Former North Smithfield town councilman Halloran dies
NORTH SMITHFIELD – Daniel C. Halloran, 77, a former member of the town council from two separate stints in town service, was being remembered for his commitment to his community Monday after passing on Feb. 22 following an illness.
Halloran had announced his intent to give up his most recently won seat on the council last November so that he could focus on his fight with cancer. He was replaced on Dec. 4 by the council’s appointment of Terri Bartomioli, a local businesswoman and past member of the town’s budget committee, to his unexpired term through this year.
Town Councilman Thomas P. McGee IV, said Monday that he was stunned to hear of Halloran’s death and had been hoping he would win his fight.
“It just happened and I am still trying to figure it out,” McGee said while noting he and other town officials had heard of Halloran’s passing Sunday night and even just on Monday. His wake will be held Tuesday evening from the KeeneBrown Funeral Home in North Smithfield and a Mass of Christian Burial in St. Jo- seph’s Church in Cumberland at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
He was the husband of Muriel (Romprey) Halloran and the couple has three daughters, Patricia Halloran, Beth Kurczy and Kathleen Fortier.
McGee, like Halloran, had served previously on the town council and then sought a new term in the fall of 2016. Halloran was elected to his fifth two-year term on the panel in the election and sworn into office with his four fellow council members on Dec. 3, 2016.
His return came after a turbulent period in local government, with the past council frequently battling with former Town Administrator
Paulette Hamilton and McGee said Halloran had been among those stepping up to put the town back on a positive track.
Although aware of him from past issues over the years, McGee said he got to know Halloran well during their time on the new council and found he often shared his positions on issues coming before the panel.
“He was a gentleman and that was what I liked about the guy, we saw eye to eye on a lot of things,” McGee said. “I had a lot of respect for the guy.”
Even after he left the panel to focus his energies on fighting his illness, McGee said Halloran stayed informed on local topics and he would call him from time to time to get his view points. “I would say to him, `If you have something you want to say I can pass it along,” McGee said.
When you talked to Halloran, McGee said it was clear for anyone to see that he “generally cared about the town and wanted to help.”
One of the things he did during his most recent council term was support the repairs that needed to be made to the water lines serving Golden Avenue, McGee said. The town was not liable for the work but took on the cost anyway to fix a broken water line so that water could be restored to residents’ homes. “He said ‘let’s get this done,’” McGee recalled.
“He always wanted to do the right thing for the town and its residents,” McGee said. “He was an honest guy and he always did things for the right reason. That is what I felt about him,” McGee said.
Halloran, a longtime resident of Douglas Pike, was no stranger to fighting the big issues as a member of the town council, four years as president, and arguing for conservative budgets with no tax increases, or as a member of the town’s charter commission supporting, changes such as voter initiative. He also served as president of the North Smith- field Heritage Association in the 1980s, and with his wife, Muriel, battled against the contamination of local ground water supplies through the Protect Our Water (POW) group that ultimately played a role in the closing of two hazardous waste dump sites in the town, Western Sand and Gravel at the North Smithfield and Burrillville border, and the Landfill & Resource Recovery (L&RR) in North Smithfield. Both remain federal Superfund sites today with regular monitoring.
Town Administrator Gary Ezovski said on Monday flags in the town would be lowered in honor of Halloran for his service to the town and to the nation as a former member of the U.S. Secret Service, a Washington, D.C., police officer, and a U.S. coast guardsman.
“He was just a great guy. You could have disagreements on the issues but then he would set that aside and you could just talk about things,” Ezovski said. And in fact, Ezovski said there were things that they didn’t agree on and things that Halloran would have liked to have seen done differently while they worked on town issues.
It was Halloran’s love for his town, however, that always came through and ultimately allowed for the putting aside of the debates and the sharing of a better moment before moving on, Ezovski said.
“I wish we had more people like him today,” Ezovski said of the frequently less civil dialogue that seems to be overwhelming public affairs.
Even while home fighting his illness, Halloran did not forget his town and would frequently chat with Ezovski on different issues facing the town. “He loved the town and wanted to make it better, anyone would tell you that,” Ezovski said.
He also wasn’t about to let the town’s new administrator feel overly confident about his own work for North Smithfield, apparently. “During one conversation we had, he told me he was getting his campaign committee together and he was going to run for Town Administrator,” Ezovski said. Halloran had once refuted a similar move in 1997 against then Town Administrator Kenneth M. Bianchi while ending speculation on which town position he would seek in the upcoming elections by announcing for council. “I intend to raise issues which I feel will be in the best interests of the Town of North Smithfield, and not have them judged by political standards,” Halloran said at the time.
As the council acted to seat Bartomioli last December, Council President John Beauregard told how he too had not known Halloran well before they were elected but soon found him to be a great help as a new councilor.
“Dan has been someone that I looked up to and he would give me advice,” Beauregard said.
Another councilman member and friend of Halloran’s, Claire O’Hara, noted that Halloran “was there for his family and he was there for his town.”
Like the town officials who served with him, Michael Clifford, a former member of the budget commission who now keeps an eye on town spending and local government, said on Monday that Halloran was a person you just had to respect no matter what position he took on an issue.
“He was an honorable person, a very honorable person,” Clifford said. While he too could say he hadn’t agreed with Halloran on some issues, Clifford said he gained support from the town council member when he sought to turn over a council move creating a $100,000 local fund to cover an expected loss of state school aid. When the state aid came through, Clifford was among those saying the money should be refunded to local taxpayers while seeking to overturn a past council’s vote on the matter.
“Dan agreed with us,” he said while explaining how Halloran told his group that he would vote for the refund if it came before him while on the council.
It didn’t turnout that way when Halloran left in December, but Clifford said Halloran stayed in touch with him nonetheless and talked with him about the issues.
“He was very interested in what was happening and we had some very passionate conversations because we were aligned in our views on that issue,” Clifford said. Halloran was talking about local issues right up to last time they spoke about a week ago, Clifford said.
“I didn’t always agree with every decision he made but I always gave him credit that he did it for the right reason. He did it because he believed he was doing the right thing, for the town’s residents,” Clifford said.