Town Manager Report for the week ending June 26, 2026
On Saturday June 20 we had a tremendous RI 250th celebratory parade that began at Paine Field and ended at Saints John and Paul School. We had over 300 participants including floats, witches, music, vehicles, and performers. We were joined by our local state delegation, councilmembers, along with Gov McKee, Senator Reed, and Rep. Magaziner who enjoyed the excitement and getting to meet the residents.
After the parade we went to Coventry High School for our annual Summer Festival with hundreds of residents and friends enjoying food trucks, a soccer demonstration, a kid’s zone, live music, and fireworks. It was a wonderful success and everyone had a great time. A huge thanks to the Coventry Parks and Recreation Department, Coventry Police, Coventry DPW, Central Coventry Fire Department, and the RI Army National Guard 13th Civil Support Team for their professionalism and dedication to make this event safe and a huge success.
On Monday we had the Ribbon Cutting for our new Community Learning Center at the Town Hall Annex. It was a great success led by the Governor and his staff, Rep Magaziner, State Rep Noret, State Rep Read, Senator Raptakis, and Director of Veteran Services Kasim Yarn. This newly renovated 38,000 square feet of programming space will provide various services to the entire community including education, workforce development, and health monitoring. It will become the focal point of the community and we thank Governor McKee for his vision in using the state’s federal funds investing in its residents.
Right after the event we had our final meeting with the RI Pandemic Recovery Office to finalize all of our documentation on this $4.8m project and review what the final closeout tasks are. Once we are 100% complete we will be eligible for our final bucket of reimbursement along with any additional funds that may become available.
On Tuesday we had a Council meeting which was heavily attended due to the agenda containing a potential referendum question for November’s ballot on the residents voting on the creation of Municipal Fire Department which passed later in the meeting. There will be more information to follow, but if anyone is interested in seeing what the Municipal Fire Commission studied over the past 14 months please go to the Town of Coventry website and search “Municipal Fire” which will bring you to all of the documents including the draft budget for a Municipal Fire Department. Other issues discussed at the meeting were the Redevelopment Plan for Johnsons Pond which was continued to the July 8 meeting along with the corresponding ordinance.