Coventry Now Owns Johnson’s Pond & Dam

COVENTRY, RI — This morning, the condemnation and taking of Johnson’s Pond & Dam by eminent domain was approved and certified in Superior Court, placing the 216 acre property in town ownership.

With the action certified in Superior Court, the town deposited the $157,000 offered in exchange for the land, said Town Solicitor Stephen Angell. He, town officials including Town Manager Dan Parrillo, councilmen James LeBlanc and Jonathan Pascua and engineers went out to the dam shortly after to assess whether the town will be able to raise water levels in the pond enough to provide the town with a summer this year on Johnson’s Pond. That hasn’t been  an option for the last three or four summers, LeBlanc said.

“It’s looking good,” Angell said. He just needs to clear the plan with the Department of Environmental Management, he said.

An Historic Event

“It was an historic event for the town,” LeBlanc said.

That plan won’t simply be a boon to the residents on Johnson’s Pond, said LeBlanc. As part of demonstrating public benefit in taking the land, he said, the resolution provides that the public will have access to the pond for recreation. LeBlanc said he learned second-hand that  the judge asked what the benefit to the public would be, to which Angell answered all town residents would gain public access to the pond, including a public beach and public ramp.

Previously, LeBlanc said, the general public could only put boats in on the pond by renting a ramp at a nearby campground.

“It was so exclusive, in my opinion,” LeBlanc said. So, he worked to add that as an amendment to the resolution taking the pond and dam.

LeBlanc said the town’s ownership of the property will not only aid local residents and townspeople who previously wouldn’t have had access. It’ll also save the town’s tax base, since property values on the water were in danger as the water levels continued to languish there under ownership of Soscia Holdings LLC. Those property values would have wound up raising everyone’s taxes, he said.

“You can’t just lose a significant amount of revenue funds and assume the town is going to take it on the chin,” LeBlanc said.

Angell does still expect continuing litigation concerning the pond and property from Soscia LLC’s principal, Doug Soscia. But the town’s continuing dispute with him has taken a significant turn.

“Whatever he has to say, he’s saying it out in the parking  lot,” Angell said.