified.
“Without the flexibility afforded for shoreline protection areas abutting Type 2 Waters, the QCC will certainly lose a critical piece of its historic, 18-hole golf course and result in devastating losses to both its business and members, as well as the thousands of individuals, businesses, and associations across the State that use QCC for professional golf tournaments, charity events, fundraisers, weddings, proms and countless other engagements,” Cervenka wrote in the letter.
Representatives from the club’s 1,000 members and 100-person payroll repeated this exact phrasing in comments to the CRMC Tuesday.
“I think the perception of country clubs is that they are a very privileged place,” said Peter Chwaliszewski, the club’s head golf professional. “But there’s a lot of employees here that rely on it to provide for their families.”
It’s such an egregious violation, such blatant disregard for regulations, that I didn’t believe it at first. I thought, ‘There’s just no way.’
– Mike Jarbeau, Narragansett baykeeper for Save the Bay
Changing the design of the 14th hole to move it away from the rising waters, as Boyd suggested, was out of the question to many club members, who praised the unique design by world-renowned golf course architect Geoffrey Cornish.
“It’s a historic landmark,” said Jeffrey Gladstone, a 30-year club member.
The club, including the 18-hole, par 72 golf course, opened in 1960. It does not have any official state or federal historic designations.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, AG step in
But the waters beside it are no less important, with both state and federal environmental designations indicating their value. The illegal rock wall has also caught the eye of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which in May issued its own violation notice with a corresponding fine of up to $200,000.
The pending petition review for water reclassification has saved the club from forking over any cash on its state or federal fines, for now. But Jeff Willis, executive director of the CRMC, said in an interview after the hearing that agency administrators denied the club’s request for extra time, instead requiring it to come up with a restoration plan for the shoreline by Friday.
The Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General may also get in on the action, having already issued a letter to the CRMC urging it to reject the club’s request and crack down on the illegal action.
“Ruling otherwise would only serve to reward the QCC for illegally constructing first and asking for permission later, and would incentivize other shoreline property owners to do the same” Attorney General Peter Neronha wrote in his June 28 letter.
The CRMC subcommittee is expected to revisit the country club’s request by early September, at which time council staff will have prepared a report with recommended action, Willis said.
If the water type change is approved, the club will apply for the requisite permit to address the pending enforcement against the wall, Doyle said.
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Rhode Island
He grew up in the kitchen. Then he rewrote the menu, and the future of his parents’ restaurant – The Boston Globe
He became obsessed with driving around, searching for any local farm or fisherman on a dock and bugging them to see if they, too, wanted to help him with his vision.
His menu now, which reflects a reinvention, leans into a new way to present New England seafood for an old suburban fishing town, serving snacks like a smoked Rhode Island bluefish paté, raw New Bedford sea scallops with sesame and crispy shallots, chowder with quahogs and fermented hot sauce. He also makes his own pasta with milled local grains.
Today, Dion has largely taken over the business, although his mom can still be found in the kitchen.
“If you’ve had a piece of swordfish at S.S. Dion in the past 43 years, she’s grilled it. And she doesn’t want that to end,” said Dion. “She loves it, and wants to work forever.”
His father visits every day for an hour to keep track of “all of my numbers.”
“I do it all on a computer, and he’s got every, every penny of it on paper,” said Dion.
The reimagined version has had a lot of success, growing 300 percent over the last five years.
What to eat: Try any of the snacks to start with, but be sure to get at least one of their house-made pastas for the table to share: a black spaghetti puttanesca with fried squid, anchovies, Calabrian chilies, and braised tomato. A bowl of gemelli with house-made fish sausage, rapini, pangrattato, and aglio e olio. A roasted mushroom campanelle with sautéed leeks, Brussel sprouts, tarragon, and tender pea tendrils. A perfect bolognese. There are also comforting staples from S.S. Dion’s past life: “The chicken parmesan will be on that menu for my whole life,” said Dion. “But there’s a fermented hot sauce martini on there as well.”
“I want to have that spectrum of people who have always come into S.S. and ordered what they love and remember,” said Dion. “But also there might be something exciting for someone else in their party who is more adventurous.”
You can get three courses for just $40 per person if you order from their prix fixe menu. Your options include local crudos; a funky caesar with smoked Rhode Island bluefish and sourdough croutons, calamari from Point Judith, all sorts of scratch-made pastas, and plenty of desserts.
Dion said his fries take three days to prepare, and he makes every part of their burger from scratch (an “everything” milk bun, house bacon, crispy onions, a 21-day dry-aged burger bun from Blackbird Farm slathered in a special sauce) other than the cheddar cheese it is topped with.
“The world just seems to get more and more artificial, and there’s a really blurry line between what is human and what is manufactured,” he said. “It just feels good to be authentic to my place.”
What to drink: Start off with a bang and get the “Low Tide Hot N’ Dirty,” which uses a nori-infused Lime Rock gin, fermented green chili, yuzu, and topped with a spicy seaweed chip. Or their bacon fat-washed maple old fashioned. The beer list has a ton of local brews from around New England, while the wine list has some interesting choices for the area: a Primitivo from Puglia, an Austrian riesling, and a chenin blanc-viognier from Napa.
Don’t forget dessert: The bananas foster bread pudding is baked in a cast iron pan drizzled with rum caramel and topped with pecans and vanilla ice cream. The chocolate pot de creme uses miso caramel, beetroot meringue, salted cashew crumble, and fennel. Or you can order a basque cheesecake topped with flaky sea salt and orange zest, or a traditional affogato that’s drowned in a double shot of espresso from Borealis Coffee Company, a small-batch local specialty roaster.
Final say: S.S. Dion is one of those legacy restaurants that found further success after reinventing itself when the second generation took over. Dion has dreams of opening his own restaurant with a different concept and to potentially do it in Providence. He’s looking for locations, but isn’t ready to sign a lease yet.
“I’m really happy with where S.S. is now,” said Dion. “But what chef doesn’t have dreams of opening a dozen more restaurants?
“I’d say that’s what’s next,” he added. “I’d like to start something else soon.”
S.S. Dion, 520 Thames St., Bristol, R.I., 401-253-2884, ssdion.com. Raw bar $3.5-$165; salads $13-$18; snacks $9-$25; scratch pasta $14-$38; entrées $25-market price; Sides and sauces $1-$7.
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.
Newest clergy sex abuse lawsuit bill gives victims ‘hope,’ Neronha says
A new bill gives clergy sex abuse victims a path to sue the institutions that may have been responsible for their abuse as children.
PROVIDENCE – Victims of clergy sex abuse scored a long-sought victory in the Rhode Island Senate on Wednesday, June 3.
Legislation to allow the victims to sue the Catholic Church – and any other institution that failed to protect them from molestation when they were children – won unanimous Senate approval and now goes to the House for final votes.
The fast action from Senate Judiciary Committee approval – to a full Senate vote – within an hour and a half was not unexpected after the announcement on Monday of a compromise backed by the Senate’s top-tier Democrats, including Senate President Valarie Lawson, Majority Leader Frank Ciccone and Senate Judiciary Chairman Matthew LaMountain.
If passed, as now appears likely, the legislation will allow the victims of sexual abuse by clergy to sue the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence and any other entity that knew, but failed to stop – or concealed – the abuse they suffered as children at the hands of trusted elders.
The legislation would also provide the long-ago victims – many of them now in their 60s and 70s – with a two-year window to revive claims currently barred by expired time limits.
The compromise – after years of pleas and inaction – follows the long-awaited release on March 4 of Attorney General Peter Neronha’s report detailing the systematic cover-up by the Catholic Church of the sexual abuse of more than 300 Rhode Island children.
His report laid bare, for the first time, the scope of more than a half century of alleged child sexual abuse by Rhode Island Catholic clergy and the breadth and depth of the alleged cover-up, which often included destroying key files or shuffling priests from parish to parish, where they would reoffend.
Sen. Mark McKenney, the lead Senate sponsor, told colleagues that the proposed new law not only states “this conduct unacceptable, but from now on, the institutions that have enabled it will be held accountable as well.”
As to whether the law would survive a legal challenge, McKenney said the Rhode Island Constitution “contains a provision that is somewhat unique in the United States: a victims’ rights clause. That provision has been largely overlooked in the debate that’s gone on about the constitutionality of this and … previous versions of this bill,” but retired U.S. District Judge William Smith drew attention to it when he testified.
He said Article 1, Section 23 “of our constitution provides that crime victims, including child sexual abuse victims, not only may receive compensation from perpetrators, but also, and this is a quote from the constitution, ‘Shall receive such other compensation as the state may provide,’ with that power ‘entirely committed to our authority as the General Assembly.’”
Co-sponsor Dawn Euer applauded “the victims and survivors, both the ones that we know of and the ones that we don’t, as well as the ones that we have lost. The strength and courage that it takes to go through what [these] people have gone through … is incredible.
“And then to be able to come up here and advocate …. for passage of this legislation over years [of] legislative turmoil and back again, it’s really incredible the strength and determination that you all have shown,” she said to the group of survivor-advocates in the Senate gallery.
“We get used to it,” she said of the process by which “the proverbial sausage is made. But for issues like this that have real impacts on people’s lives, it can be an additional trauma,” she said of the year after year of public hearings and testimony, followed by inaction.
On Wednesday, she said, the Senate sent the “strong signal that Rhode Island stands with survivors and victims.”
This story has been updated with new information.
A rising tide of beach garbage plagues local wildlife. Fortunately, there’s something you can do about it.
A wide array of beach trash found on Napatree Point, from balloons and ribbons to Styrofoam, cellophane, nylon rope, bottle caps and a hypodermic needle. Waves break plastic into tiny particles that mix into beach sand and are ingested by marine life. Photography courtesy of Robert L. Mitchell
It’s easy to overlook the detritus along Rhode Island’s shoreline, but as the amount of beach litter has increased over the last few years, its effect on seabirds, seals, fish and other wildlife has risen dramatically.
Between 2011 and 2023, the Mystic Aquarium animal rescue program admitted fifty-eight seals into rehabilitation due to entanglements.
“Between 2024 and 2025, we have already passed that number, with fifty-nine entangled animals reported in just a year and a half,” says MaryEllen Mateleska, the aquarium’s senior director of education and conservation.
During an early summer walk at Watch Hill’s Napatree Point, much of the litter wasn’t noticeable at first because it had been ground down into little pieces along the high-tide mark. So it came as a surprise when my wife and I, after picking up everything we could find on a milelong stretch of sand, came away with a grocery bag full of trash. Most of it wasn’t whole bottles or cans, but micro trash — bits of things that had been pulverized by the surf.
Our haul included fifty-seven pieces of cellophane, twenty-five balloons (many with ribbons attached), twenty-four bottle caps, twenty-four pieces of nylon rope and netting fragments, twenty-four hard plastic fragments and ten cigarette butts (the plastic-based filters are not biodegradable). We also picked up fishing line, rubber lobster claw bands, tin foil, a shoe heel, one plastic bottle, one toothpaste tube and a syringe — all in the off-season.
“We are seeing more smaller plastic particles make their way to the beach,” says Mateleska.
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The litter accumulates from trash left on the shoreline, refuse that blows in from cars, bins and local roadways, and garbage that travels to the ocean by way of rivers. Waves then break down the plastics into smaller pieces of micro- and nanoplastics.
“Plastic pollution is incredibly dangerous to aquatic species,” she says. Fish and other animals ingest the microplastics and can become entangled in ribbons, nets and fishing lines. Other items that entangle wildlife include six-pack ring holders, hair ties, fishing line, netting or pieces of netting, fishing lures, hooks and plastic bags.
Sea birds are especially vulnerable because they use those bits of fishing line, rope, string and other materials to build their nests. Balloons, in particular, are deadly to seabirds, which often mistake them for jellyfish or other prey.
“Plastics are now in every ecosystem, almost every seabird, and almost every human body,” Mateleska says, with the long-term health impacts unknown.
They also take an extremely long time to break down, which is harmful to the state’s delicate coastal ecosystem.
“[Plastic] material that is in the environment may present itself on a shoreline very far away many years or decades later,” says Dave McLaughlin, sustainability coordinator at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
___________________________
What You Can Do
Beach walkers can help by picking up garbage wherever they go to enjoy the outdoors. But you don’t have to go to the beach to help. Better management of beach trash starts at home, Mataleska says.
“Refuse single-use plastics and look for sustainable alternatives, pick up trash wherever and whenever you see it, and support legislation that stops plastic at the source,” she advises.
Volunteer for coastal cleanups, use reusable materials, carry in and carry out your trash, recycle, and don’t litter. And consider joining a nonprofit group such as those sponsored by Coastodians (coastodians.org) or Save the Bay (savebay.org) that organize beach cleanups. When it comes to beach trash, even small groups can make a big difference.
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