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Mr Mayor:

This is the status of things as of last March. The Beacon reported on March 11th that "Asked about reaching agreement on issues relating to the runway extension – RIAC recommends an 8,700-foot runway that would require a realignment of Main Avenue – Dillon said he has not been contacted by the City Council since it voted down a proposed memorandum of understanding."

"Among other things, the agreement would have had RIAC relocating Winslow Park playing fields to RIAC land off Strawberryfield Road."

This Strawberry Field location was totally unacceptable to a lot of people because it is the center of the bad air study that the Department of Health published. No place for ball fields.

So many in the city were not thrilled with that location for the ball fields, a location that would have been cast in stone if the city council agreed to the MOA.

And RIAC has yet to figure out how to fund the pollution control project or its match for the runway improvements. Even if the MOA were signed, it is probable that there would be some kind of litigation because RIAC would not have been able to fund both the Buckeye Brook pollution project and the mitigation associated with the runway improvements.

So now we have a court to supervise all of this to make sure the city gets a fair shake.