Special Legislative Commission to Study and Provide Recommendations on the Issues Relating to Lateral Access Along the Rhode Island Shoreline
House Hearing for proposed bill H8055
DATE: Tuesday, April 5th, 2022
TIME: ~430pm
PLACE: RI State House, House Lounge
Agenda: https://status.rilegislature.gov/documents/agenda-17964.pdf
From Jed Thorp of Save the Bay:
“First, THANK YOU, so much, for taking action via our recent action alert and contacting your legislators in support of H. 8055 - a bill that would clarify our public shoreline rights. There is strength in numbers, and all of those emails and phone calls make a difference.
Second, I'm writing to let you know about the next step in the fight for public shoreline access, and to ask for your help.
H. 8055 is scheduled for a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee this Tuesday evening, April 5th, and there are two ways you can help:
By attending the hearing in person on Tuesday, and providing brief oral testimony in support. Or...
Submitting written testimony to the Committee.
Tuesday's hearing will take place at the State House in Providence, in the "House Lounge" (behind the House chambers, on the western end of the second floor.) The hearing is scheduled to begin "at the rise," which is State House-speak for "immediately following the floor session." Exact start time is TBD, but likely around 5:00pm.
Anyone wishing to testify in person can simply sign up by writing their name on the sign-up sheet for H. 8055 outside of the hearing room. Keep your testimony brief (around 2 minutes) and be prepared to talk from the heart about why shoreline access is important to you, personally.
Note: there are a lot of bills on the agenda for Tuesday's hearing, so it will likely go pretty late. It's unclear in what order they will take testimony on the various bills. (TBD.)
If you're interested in attending Tuesday's hearing and testifying in person, and have ANY questions at all, including any questions about the legislation itself, please let me know.
If you're unable to attend the hearing in person, you can still submit written comments directly to the Committee Clerk at: HouseJudiciary@rilegislature.gov Be sure to include your name and address with your comments, along with the bill number: H 8055.
If you need some talking points to help with your oral or written testimony, you can cut and paste from our recent action alert language.
Thanks again for your help and support. This is an extremely important issue, and we'll need many voices to speak up to get the bill across the finish line.”
The meeting will be televised by Capitol Television on Cox Communications (channels 15, 61, and 1061 for high definition), Full Channel (on 15) and Verizon (on channel 34).
On Demand: https://www.rilegislature.gov/CapTV/Pages/default.aspx
Meeting Video Recordings & Documents: https://www.rilegislature.gov/commissions/shac/Pages/hmaterials.aspx
Initiatives Page: https://www.ricoastalaccess.com/shoreline-access-commission