To the Editor,

My father told me a story about him sitting in the old Red Cross building at the Apponaug mill after the ’38 Hurricane. Did Block Island disappear? No one knew. No messages.

Now, 85 years later, again no word from the Sawtooth Building, home of our Planning Department in that same Apponaug mill, in response to my phone call about disaster relief in the Buttonwoods Fire District, and the Harbor Management Plan. And like the rejectee in the Elvis Presley song, I got a “Return to Sender … Address unknown!"

The address is well known: Buttonwoods Fire District, 23 Eighth Avenue, Warwick R.I.

It appears that our city officials can’t stand the idea of recognizing the Buttonwoods Fire District for what it is: a municipality within the City: a city within a city. So they ignore the matter altogether.  Private? Public? Who knows? If they don’t return the phone calls, maybe Mr. Langseth will go away. 

In the Disaster Section of our Harbor Management Plan, and our upcoming Emergency Management Plan, there is no Buttonwoods Fire District. From a federal disaster-planning perspective, this makes no sense. Why would the city cut this Fire District from FEMA funding?  Come the next hurricane, this Buttonwoods issue is certain to reappear.

The Buttonwoods Fire District will have its hands out for disaster relief – just like they did the last time and the time before that. Absent inclusion in these plans, Fire District needs will be overlooked.

The issue at Buttonwoods? Illegal no trespassing signs, a criminal violation in the minds of some shoreline advocates and those who study law.

As the Beacon reported last week, the Warwick Harbor Management Council plans to discuss rights-of-way to the Warwick shore on November 14, 2023, in its public workshop. The Buttonwoods Fire District will be there to declare, in effect, that the place has disappeared – no public streets.

We need you to come and show your support for Constitutionally based public access to this entity, one that gladly scoops up public funds for seawalls and streetlights yet hangs out No Trespassing signs. 

Richard Langseth

Warwick