Untidy private road perplexes East Providence council

Council asks if there are ways to address potholes on Risho Avenue

By Mike Rego
Posted 12/6/18

EAST PROVIDENCE — It’s a road tucked away in the depths of a commercial/industrial complex on the city’s far eastern border with the Town of Seekonk familiar to those who know about it as where …

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Untidy private road perplexes East Providence council

Council asks if there are ways to address potholes on Risho Avenue

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — It’s a road tucked away in the depths of a commercial/industrial complex on the city’s far eastern border with the Town of Seekonk familiar to those who know about it as where Warren Avenue eventually connects to Route 6.

And though it’s likely a majority of motorists don’t realize it even exists, it’s still a heavily-trafficked street, one that suffers the same ills (i.e. potholes) as any other around East Providence.

The city council, at its December 4 meeting, took up the conundrum which is Risho Avenue, a privately owned way constructed some 36 years ago as the parcels around Catamore Boulevard were developed in the early 1980s.

Ward 3 City Councilor Joseph Botelho, in whose patch Risho Avenue is located, raised the unkempt state of road, seeking input from Department of Public Works Director Steve Coutu during a broader discussion on street repair at last week’s forum.

Upon researching the matter more fully, Mr. Botelho noted Risho Avenue was originally included in a development agreement between then owners Marshall Contractors and Old Stone Bank. The intention was to extend Risho Avenue from the end of Catamore Boulevard to Amaral Street off Wampanoag Trail. Those plans, however, were scuttled by environmental issues.

Instead, an approximately 500-yard connector between the north and south ends of the lot was left as the only point of ingress/egress to the developed area from Catamore and Amaral.

“What’s happened over years is that it’s become a main thoroughfare,” Mr. Botelho said, adding it was actually the only connecting pathway from that section of Wampanoag Trail and Route 6/Warren Avenue other than Dover and Pawtucket Avenues.

The quandary for the city is that Risho Avenue remains privately held. It’s currently owned jointly by Santandar Bank and Maurice and Sophie Mizrahi as trustees of the Mizrahi Trust. Mr. Botelho said while Santandar has maintained its roughly half section of the road, the Mizrahis have not. It’s on the latter’s side where several deep potholes exist and have been a perpetual problem.

Mr. Botelho said he would describe the current crop of indentations not as potholes, but as “craters,” adding he recently measured one to be five-feet wide by a foot deep. And although private property signs are posted on the road “everyone including myself ignores” them. He added usage includes those who operate school buses, municipal apparatus like fire engines and even Mr. Coutu’s public works vehicles. He wondered with the extensive use by city vehicles if the government wasn’t “morally obligated” to remedy the situation.

And while he acknowledged Risho Avenue is a private road, Mr. Botelho asked if the city could force its owner to “at least patch the potholes.”

Mr. Coutu admitted, “I’m not sure,” when queried for an opinion on the situation. He continued, the matter of Risho Avenue is not unlike any piece of private property, saying, “I’m not going to send my guys to Shaw’s (supermarket) parking lot to fix a pothole.”

Mr. Coutu added, “I understand it’s used as a cut through by a lot of people, but it’s still private property.” He continued later, “I think the approach to take is legal steps. Otherwise it’s a slippery slope of repairing private property. What’s next? Do we plow it as well?”

It was at about that point when City Solicitor Gregory Dias interjected the city would, like in other circumstances, need the permission of the owner to enter the property never mind perform any work there. Not familiar with the specifics of the original easement agreement on Risho Avenue, Mr. Dias asked Mr. Botelho if perhaps he had found any conditions regarding maintenance requirements during his investigation, to which the latter replied he did and there were.

In the end, the council, the solicitor and director agreed the plausible way to redress the matter would be through a formal reading of the demands included in the original accord between the city and the property owners.

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MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.