To the editor:

At the Portsmouth Town Council meeting of Feb. 27, 2017, Chuck Allott, the executive director of the Aquidneck Land Trust (ALT), asked the council for $300,000 of taxpayer money towards ALT’s purchase of Spruce Acres. During his presentation, Mr. Allott guaranteed that the public would have immediate access to the property. At time stamp 44:41 of that meeting video (view it on the town website), Mr. Allott said, “The trails exist now. Public access would happen immediately. It is a natural trail system through the property. You can walk through that property now.”

More than a year and a half later, at the Portsmouth Town Council meeting of Oct. 9, 2018, Mr. Allott was asked to explain why those trails had not been opened to the public as promised. Mr. Allott’s answer was equivocal at best. However, he did say that the trails would be opened to the public by November. He also said that if, for some reason, there was a further delay, he would let the Town and Council know. That can be seen at time stamp 178:37 of that council meeting video.

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018 was a beautiful day. I drove to Spruce Acres expecting to take a walk through the property. I was surprised to find that the area was closed to the public and the entrance blocked off. As of Nov. 10, when I write this letter, the area is still closed. Portsmouth residents were neither notified that this area would still be closed, nor given a reason why. This is not the “partnership” the Portsmouth Town Council was promised by ALT when the council agreed to provide taxpayer money toward the purchase of Spruce Acres.

Enough is enough, it is now approaching two years since Mr. Allott said ALT would provide residents immediate access to Spruce Acres! The Portsmouth Town Council needs to request that Mr. Allott: 1) provide the reason for a change to the date for public access he laid out to the council only a month ago; 2) explain why he did not notify Portsmouth of that change as he had promised; and 3) give a firm date for when the residents of Portsmouth will finally be allowed the access to Spruce Acres, which they are entitled. 

ALT needed Portsmouth tax money for their purchase but it seems by both ALT’s actions and their lack of communications after getting that money, that ALT feels no obligation to uphold their end of an agreement. The Town Council needs to remember this the next time Mr. Allott appears before them.

Nancy Grieb

110 Thayer Drive

Portsmouth