Al Beauparlant Resigns from Redevelopment Agency

Al Beauparlant has resigned from the Redevelopment Agency, saying a recent conversation with a City Councilman has made it clear he's too much of a 'lightning rod' to be of use to the board.

Following the Nov. 5 election, Beauparlant said, he approached a City Councilor to offer congratulations and attempt to establish a working relationship. But, he said, the Councilor did not react graciously, essentially telling Beauparlant he'd work to block his efforts on the Redevelopment Agency.

Those efforts include an initiative to encourage an area university or college to locate in the city with a satellite campus, a  project Beauparlant took the lead on. The self-described "Woonsocket guy," a developer with 29 years of experience as a project manager and problem solver, has a stack of poster boards in his home illustrating various plans of attack for the city's economic rebirth.

"At least there'll be some kind of movement without me," Beauparlant said. 

Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt said Beauparlant's choice to resign was his own, and declined to comment on Beauparlant's account of his conversation with the Councilor. "That's between him and the Councilor," Baldelli-Hunt said.

Baldelli-Hunt said she's sure the Redevelopment Commission will find someone to replace Beauparlant from a large pool of qualified people in the city. She also noted that the board was only recently reconstituted this year, and there is not much momentum lost with Beauparlant leaving it.

Beauparlant also experienced difficulties with his plans for a closing ceremony for the City's 125th anniversary celebration planned for the lot across from the Woonsocket Call during the Holiday Stroll.

Beauparlant, architect of the 125th Anniversary Block Party, as well as the 100th in 1988, had planned to re-build the Arc de Triomphe in the lot with an added feature to the spectacle, The Woonsocket Rocket, a 5-foot high model that was to be pulled to the top of the Arc with fireworks, but the city placed several conditions on the event he wasn't able to meet. 

Beauparlant said the city couldn't guarantee a fire engine as a precaution for the fireworks; It required him to be personally indemnified for the event; and it would've charged him $12,300 for city workers to block off streets with saw horses and signs. 

Regarding the insurance, Beauparlant said, the city is already insured under its special events coverage, which was also used during the 125th Anniversary Block Party. So, he said, the insurance requirement was an unreasonable request. Taking all the conditions together, he said, it was clear, "This event, the city wanted nothing to do with it."

The closing ceremony's cancelation carried a particularly sharp sting, Beauparlant said, since the event had originally been planned, with all approvals from the city in place, for Dec. 1 under Mayor Leo Fontaine's term. Beauparlant insisted on moving the date to coincide with the Holiday Stroll, he said, to make sure newly elected Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt could participate in the ceremony. He said he has also resigned from the 125th Block Party Committee.

Baldelli-Hunt disagrees with that characterization of events. First, she said, while the Holiday Stroll takes place on Main Street and cooperates with the City, it is actually an event run by the Main Street Riverfront Initiative, the same organization that ran the 125th Anniversary Block Party. 

It was the Main Street Riverfront Initiative's responsibility to line up the permits and precautions for the Holiday Stroll, Baldelli-Hunt said, but when she took office Dec. 4, those permits were not in place. Beauparlant told her staff that former Mayor Leo Fontaine hadn't been in for the last few weeks, and hadn't been available to make the arrangements. 

She said some of Beauparlant's plans, including the fireworks, were potentially dangerous, and while not everything he'd intended could be arranged with the time they had, some of it still could have been done. She said the Main Street Riverfront Initiative canceled that portion of the Stroll, not the city.

Beauparlant said he holds out hope that he can still be of assistance to the City. "I will still be putting forth great plans for the City of Woonsocket," Beauparlant said.

Beauparlant, who worked closely with former Mayor Charles Baldelli, the new Mayor's uncle, and considers him a friend, said he's also looking forward to meeting with Baldelli-Hunt. "Some things that I will tell her will be profound, significant and very enlightening," Beauparlant said.