As part of its regularly scheduled meeting for the month, April 8, the town council, made a series of recognitions, including that of Edward Theberge.

As presented by Councilor Louis Rego, Theberge, a former councilor himself among numerous other volunteer works over some seven decades living in the town, was honored as he moves to Pennsylvania.

Theberge was saluted for "his dedication and lifetime commitment to the public good."

Said Rego, "I've never worked with someone so compassionate in getting things done like at Ed Theberge,"

In addition, two championship teams from Mt. Hope High School, the Division III champion boys' basketball and boys' swim teams, were recognized for their outstanding achievements, as were three town residents and state champions from the Kickemuit Middle School wrestling team: Cameron Ferreira, Matthew Williams and William Corrente.

Appointments
The council made a pair of appointments to assist the town's electrical inspection office. Ryan Souza and Wayne Gablinske, both of Bristol, were approved as alternates/assistants for a period of one year. Nick Massed, remains as the town's lead inspector.
Gablinske is the Bristol electrical inspector and Souza also have previous inspector experience and is a master electrician.

Matt Cabral, the town's building and zoning inspector, explained prior to the vote that Massed, who also owns and operates his own company, "does a lot of work in town, so we don't have any conflict of interest we have back-ups and the problem with the backups are that they also own companies...So this would give us the ability so that way with the vacations or any other conflicts of interest, we can keep projects moving forward and have the inspections conducted."

March meeting notes
Clearing out the notebook from the council's March 2025 meeting, the body took up a handful of appointments, including seating Donald Mead to fill out the seven-member town Economic Development Board. In addition, the council appointed Stephen Mark Dylag to the Tax Board of Assessment Review, the last of five spots available.

As well, the council declined to make a full-time appointment of the one available seat on the planning board. Tim White and Richard Matton, who both applied to become permanent members, instead will remain in their current alternate roles.

At the time, Council President Joseph DePasquale said, "We do have a position, but we're not going to advertise this anymore. We may be changing the make-up of the planning board and zoning board...We thought that it wouldn't be fair to appoint somebody and then possibly in a month or two reduce that number and do whatever we may do. So that's we're not doing that tonight."

Leadem leaves
Also last month, the council saluted Tax Assessor Kristopher Leadem at the March 11 forum, it being his last officially in the position. Leadem left Warren to take on the same role in Bristol. From the official line item in the Warren Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget, he was making a base salary of $72,002. A similar line item for the position in Bristol in FY24-25 paid roughly $85,000.

His departure mirrors that of former Planning Director Herb Durfee, who also recently opted to leave Warren to take on the same post in Barrington. His FY24-25 total compensation in town was about $87,000. According to the figure provided to The Barrington Times, a sister publication of The Times-Gazette in the East Bay Media Group chain, Durfee's package there was said to be worth approximately $114,000.