Mayor Ken Hopkins has released an official statement that he will be moving ahead with the construction of an 8,000 square foot pool to replace the current 22,000 square foot Budlong Pool after years of the city going without a public pool.

“Last week I directed our consultants to finalize plans to go out to bid for a new 8,000 square foot Budlong pool because I determined it was in the best interest of the taxpayers and recreational needs of Cranston,” Mayor Hopkins said. “I am disappointed that the partisan political arm of local Democrats “Cranston Forward” and the Councilwoman of Ward 2 refuse to put the taxpayers first for the long-term interests of our community.”

Continuing arguments regarding the size of the future Budlong Pool and what is right for the city of Cranston came to a head on October 12 when Mayor Ken Hopkins released a statement calling out City-wide Councilman Robert Ferri claiming that he has been negative and partisan regarding the issue before releasing a second statement on .

“I am so disappointed in Bob Ferri’s incessant carping and unwillingness to be a collegial and participating member of the city council to seek common ground and pro-taxpayer solutions,” Hopkins said. “Ferri’s attacks are used to deflect and show his lack of understanding on financing capital projects like the Budlong Pool.”

However, Ferri was not the only member of the council to make known disappointment in the Mayor’s plans to shrink the size of the pool by more than half. Last month the City Council passed a resolution seeking to compromise with the mayor on the size of the pool. Passing with a majority vote, the resolution requested that the mayor’s designs accommodate a pool as close to the original as possible, rectangular in nature and no less than 11,000 square feet in size.

“If he’s that worried about me, God bless him,” Ferri said in response to the mayor. “I just speak the truth. He said ‘tell me what to build, and I’ll build it.’ Repeatedly, the administration said this. We told him what to build and he’s still not doing it.”

Ferri wasn’t the only member of the council unhappy with Hopkins’ decision to ignore the council’s wishes.

 “I am outraged by the administration’s disdain for the people of Cranston and his insistence on proceeding with the destruction of the pool despite the total lack of community support,” Councilwoman Aniece Germain said in a release of her own. “The administration has dismissed the outcry from thousands of residents who never wanted this new pool or the ‘bells and whistles’ he has promised. They want the pool they have. A pool big enough to hold all the people who will need it as summers grow continuously hotter and longer, where children can learn the life-saving skill of swimming, where teens can safely socialize and people of all ages can exercise and experience community. The Mayor is taking something away from all of us that is irreplaceable.”

More than 2,000 signatures of Cranston residents were gained in support of maintaining the pool’s size and shape by local political group Cranston Forward. These signatures were presented to the Mayor’s office shortly before the administration and City Council held a joint public forum for members of the public to discuss the issue openly with the Mayor and the company hired to analyze the pool and draw up plans for a possible replacement.

However, the Mayor has stated that the desire to keep the pool its current size and shape is the result of partisan politics rather than an expression of desire from the people of Cranston.

“Cranston Forward has shown its true colors as a political action committee founded by local Democrats and supported financially by partisan opponents of mine who refuse to be objective about the existing pool’s deteriorating condition,” he stated. “Even in light of unimpeached expert opinion about the pool, its age and conditions and the costs to repair, they stay locked in an embarrassing position of unreasonableness.”

In his most recent release the Mayor even called out individual city resident and chairman Cranston Forward, Karen Rosenberg, who has publicly opposed his plans.

Mayor Hopkins said “before they gathered the real facts, individuals like Karen Rosenberg of Cranston Forward, stoked up the community with misinformation and the false idea that we could just put another band aid on the pool wall and re-open it.”

In response, Roseberg released a statement as chair of the organization.

“Earlier this week, to the shock and disappointment of many, Mayor Hopkins announced that he would proceed, against overwhelming public opposition, with demolishing the Budlong pool and replacing it with a new pool,” she said. “The new pool will be irregularly shaped, two-thirds smaller, mostly very shallow, and designed primarily for small children. The Mayor added 3 lap lanes in a late effort to placate critics, but it is clear the new pool will not accommodate the City’s population and that it is not designed for the majority of users—which include teens, for whom the pool was a popular summer spot; the many hundreds of kids in the city’s summer camp (an estimated 700 this year); and the adults of all ages who also used the pool for exercise and socializing.”

Councilwoman Germain believes that Hopkins’ statements are an attempt to point the finger of blame somewhere other than his administration.

“I am outraged by the dishonesty. The administration will seemingly say whatever is convenient, but the records tell the truth,” she said in her release. “They misled the public about the reason the pool was never re-opened since closing in 2020 due to the pandemic. It did not re-open in 2021 because they did not budget for it. The records show that the administration deluded when they told us then that the pool was not in need of repairs or maintenance and that they planned to re-open it in 2022 (while behind our backs there were preparing plans and seeking federal funds to demolish and replace it). The administration deceived the Council and the public by hiding reports from the company that serviced the pool and from their own original consultant which said the pool could be re-opened at far less cost than replacing it.”

Despite the ongoing arguments regarding the reasons behind political positions, the mayor has expressed genuine belief that he is doing what is right for the city.

“I am prepared to defend my decisions at the ballot box and in the community as the right thing to do,” Hopkins said. “I am not intimidated by threats of political payback and ‘punishment at the polls’. At the end of the day, most Cranston residents will love the new Budlong Pool and appreciate the pro-taxpayer approach I took in addressing a project that had been neglected long before I was mayor. I agree with Cranston Forward’s statement that Cranston deserves better. I am delivering on that promise and I am absolutely committed to giving residents the new pool they deserve.”