This is a photo of the crowd at the Warwick Town Planning Board April 16. The writer of the post below estimated at least 170 people were there. “Some attendees left because there was nowhere to sit. Others remained standing outside the meeting room listening by the doorways.” Photo by Peter Lyons Hall.
The following online comment was posted on a story in last week’s newspaper titled “Proposed religious college in Sterling Forest brings concern:”
From Kiki Nelson:
While I appreciate the coverage of the Warwick Planning Board’s April 16, 2025, meeting and the proposed threat to Sterling Forest State Park, I’d like to gently correct some of the numbers quoted in the article.
A conservative estimate of the attendance puts it at 170. Some attendees left because there was nowhere to sit. Others remained standing outside the meeting room listening by the doorways.
The parking lot was totally full, so some cars were parked on the grass.
Also, the meeting was streamed and viewed 292 times.
There were actually approximately 40 speakers, not 24. Some speakers returned to the podium to speak a second time because, originally, they were told that speaking time would be unlimited but that was changed at time of the meeting to a three-minute limit.
Some speakers had written four- to six-minute comments that could not be distilled down to three minutes at such short notice. All, not “most,” of the speakers raised objections to the proposal.
A very few, spoke in a derogatory manner about the applicant. This attitude was correctly shot down by the Sterling Forest Partnership (a 501C 3 nonprofit organization that has been protecting Sterling Forest since before it was purchased as a State Park).
Planning Board Chairman Ben Astorino seconded the rebuke.
Preservation of the State Park is paramount. That is why taxpayers have spent $80 million ($145 million adjusted for inflation) for everyone’s enjoyment while protecting a very important watershed.
All of us need to protect it.