Everyone MUST go to these meeting BOTH if you can pull it off, The DIT is going to use a bogus economic study to help them enforce the tolls. DON't let this happen, STOP is doing a complete survey of the whole of NEWPORT county The DOT has to allow us to have more meetring and more public imput into this, If lots of folks don't show at these meeting they will use it against us. I can't believe they are just ignoring Middletown and just tryimg to sneak by with Tiverton and Portsmouth, many thousands of you lent your name to this fight by signing the Petition, Don't let the DOT sidestep your name, GO and use your voice, use your given right as a citizen of the United States to speak your mind, Now is not the time for Silence, Do we really want to support the rest of RI because a 1/2 mile bridge has always been our life line to the world, It,s an economic suicide pill for Newport County jobs and tourism and they either can't see that or don't care

Please keep up the Emails to Congressman David Cicilline . We need him involved in this process . We need him to attend and talk against the Toll at the hearing in Washington . His voice needs to be heard at the hearing with the Federal Highway Administration . He said he was apposed to the toll during the campaign . Now we need him to speak out against them.

Chris Christenson, I have already spent hundreds of dollars and hours of time driving around doing the petition, how about you show up and help? The state has been shown more than one way to maintain the new bridge, which by the way is built to need very little maintance for the first 10 years of it's life, so where's the money going to go???? To bail out the DOT for doing nothing? to the GA for their other great money idea called Studio 38? This is nothing more than a money grab and the taxpayers off Newport county will only be left worse off by it STOP it now or you and your pay for life

Why is the meeting with the DOT when the bridge is under the management of the RI Bridge and Turnpike Authority??
If we did away with the redundant RIBTA we could probably do away with the toll on the Sakonnet Bridge.

Looks like Ralph Lewis tossed the Ga under the bus, said it's all their doing, What are the Local reps doing or planning to do to help us out,

Dan Gordon? Who the heck is he? Has anyone ever heard of Dan Gordon?

Brian-Word on the street is the TCC has big plans for old Dan the Felon-they're bringing him back in 2016 to run for president-trying to make him the TCC "Comeback Payer of the Year".

Brian Mederbie and b kcaj, since you both know that Mr Gordon didn't even make the ballot this election just what is your point with your postings? Is it funny? NO is it helpful? NO Is it childish and harmful to a very important issue? YES thanks for your imout tho, good or bad anything that keeps the toll fight in the public eye is all good to me

Jim L two quick questions, what is a IMOUT and who is Ralph Lewis? JIM L is your TCC pal Dan Gordon still in office and will he be in office when these meetings take place?

Big manny the word was imput and Ralph Lewis is the head of the DOT, This is NOT a TCC issue and Dan Gordon is not in office, Given all the hard work that many citizens are doing to stop the TOLLS for you to make light of their efforts is in very poor taste, comment as you wish . But II will no longer respond to stupid comments about an issue that the entire (or most of) Towns of Little Compton, Adamsville, Tiverton, Portsmouth, Middletown, and parts of Newport believe will destroy their lives, FEEL free to post to me with your real name anytime? With your last statements I am sure many folks from both sdes of the last election wish you would now disappear

I deleted a comment because it made an ad-hominem attack. Keep in mind what Socrates said, “When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.”

Jim L you may have better luck fighting the tolls if you knew who you were dealing with. I still dcan't find any ralph lewis with the RI DOT. Why do you need me to post with my real name when you don't do the same and have posted under several names yourself and allowed your name to be attached to a letter you never wrote.

Mr. Lipe-There is no such word in the english language as "imput"-did you have it confused with INPUT?

Also, as of today, MICHAEL Lewis is the director of the DOT-not Ralph Lewis.

Thank you Olga, I and all the other Patch reader believe in what you just stated

OPPS my BAD got a name wrong, Toss out STOP and donttoll, discount the petition, a man withno name can't move on, thanks to EACH and Everyone who has lent the real name , time and money to a common cause, MICHEAL LEWIS is the guy who put the ball back in the GA's court and he SHOULD be asked at the dec 4th meeting just WHO is pushing what This issue to me raises above ALL local and party politics, Nobody was asked what their party was, who they backed etc, everyone just signed, and the STOP econmic survey doesn't disclose your name or business, it only highlights the harm that will be done to the local community, If any of you have read me on here you ALL know i at times don't spell that well, But spelling didn't get us to this meeting, Banding together as a town and then as Newport county got us here and together we will prevail no matter how far and to what level of goverment we must rise, NO TOLLs, it's just a job killing money robbing income stealing idea from the GA and is unfair and MUST be STOPPED, IT ISis NOT THE TOLLS, It is the effects of the tolls and it will effect the entire state and Ma. ther are results that might come from this that either no one can see or no one will talk about

Nusc, the WAR college, OCS school, Raythoen and other Federal business's in Newport county have not said a word about this!! Thats because They are Federal and cannot interfer in state business, But once the state does something the Goverment can respond I don't think they will be clapping thier hands because the worst economic state in the Union just took money from their employee';s pocket's to correct mismanagement and then are also giving the money to a private enterprize, Taxpayer money being taken from just this section of the state while every other county in RI benefits and WE get nothing back but higher income loss, falling property value's riseing gas and home heating oil prices, increares in school transportation costs Just about being MADE to pay a toll to go to our capitol city and visitors paying a civer charge before they even exit there car. The Tiverton Indy park? lets not even go there, no one else will. I might get a name wring but i don't think I'm wrong on this NO TOLLS,

The new TOLLS on the Sakonnet River Bridge could have been stopped at one point by our reps, they didn't do it, that historys. BUT now i see people saying we must fight at the Federal level, Bull, the General Assembly of the state of RI put this on Newport county and the Ga should come to it sences and remove it, All of RI will suffer in job loses, loss of state income tax and loss of sales tax and if our reps can't get enough other GA folks to see that when over 30,000.00 thousand voters can ,then when YOU reach into your pocket to buy a transponder or pay 4 or 5 dollars down the road just remember , It Was not the DOT, that did this, It was not the DOT nor, Gov. Caffee IT WAS PIAVA WEED! GORDON FOX ! THE RITBA ,OUR REPS AND A portion of the GA They have been shown OTHER way to pay for this and those ways are just being ignored , and if these TOLLS are placed on Newport county never to be removed I for one will consider that the folks who asked for voters to favor them just failed in their jobs and took money from every citizen of Newport county and gave it away to the RITBA, Not even to the state, to a private outfit!!This should have NEVER been a DONE DEAL nor should it become one, all those who thought the petition a JOKE I think have had their eyes opened, Remember, It's the GA backing this NOT the DOT, the GA is the DOT's BOSS and WE are suppose to be The GA's boss,NO TOLLS, nothing but a giant RIPOFF GO TO THE MEETING, STOP THE TOLLS

Jim L, why did only 12 people show up at the STOP TOLLS meeting that was held at the Tiverton Town Hall? Hopefully, this is not indicative of the turn out for the DOT meeting.

TOLLS BABY TOLLS... I can't wait.... PAY UP JIM..

Whoever is going to the Tiverton meeting tonight PLEASE question the gas tax declining revenue slide. It will "show" that because of increased EPA mileage on newer cars and the current bad economy, the gas tax "bucket" is decreasing and isn’t a solution. What the study fails to show is traffic counts year over year through Aquidneck Island. My guess is that traffic counts have INCREASED over the last 5,10,15,20 years. What it doesn‘t also show is the growth of gas tax difference by state. For example, I believe there is now an 11 cent/gallon difference between RI and MA gas; what percentage of folks in RI now “gas up” in CT or MA. Could that be a reason gas tax revenue is declining? Could tolls be the penalty for gassing up in MA?

All the happy Democrats showed up to complain about a new tax, kind of ironic isn't it?

To all who commented both pro and con: Without trying to get into a lengthy discussion, the PBA believes that there is more than enough money in the state budget to accomplish adequate bridge maintenance for the four bridges. We have suggested at least ten separate ideas directly to the Governor for his consideration. Some of these ideas suggested a good hard look at expenditures and look where there is potential for fraud, waste and abuse or systemic problems that could be fixed to free up funds to dedicate to bridge maintenance. Other ideas were related to redirecting funds that go into the General Fund. Also, last night was a good first look at the direct economic impact. We believe officials should have done that homework before the introduction of Article 20 creating the East Bay Infrastructure. By the way, as we understand it, the bond indenture language for the bonds issued by RITBA will cause the Pell tolls to go up in the future regardless if there is a toll on the Sakonnet. Nonetheless, our position is that with some bold, innovative leadership, the elected officials can find the funds in house to dedicate to the four bridges without a new toll. Find more funds to spur economic development. Use this concept as a way to turn the corner regarding state spending and economic development. Put the Lieutenant Governor directly in charge of both of these efforts. Why not give this approach a try?

Tonight you will also see zero thought was put into the economic impact of tolls. Instead, you will get a wonderful presentation of how many local residents use the bridges; for those who took Stats 101 in college it is similar to the “90% of all accidents occur within one mile of your home” charts….let’s hope we as taxpayers didn’t actually pay for this study! What should be studied are states that have excelled budget-wise in maintaining and improving their infrastructure. Many tolls have been placed along the eastern seaboard over the last two decades; what has been the impact economically of those toll placements? Can we learn from them? Tolls like taxes are restrictive so while all RI residents have to pay for bridge maintenance, HOW we pay shouldn’t be as discriminatory as DOT’s colored dot study will show. In fact, we can use our one and only toll bridge in RI as a study……how many Jamestown and South County residents cross to Newport for gas, groceries, restaurants, etc? How many Aquidneck Islanders go to South County for goods and services? Do these counties have less GDP than they could if a toll wasn’t there?

Why do people vote Dems in and then complain when they do what they always do, raise taxes, fees, tolls, etc. etc.?
I don't understand the mindset.