NORTH SMITHFIELD – Tony Guertin has announced his candidacy for North Smithfield Town Council, pointing to his long history of volunteerism; support for schools, emergency services and seniors; and the need to balance the town’s rural character with expansion of the commercial tax base.
Guertin has live in North Smithfield with his family for the past 24 years and notes that his many years of advocacy to help to make the town, “a better place to live, work and play,” have included volunteer roles on numerous committees and organizations, including the Vote Yes for Middle School Committee; the North Smithfield Youth Soccer Association; the North Smithfield Athletic Association; the Charter Review Commission; Veterans Memorial Stadium Committee; North Smithfield Parks and Recreation Commission; and the Halliwell Review Committee.
“In supporting and helping to lead these organizations over the years, one basic principle has guided me: working hard to help to make N.S. better for all of us,” said Guertin.
“I am a firm believer that young families in North Smithfield need to be supported,” Guertin added. “School improvement is vital – both education and facilities. Our investment in our future is paramount to improving North Smithfield, and I will be a strong advocate for education, recreation, and relatedly, maintaining strong property values. The school department’s budget is over 57 percent of North Smithfield’s total expenditure budget, and the town council needs to work cooperatively with the School Committee and administration to both monitor and support that asset.”
Guertin said that life safety is also critical to his platform.
“As a professional with 25 plus years in the fire protection industry, I have a keen awareness around public safety,” he said. “I was publicly against remodeling the current outdated police station for many reasons; with the way things are in our country today, we not only need a top-flight police force – which I believe we have – but we also need the best tools to execute demands in the ever-changing and challenging environment that exists throughout our country, and even in our small town. An exceptional police force, equipment and police station are essentially important to our community.”
Guertin said he also believes that all town schools need better and increased security, as well as full-time school resource officers. He has also advocated for the installation of a wooden guardrail on Providence Pike to protect the public attending games at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
“Unfortunately, a majority of the N.S. Town Council disagreed,” Guertin said. “Life safety needs to be a top priority for our leadership, and not an afterthought.”
He said that senior citizens in North Smithfield also need support.
“The construction of a senior/multi-generational facility needs to happen soon, be it at Pacheco Park or the Halliwell site,” said Guertin. “I advocated for the construction of a senior center 10 years ago in my run for North Smithfield Town Administrator. While serving as the chairman of the North Smithfield Parks and Recreation Commission, I also pushed for the purchase of the property adjacent to the Pacheco Park entrance to increase access safety – then purchased by the town, but sadly, still unimproved – and the creation of a town garden at Halliwell, before it took shape. It is good to see that some of my ideas are not dismissed, and thus benefit our town.”
Guertin said the town also needs to balance the effort to maintain North Smithfield’s rural character with the need to expand commercial and industrial tax bases.
“Both Cumberland and Lincoln have enabled a balanced approach,” said Guertin. “We need to learn and adapt a similar model by seeking and encouraging development along the Route 146 corridor, Industrial Drive, and in the Branch Village area, including incentivizing public/private partnership opportunities. Taxes do not go down, but by increasing the commercial and industrial tax base, residential taxpayers will bear less of the tax burden. This is a must, as the rural character aspect of N.S. comes at a high cost, and right now, that means residential taxpayers foot the bills.”
Guertin noted that North Smithfield has a surplus of more than $9 million, and that the town’s annual debt service will decrease from approximately $4 million now, to approximately $2.6 million by 2027, and to under $500,000 by 2029.
“We need to prioritize investing in N.S., and developing a plan accordingly, instead of continually kicking the can down the road,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the last two years have seen little if any accomplishment for our Town Council – way too much discussion with minimal action,” Guertin said. “Political buzzwords catch the eye, but actions are what counts. A ‘good enough,’ N.S. needs to evolve to a top destination town to reside in, through supporting young families and home values as described, and programs and facilities for our senior citizens. We can help to make this happen by prioritizing budget items, and better planning to build a better N.S. together.”
“I believe my many years of volunteering in N.S. have supported our town and helped to make N.S. a better place to live, work and play,” said Guertin. “I am hopeful you agree, and will vote for Tony Guertin for North Smithfield Town Council on November 5. Thank you.”
You know you’ve hit a nerve when JP has to respond to every comment with insults…is he or she, so as not to discriminate, on the campaign staff as a consultant? If so, the candidates might want to review the votes that are being lost!
Funny thing JP keeps accusing everyone of using fake identification and yet I have no clue who he or she is.
“Actions are what counts”. Well said Tony. I’m sorry I was unaware of your support for the Halliwell Community Garden, but if you pm me your email, I can add you to our volunteer list and update you on upcoming work and harvest events.
Like Tony or not, actions are what do count.
Ann, I’m surprised you don’t recall
speaking before the HRC when Tony was a member and advocating for the Halliwell garden and expansion of at the Halliwell site when the garden was getting off the ground. Wasn’t he was a strong supporter of the initiative and voted in the affirmative for the garden? I believe anyone can find the videos on the towns YouTube channel to see for themselves. Does that not count as support? How quickly the “gang” mentality followers the leader…..right off the cliff!
Calm down Tony, you’re lost. Stop trying to paint people who disagree with your group as followers of a certain person, there are a lot more people who dislike your group of friends than you think. She might be trying to say with all this “support” he’s done nothing to help, yet tried to claim it as his own. Words are just words until they do something. Just how I replied earlier, ALL of the articles I find show her being the face of garden, both through hard work and community growth. If he truly supported something, he would’ve been there. Just like how he “always says” about he supports a walkway from the parking lot of nsms to the field, yet continues for other items that aren’t needed currently. Even in this posting, nothing about simple fixes to invest in, only big money projects. C’mon man.
BM = big mouth. The question was directed at candidate Ann, not you. I know you can’t help yourself but why don’t you let the candidate speak for themselves instead of ruining their chance of a seat. No where in this article states that he took credit for the Halliwell garden, was specifically his idea, or that he claimed to have physically worked there. If you carefully read, it mentions the purchase and expansion of the entrance of Pacheco, perhaps that was the idea that wasn’t dismissed….Ann this guy isn’t helping your cause at all. You have lost my potential vote because of him.
Tony, you weren’t voting for her anyways, let’s be real. It quite literally says his idea, meaning he’s trying to take credit. So keep spinning and try harder.
Ann – I wrote “I also pushed for…the creation of a town garden at Halliwell – before it took shape”, and addressed the community garden initiative publicly as far back as 2019 – in fact, we all did on NS P&R. You don’t remember? Maybe this article will help: https://www.valleybreeze.com/news/lots-of-talk-little-investment-in-recreation-spaces/article_74ad4ca9-572c-5ded-a258-a59d30c1bdee.html
And you have my email address, and have had it since we welcomed you to the P&R Commission.
Looks like it mentions two other people that isn’t yourself, you sure you want to go with that? However it did mention that you’re for big ticket items. It also mentions that the chair person of the parks and rec committee allowed for three parks to be abandoned it looks like. Your record just keeps getting worse. Thanks for providing info that put you in a “better” light.
I will not vote for anyone who tried to spend our taxpayers money to build a police department that was beyond the town’s needs. I see many other viable candidates for the Town Council that I am looking forward to learning more about and giving my support.
JP I hope some day you have the courage to use your real name. In the meantime I’ll just judge by what you’ve written that you’re John Beauregard using one of his many aliases. Be forewarned voters, when Tony writes “I am not for big government or public opinion determining the rights of private citizens or landowners” that is a big red flag. It’s a declaration that one makes when they believe government has no right to establish zoning laws and regulations, which might limit the property owner in any way. Claire O’Hara made the same declaration when she stated at the hearing on the Iron Mine Hill Road Solar Array that she wanted the owner to be able to do whatever he wanted to do with his land. Of course she was a friend of the owner, so she might have sung a different song if it was somebody else.
Great comeback Mike.
He’s only using the same argument that “JP” is using… So look inward next time.
My my my!!! Mikey and all his “web land of make believe friends” Must be really scared of what Tony has to offer. His resume, as you are enamored by resumes, shows a great deal of service and support to this town. It’s been a bash comment every 30 min on the hour since this article came out. Pathetic signs of desperation.
I don’t see any desperation here JP, these folks just know what Tony Guertin is all about.
These “folks” lol. Pretend “folks” keyed on the fearless pack leaders machine.
Where’s the outcry of fake and phony profiles ??
Even his own followers are seeing what he’s truly about and turning on him.
Sad actually….
You caught us Jean Paul. Your perception is incredible. We are all really Mike Clifford. Maybe you’re Mike Clifford. If you really are a disciple of Mr curtain then you know deep inside he really would be the worst choice our town has to offer.
Pat I hope some day you have the courage to use your real name. In the meantime I’ll just judge by what you’ve written that you’re Mike Clifford using one of his many aliases.
JP and friends are starting to realize the error of their ways, and who they call friends, first hand with how much the town disagrees with them. Maybe if they actually had the best interest of the town, then it’d be a different story, facts over feelings. A good resume doesn’t mean they’ll be a good councilor, it matters with how they mesh and work with the community. Look at the current disgraced administrator, sexual harassment lawsuit that happened, toxic work environment, publicly humiliating town members during meetings, publicly making sexist remarks during town meetings. That individual had a great resume (in my eyes) to represent the town, and failed bigly.
As we see in here, they’re trying to take credit away from someone else, Ann, about the community garden. We also see no mention of a walk path from the school to the field, but we see wooden guardrails, which aren’t needed. We also see how there’s no plan or mention of how to bring business back to the town, as we are approaching minus 10 businesses since 2018.
What we, the townsfolk, do see however is spend spend spend with no plan other than I want new this or new that, all of which are wants and not needs. We can also see how Tony, and his group of friends, all tend to attack groups of seniors, veterans, military members, working mothers, etc… The town doesn’t want this in their community, the town NEEDS councilors to work with and for the people of this great town, not the select few.
Tony Guertin has been nothing but a wannabe politician for years, and his only claim to fame is he will misconstrue the facts for his benefit. A vote for Mr. Guertin is a vote to spend taxpayer money to oblivion and keep the good ole boys club alive in North Smithfield. It’s time to move on from these characters and bring in a fresh, forward thinking, fiscally responsible team. O’Hara and Beauregard also need to be voted out.
Guertin seems to have moved to North Smithfield 24 years ago because he liked that it was a small town with rural character.
But one of the other qualities of rural, small towns is also that guess what — they also don’t have the finances and tax base to have giant Taj Mahal police stations!
Mitchell I hope some day you have the courage to use your real name. In the meantime I’ll just judge by what you’ve written that you’re Mike Clifford using one of his many aliases.
It seems very weird that maintaining the “rural character” of our “small town” is apparently important to Guertin in every regard except for the police force.
For some reason Guertin instead believes we should be a “small town” with “rural character” but not also have the typical small-town police force, equipment and infrastructure you see in the type of rural small town he wants.
Reading the above article, I am left walking away with the knowledge that his platform is “Everything is a priority and spend, spend, spend” That is not the answer to all our woes.
I’ll pass on this one, thank you….
HARD PASS!!!!!
Guertin: “With the way things are in our country today, we not only need a top-flight police force…”
Another crazy trying to bring national politics into local matters. No thanks!
Must be coming from a guy who doesn’t leave his basement war room and internet machine to see what America is actually like now in the real world.
I’m out in the real world interacting with people from all walks of life every day just fine, but I am confused about the basement bashing — I thought basement safe rooms, etc. were what Doomsday Preppers who feel society is collapsing were all about? Is the scary cat-eater in the room with you right now??
Yes, by all means please let’s put someone else on the Town Council who is going to once again make North Smithfield a national laughing stock by trying to insert national politics into local small-town matters like John Beauregard did with the Nike garbage.
I will not be voting for him solely because of his persistent efforts to push through a new police station at the expense of taxpayers. I am opposed to any candidate who seeks to burden the town’s taxpayers with excessive spending. After mid-October, following the close of the corporate tax year, I will be conducting more research on each candidate. At present, I am only considering voting for one current member to retain their seat, but this may change as I learn more about the new candidates.
As a member of Parks and Rec while Tony Guertin was chair, and as the chair of Parks and Rec when the community garden was started, I do not recall Tony “pushing for the creation of a community garden at Halliwell.” The community garden was started by Ann Lilley. While Tony may have agreed that a community garden was a good concept and suggested in March of 2019 that Halliwell would be a better location than was being proposed by residents at the time, Tony was not involved in the vision, advocacy, or building of the community garden.
Ann, who also happens to be running for town council, had the vision and commitment to bring it to life and continue the hard work over the last four gardening seasons to make it a success.
I would not want Tony’s comments to lead anyone to believe he is involved in the community garden at Halliwell.
Maybe he had a “concept of a plan”, and likes taking credit for other people’s work. All articles I see regarding the garden see spearheaded by Ann, only person to show up during heat waves to pick, doesn’t mention Tony at all.
As you mentioned, Ann put in a lot of hard work showcasing her abilities to actually help the residents of this town. She was also 1 of 3, to call in for the debate portion of new candidates, once again showcasing her ability to meet the demands of the town residents. Oddly, Tony was not one of the other two members of that debate.
Mr curtain is the epitome of the person we are being warned about in the old adage “fools Rush in where Angels fear to tread”. He jumps onto the first shiny new bandwagon and is willing to run it straight over cliff. I can’t think of a person less suited to be on our Town council. That includes everyone I know who is not running.
Wow what a comment and I quote “Taxes do not go down, but by increasing the commercial and industrial tax base, residential taxpayers will bear less of the tax burden. This is a must, as the rural character aspect of N.S. comes at a high cost, and right now, that means residential taxpayers foot the bills.” This statement means hold on to your wallet and pay higher taxes while I spend the town into bankruptcy. Second we have the ridiculous financial comment “North Smithfield has a surplus of more than $9 million.” This candidate has zero financial training and experience and is not the type of person NS needs on the Town Council. This candidate is all about spending and will put the town into a bad financial situation. I urge everyone not to vote for this candidate.
DT I hope some day you have the courage to use your real name. In the meantime I’ll just judge by what you’ve written that you’re Mike Clifford using one of his many aliases.
Yup
But why?
Mr. Guertin, who never said a word in opposition to the clearcutting of hundreds of acres of woodlands to make room for the one of largest commercial scale solar arrays in Rhode Island, is now portraying himself as a conservationist, who is all about preserving the rural character of the town. Don’t buy it folks. He’ll drown the taxpayers in debt.
Nope