Longtime North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi faces a challenge from fellow Democrat Kristen Catanzaro in Tuesday’s primary election. The race is the hardest-fought mayoral contest in this week’s election.
On a recent afternoon, North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi showed off 19 acres of forested preservation land at Camp Meehan, near the town’s border with Smithfield. Sunlight gleamed nearby on the blue water of the Wenscott Reservoir, a scene so bucolic you’d never know that busy Mineral Spring Avenue is only about a mile away.
“This is the crown jewel of our town,” he said. “Everyone that comes here says the same thing. You think you’re in New Hampshire somewhere, it’s magnificent, it’s gorgeous.”Listen to the audio version of this story.
And it’s going to stay that way. Under Lombardi’s direction, North Providence went all the way to the state Supreme Court to protect Camp Meehan from being sliced up and made into homes. The mayor counts that as one of his top accomplishments since first winning office in 2007.
“I mean, look at this property it’s pristine,” he said. “And to want to allow 48 homes to be built here? To me, that would have been a travesty for our town and our children’s children and their children, for years to come.”
Lombardi said he’s brought the same forward-looking oversight to town finances. At age 70, the veteran of town politics says he’d like at least one more term to maintain North Providence’s momentum.
“When we came here we were one step above junk bond,” he said. “We were borrowing 10 and a half million a year for cash flow. I’m proud to say in the last two years we haven’t had to borrow a penny.”
And the town recently got another bump its bond rating.
But Lombardi’s Democratic primary challenger, 48-year-old Town Councilor Kristen Catanzaro, says North Providence is headed in the wrong direction.
“We need a change,” she said. “Deplorable streets, deplorable parks, up and down our main arteries, in and out of town, vacancies.”
Catanzaro grew up in Scituate and moved to North Providence after graduating from Rhode Island College. She got involved in local politics and built her profile while serving as Town Council president.
Catanzaro owns and operates a food services company that makes Buddy Cianci’s pasta sauce. At a local market, Shore’s Fresh Food Market on Mineral Spring Avenue, she pointed to some of the other products made by her company, red wine biscuits, white wine biscuits, pepper biscuits, and egg biscuits, which she describes as based on family recipes.
But the mayoral campaign between Catanzaro and Lombardi has been less than sweet. Catanzaro faults Lombardi even for the preservation of Camp Meehan. Yes, it’s a lovely place, she said, but other needs suffered when $3 million in outside grants went to preserving the location.
“Those were not spread around to any other areas in town to maintain village revitalization,” Cantazor said. “Evans field, Stephen Olney Park. It all went to one park only — a pet project that he has proven that is his gem.”
It might be a gem, but Catanzaro says North Providence’s overall condition is far less than radiant on Lombardi’s watch.
“My opponent did not do anything to sustain the affordability for the taxpayers here in North Providence. We’re the third-highest in taxes, and our business community has suffered.”
Lombardi counters that it’s not his fault North Providence is the third-highest taxed community in the state, noting that he inherited a $10.5 million deficit when he took office about a decade ago.
“How do you get out of that? We’ve done that. And now we’re on the move,” said Lombardi. “We haven’t raised the taxes the last two years, where other communities are going to start to catch up to us. And in the meantime, we’re starting to pave roads, we’re taking care of infrastructure.”
It’s hard to find agreement on any issue between these two candidates.
Take the town surplus. Lombardi said North Providence can’t spend any of its surplus because of an agreement with the state to keep building the town’s rainy day fund. Catanzaro has argued the town should use part of the surplus to relieve the burden of car taxes on residents.
Other issues in the mayoral campaign include North Providence’s problem-plagued police department and responding to a rat issue.
“My opponent has accused me of degrading the town by saying there’s a rat infestation, which, absolutely, I did not,” Catanzaro said. “It was an area I represent in District 3.”
Lombardi responds that residents in that part of town need to do a better job containing their trash.
In many ways, the clash between Lombardi and Catanzaro is a classic battle between an incumbent and a challenger. The outcome will come down to whether voters think Lombardi is doing a solid job, or whether they prefer Catanzaro’s message of change.
The winner of Tuesday’s primary will face independent candidate Brian Quirk in November.
