Commission tours R.I.’s industrial ports

The Rhode Island General Assembly special commission that’s tasked with studying the potential for economic growth at the state’s industrial ports toured last week the waterfronts at Quonset Business Park, the Port of Galilee, Newport and East Providence.
The all-day tour included meeting with officials from each port. The commission, formed by a joint resolution from House and Senate leadership, is tasked with looking at the ports’ potential “to be a major economic engine for the state because it is one of the nation’s largest protected waterways and is close to the most densely populated regions in the nation,” according the legislature’s description.
In late March, the 12-member commission toured the Port of Providence and the Allens Avenue industrial corridor.
The commission’s co-chair, Sen. William A. Walaska, a Warwick Democrat, said during that first tour that the commission’s report is intended to spur legislation that will encourage either further industrial, mixed-use or other commercial growth.
“We don’t know where we’re going to go or if we’re going to do anything,” he said in March. “But it’s not my intention to spend six months meeting and touring ports if nothing’s going to happen.”