By Alex Nunes — The disclosure contradicts characterizations of an agreement made public in July by Rhode Island U.S. Senator Jack Reed.

By Ryan Blessing — Town Council President Edward P. Morrone submitted his letter of resignation Tuesday morning at Town Hall and pointed the finger at the actions at a recent council meeting as one of the reasons he stepped down.

By Alex Nunes — Council President Edward Morrone had been under scrutiny for his ties to private interests in the Watch Hill community as disputes over shoreline access became a focal point for the Westerly Town Council.

By Antonia Noori Farzan — The Watch Hill Lighthouse Keepers Association, which has maintained the property since the 1980s, says it will continue to provide public access once it takes over. But some in Westerly have doubts.

By Alex Nunes — The move comes three weeks after U.S. Sen. Jack Reed announced the property was slated to be transferred to a private non-profit in Watch Hill.

By Alex Nunes — A legal fight over a town-designated path to the beach has put the town council president’s connections to the Watch Hill resort community in the spotlight.

By Ryan Blessing — The Watch Hill Fire District and Watch Hill Conservancy fired a legal salvo Thursday over the Westerly Town Council’s attempts to designate a right of way on Fort Road, the popular access route to public lands on Napatree Point.

By Alex Nunes — The legal action comes in an escalating battle over the Fort Road right-of-way to the undeveloped Napatree Point beach and conservation area.

By Brian Amaral — The Watch Hill Fire District and the Watch Hill Conservancy on Thursday filed a lawsuit naming the town, various town officials, and the state of Rhode Island in Superior Court over the fate of so-called Fort Road. That’s the name people in town use to refer to a path from Watch Hill to Napatree Point — a path that the two entities say is not actually a a public right-of-way.

By Alex Nunes — Public records show Town Council President Edward Morrone accepted $30,000 in consulting fees to “monitor issues” for property owners in the Watch Hill vacation community, an area that's become the focal point of ongoing coastal access debates.

By Ryan Blessing — In tackling whether two streets in Watch Hill are considered public rights of way, the Town Council had both an easy and a hard time. After some discussion and a consensus among members Monday, the council first voted unanimously in support of the state Coastal Resources Management Council's designation of Everett Avenue as a right-of-way.

By Alex Nunes — The Watch Hill Yacht Club controls more than half of the moorings in Westerly’s exclusive Watch Hill Cove, a flashpoint for public access to Rhode Island’s coast. A new investigation found local, state and federal officials worked to change U.S. law to help keep it that way.