“To the Council, the Northeast (Oil Refinery) proposal sounded enticing - as it indeed did to the people of Tiverton when they went to their mail boxes last August and found a 24-page four-color brochure from Northeast describing the benefits of a refinery,” wrote Life reporter Roger Vaughn in the Jissue. They single handedly fought against a $50 million project that many elected officials had bought into at the time. Then, a small group of town leaders and activists took on one of the most powerful industries in the country - the oil industry. GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE - SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST The fight in the 1970’s was so profound that it was featured in 1971 in Life Magazine and resulted in the founding of an organization that ultimately became Save the Bay.
Not since the early 1970’s has Tiverton, Rhode Island faced such a threat to disrupt and change the very fiber of the community, as Newport Grand parent company Twin River has announced its intent to move the Newport slots parlor to a new full-fledged casino in the suburban -and often rural - East Bay town.
