In response to the Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Sec. 10 Public Records Request I sent to Sterling’s so-called ‘Economic Development Committee’ last week its Meeting Minutes for August, September, and October 2022 were just posted on the Town of Sterling website– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/node/2226/minutes-agendas
However, despite the passage of Ch. 121 of the Massachusetts Session Acts of 2016, Section 16, and Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Sec. 19, that Committee has failed and neglected to so post approximately ONE-HALF of its Meeting Minutes from 2017 onward. I gather that Maureen “Our Lady of Perpetual Bullshit” Cranson and the other Committee members don’t want us to see how much time, while spending approximately $16,000 per year of OUR tax dollars, they’ve spent discussing such irrelevancies, revealed in posted Meeting Minutes, as plants growing on the Route 12 median strip maintained by MassDOT; graffiti spray-painted on Interstate 190 bridge abutments maintained by MassDOT; and Town Beach drainage and other improvements.
Please tell us, dear so-called ‘Economic Development Committee’ members, just what businesses you hope to entice to that median strip, those bridge abutments, and the Town Beach???
As you can tell by its 22 August 2022 Meeting Minutes, the so-called ‘Economic Development Committee’ is fixated on the Sterling downtown ‘renovation’ and beautification project, as if new decorative lamps on the Town Green/Common, buried utility wires, and upgraded storefront facades—ABSENT ANY NEW DOWNTOWN PARKING CAPACITY—will spur some type of economic growth. What a joke.
SEE https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/minutes/2022_08_22_edc_minutes.pdf
THE FIX IS IN: DESPITE OPACITY, PROVEN INEFFECTIVENESS ELSEWHERE, AND PRONENESS TO CRONYIST BUSINESS LOBBYING—AND THE SHORTAGE OF DOWNTOWN STERLING PARKING—THE ‘ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE’ SEEKS TO BRIBE DOWNTOWN BUSINESS OWNERS INTO BEAUTIFYING THEIR FACADES UNDER THE GUISE OF “TAX INCENTIVE FINANCING” (TIF)
Those 22 August 2022 Meeting Minutes demonstrate that the ‘Economic Development Committee,’ stressing superficiality over substance, plans to put on the 2023 Sterling Annual Town Meeting Warrant a TIF Article to bribe Sterling downtown business owners into beautifying their business facades— the Town has no legal authority to compel any such changes—as though façade changes, in the absence of additional downtown parking capacity, will spur downtown economic growth. SEE https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/minutes/2022_06_27_edc_minutes.pdf
What utter nonsense.
Here is a detailed article providing the dirty lowdown on TIFs–
https://www.cgdev.org/blog/good-bad-and-ugly-how-do-tax-incentives-impact-investment
Sterling voters, at the 2023 Sterling Annual Town Meeting, will have the last word on any proposed TIF to bribe downtown business owners into altering their business facades.
J.G.
STERLING, MASSACHUSETTS, OVERWATCH 
Jim,
With respect to lights on the town common, shouldn’t the Economic Development Committee discuss that topic with the leadership at the First Church? I believe the town went through months of discussion and probably thousands of dollars with attorneys, all to ultimately learn that the town common is owned by the First Church.
Just a thought.
Pete
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Spending for the lights was approved during a recent Annual Town Meeting. I voted against that expenditure because that area already has enough illumination at night. In my view the proposal had nothing to do with safety and everything to do with superficial appearance. I don’t know what discussions, if any, were had with Sterling First Church representatives.
J.G.
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