Residents deliver petitions, raise concerns about Town Center, affordable housing and food assistance

At Monday’s meeting residents delivered petitions and public testimony on several land‑use and social‑service issues affecting the town.

Joanne Thornton, speaking for the group Middletown Concerned Neighbors, presented a petition she said had collected 2,113 signatures through Dec. 6 and urged the council to put the current Town Center development proposal back on the public agenda for fuller review. She told the council the petition included signers from across Aquidneck Island and said the numbers demonstrated broad community concern about the project’s direction.

Other public‑forum speakers addressed housing and social needs. Lawrence Frank, chair of the Middletown Affordable Housing Committee, described a planning board hearing on a proposal for 36 affordable single‑family and multifamily units on town‑owned sites and urged more aggressive measures to meet low‑income housing demand. Frank cited national and local statistics on homelessness and housing shortages to argue for supply‑side action.

Heather Stroud, executive director of the Martin Luther King Community Center, read a letter noting the town’s Middletown Meals Community Challenge raised 2,636 pounds of donated food for local hunger relief and described the center’s food‑distribution and home delivery programs.

Councilors received the petition materials and public records submitted by speakers and did not take immediate action on the Town Center project; several members said the petitions and public comments would be part of upcoming hearings and agenda items where more formal consideration will occur.