PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee joined ABC6 Anchor Karah Bailey Thursday morning in studio to discuss the Washington Bridge and the lane changes he and RIDOT hope will relieve some of stress felt by commuters.

“I think we have a real effort right now with enforcement with our state police to reduce accidents”

McKee attributed most of the traffic backup to accidents that have occurred on the bridge.

“Safety has been our number one priority,” said McKee

“That’s the reason why we closed the bridge on December 11 because the safety issues far outweighed any other consideration.”

McKee reiterated that the reduction of accidents will help keep the flow of traffic going strong on the bridge.

McKee went on to say he believed that process to begin demolition and new construction would be moving ahead soon.

“Our anticipation is that before the end of the summer the demo work will begin and that sometime around this time next year, the new bridge, the construction on that will be in place.”

To the Editor,

It’s clear to me that Rhode Island Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi (D-Warwick) is trying his best to fix that which isn’t broken.

In his recent 15 bill package, addressing housing throughout Rhode Island, he is intent on side-stepping local Zoning Boards and taking State control (H-7062).

The motivation is to develop multi-unit housing in areas where it’s never been before. These areas would include business districts and industrial zones.

This is not to mention the possibility of apartment buildings and condominiums, conceivably, in residential areas reserved and designed for single family homes. Imagine, if you will, a second separate house in your next-door neighbor’s backyard. With no Zoning Board to intervene, YES it could happen under this plan.

It’s obvious there’s a shortage of housing throughout Rhode Island and this issue needs to be addressed, but in a thoughtful and precise way. A cookie-cutter approach statewide is no way to cure this problem. What’s right for Central Falls or Providence is not what’s right for Johnston or Cranston.

This legislation would eliminate the authority of local Boards allowing developers to simply erect multi-unit, or other housing, wherever they want with little or no local permitting. The elimination of local Zoning Boards or the combining of local Planning and Zoning Boards is a thinly veiled means of putting all control in the hands of the State by statute.

Local boards understand their towns, their comprehensive plans and the local neighborhoods. Most importantly, these boards understand the people who live and work there and are accountable to those same people.

Clearly the Speaker’s intent is to override all local control, creating tracts of housing like a runaway train, with no consideration for consistency of local architecture or neighborhood design, but most importantly no consideration for homeowners and businesses.

The Johnston Zoning Board has done a remarkable job of guarding the interests of our town. We dare not put that decision-making responsibility in the hands of the State or remove it by statute. You can imagine how that will turn out.

Let’s remember, these are our neighborhoods, this is our Town and we have the right to plan and shape it free of State interference, the way we see fit.

Richard Fascia, of Johnston

Member of both the Johnston Zoning Board & Johnston Republican Town Committee

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A career criminal from Providence admitted to a series of bank robberies in 2021.

United States Attorney Zachary Cunha said 47-year-old Vaughn Watrous pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of bank robbery stemming from multiple incidents over three days in January 2021.

Watrous admitted to a federal judge that from Jan. 19 to Jan. 21 he robbed three banks in Providence and Cranston and attempted to rob a fourth in North Providence.

He was arrested in Providence on Jan. 24 after an investigation by Cranston police.

Court records show that Watrous was previously convicted of seven bank robberies in 1997, 2003, and 2013.

He was sentenced to over four years in prison in 1997 for robbing a bank in Utah and then convicted in Providence on two counts of bank robbery in 2003 and four counts in 2015, accruing around 14 years in total prison time.

He was released from federal prison on Feb. 25, 2020.

Cunha said the sentence for Watrous’s latest robberies will be determined at a future date after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.