Mayor testifies about merits of regionalization

PROVIDENCE—Rhode Island lawmakers held a hearing Thursday to learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of regionalization.

Talk about cities and towns joining together to share resources and cut costs has been around for years.

Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian was the first witness at the first hearing of the Senate Study Commission on Municipal Shared Services.

Avedisian said state mandates will be necessary in some instances. But in others, he said towns are already making progress.

“There is a lot of work that is already being done, and I think we’d be silly to get rid of that good work. Why not look at where communities have come together and give them incentives to continue to do that work and to bring that to fruition?“ Avedisian said.

Avedisian is looking beyond a leaf-collection collaborative with East Greenwich to regionalization of fire dispatching services. 

And the mayor said he has a new idea.

“The town manager in East Greenwich and I had a long discussion about whether or not we want to merge the harbormaster functions between our two communities,“ Avedisian.

However communities can share costs, it’s likely to benefit taxpayers.