Last April, Smithfield Democrats pushed to bring a new state courthouse to Smithfield. Lincoln didn't want it. They fought it. Why?

Well, the easy reasons are because this courthouse would not pay one single dollar in taxes to Smithfield, yet it would burden our roads and town services and increase traffic tremendously on RT116.

But there is a much more important reason to oppose a state courthouse in Smithfield. Last year 9,821 felonies were committed just in Providence, and many more in the rest of Providence County. Over 400 were rapes and robberies. 1,654 were car thefts. The perpetrators of these crimes are brought from the ACI to court and often get bail. They would arrive here by bus. How would they get back home? Here is a hint: Remember those 1,654 car thefts.

NOTE TO TASSONI: Oh, and John, these numbers came straight from the Providence Police web site. Check it out here: http://www.providencepolice.com/stats.html As you can see for yourself, the crime statistics we quoted from 2007 were exactly accurate. If you thought our numbers were "outlandish" then you should pay more attention to the crime problem. This is not a "scare tactic" as you claimed in the Observer, but just cold facts.

John Tassoni said that our elected officials – the Democrats on our Town Council - "are ecstatic" about the courthouse coming to Smithfield. He said "we hit a grand slam."

We don't think bringing hundreds of felons to Smithfield each month is a "grand slam." Do you? These people sometimes - not often - but sometimes do get released on bail. In that case, they are not going back on the bus. They are going to walk out of the courthouse on to our streets and try to figure out how to get home. How often does this happen? Often enough to put felons on our streets.

Be sure to ask Bernie Hawkins, Jean Cerroni, Stephen Archambault, Rep. Petraca, Rep. Winfield and Sen Tassoni just why they thought that bringing this huge burden - and all those felons - to Smithfield was such a good idea.

Clearly, they were not thinking ahead. We were. Republicans opposed that courthouse immediately, and we still oppose it today. We will do everything possible to keep these felons out of Smithfield.

Republicans strongly opposed the courthouse then and we oppose it now. We are determined to maintain the high quality of life our residents enjoy.