Block Island Thanksgiving weekend

As Thanksgiving approaches so does the Block Island Chamber of Commerce 11th annual Christmas stroll and the 5k Turkey Trot. Both are fun activities for visitors or local residents .

The Block Island Chamber Christmas stroll begins on friday and lasts 3 days. Offering residents and visitors great Holiday and end of the season bargains and a chance to win many prizes. The prizes will be raffled off on Sunday afternoon at the Block Island Chamber of Commerce. To enter the raffle simply go to the Block Island Chamber of Commerce and fill out your entry form. The Christmas stroll is a very popular event for the island. The participating businesses will be open from 10am-5pm. Most of the shops will offer hot coco, hot cider and holiday goodies.

The Turkey Trot is on Saturday November 27 at 1:30 PM at the Fred Benson Town pavilion. It is a 5k race that is a fun event for the intense athlete or for families. With each registration participants will be given a t-shirt. So come run or work off that Thanksgiving dinner! For more information please call 1-800-383-2474.

Block Island over Thanksgiving weekend is a great place to visit, for the day or the weekend. Pack up your friend and families and come for a visit.

'Tis the Season: Join the Alliance for a Livable Newport

'Tis the season to be thinking of others...and ways that we can help create the healthy and sustainable environment that we all want to live in.

"The Alliance for Livable Newport" is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to improving the quality of life in Newport by being an unbiased resource for information on the issues of importance to the community.

The Alliance for Livable Newport is a diverse group of residents and neighborhood associations. Membership is open to any person, business or civic group.

The Alliance for Livable Newport or "ALN" has identified four key areas of focus that have the greatest impact on livability in Newport: Infrastructure and Environment, Government Accountability, Education and Public Health and Safety.

ALN's efforts are directed towards providing accurate information on these issues to residents by holding public forums and working with government officials on developing solutions for residential concerns.

Recently, some of the most important, interesting and recent forums that ALN has sponsored, included local candidates election forums,a forum on the building of the new Pell elementary school, an education forum with State Commissioner Deborah Gist, "The Pros and Cons of LNG Tankers in Narragansett Bay", "The Severity of Hunger in RI" and "The Fort Adams Master Plan" among others. All forums are free and open to the public.

If you are interested in joining ALN, or learning more about The Alliance for Livable Newport and in viewing the public forum videos, please visit www.allianceforlivablenewport.org/

Open Space 101: What "Open Space" Means in Real Estate Listings

What does it mean when you see a property for sale and the description includes “surrounded by open space” or “next to land trust”? It doesn’t mean much.

“Open space” could merely be undeveloped land which is not actually conserved or protected from development. Translation: it’s open space until it’s not. And “next to land trust” probably means that someone is trying to say that the property abuts land owned by the local land trust. But most land trusts in this area don’t own land, they preserve it.

You have to dig deeper and find out what the person writing the description is trying to say.

For example, I‘ve carefully worded a description for a new listing in Middletown :“Sparkling, immaculately maintained young colonial in quiet neighborhood surrounded by protected open space.” This neighborhood is surrounded by 4 properties which are either conserved by or owned by the Aquidneck Land Trust. The properties are preserved for various uses, but all are permanently protected from development.

The view from the back yard is of Boulevard Nurseries, 29+ acres currently used for agriculture. To the north east is Tibbets Farm; 33+ acres of farm land and possible future recreational space. East of the neighborhood is 299+ acres of land owned by Newport National Golf Club. To the south is the 82+ acres of Perry Farm, partially owned and farmed by Newport Vineyards.

It addition to beautiful rural vistas and wildlife habitats, the preservation of this land protects drinking water supplies and USDA prime farmlands. The Aquidneck Land Trust holds conservation easements on all of these properties, but that’s a discussion for Open Space 102.

In the meantime, take a walk and enjoy the 2.2 mile portion of the Sakonnet Greenway Trail that runs around the perimeter of Newport National Golf Course. You’ll be glad you did...

New York Marathon

This weekend an agent from our Newport office will be running the New York Marathon. This is Laurie Hewitt's first marathon and she has been training for the last year. She is running on behalf of Team for Kids, a charity which provides low cost health and fitness programs to local schools and communities.

The NY Marathon began in 1970 and travels from Staten Island to Manhattan. Laurie will be racing with 4400 other runners.

We wish Laurie the best of luck on Sunday!