SPINELESS, PANDERING STERLING TOWN OFFICIALS TROLL FOR ‘MBTA ZONING FUNDING SOURCES’ AND GET CHUMP CHANGE

Folks, in early August I sent a Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Section 10 Public Records Request to the Sterling Select Board and Town Clerk with cc to the Sterling Finance Committee, the text of which is reproduced here:

Select Board

Municipal Building

1 Park Street

Sterling, MA 01564

and

Kathleen Farrell, Town Clerk

Municipal Building

1 Park Street

Sterling, MA 01564

RE:  Public Records Request in Accordance With Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Sec.10

To the Sterling Select Board,

      In accordance with Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Sec.10, request is hereby made for copies of any and all:

1.  Applications made by the Town of Sterling, from 1 January 2015 to 10 August 2025, for funds from the Housing Choice Initiative, the Local Capital Projects Fund, the MassWorks infrastructure program, and/or the HousingWorks infrastructure program, those funding sources being described in Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A.

2.  Documents showing all sums received by the Town of Sterling, from 1 January 2015 to 10 August 2025, from the Housing Choice Initiative, the Local Capital Projects Fund, the MassWorks infrastructure program, and/or the HousingWorks infrastructure program, those funding sources being described in Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A.

     Please advise me of the costs for producing and mailing to me those copies.

     Failure to respond to this request in a timely manner may result in a Superior Court enforcement action.

     I thank you for your anticipated cooperation. 

                                                                                                          Sincerely,

                                                                                                          James F. Gettens, Esq.

cc:

Town of Sterling Finance Committee

(Apologies for WordPress spacing errors at top). Since our spineless, pandering Sterling officials are eager for the Town of Sterling to get steamrolled under Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A–

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/mass-general-laws-c40a-ss-3a

— the bogus ‘MBTA MultiFamily Zoning Districts’ statute, without filing a Worcester Superior Court challenge to that statute and its subsidiary, bogus ‘Compliance Guidelines’ despite clear limitations to the reach of that statute set forth in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision in  Attorney General vs. Town of Milton et al.— https://www.mma.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SJC_AG_Milton_1.8.25.pdf — I wanted to see just how much money in grants the Town of Sterling has received, from 1 January 2015 to now, from the Commie Commonwealth of Massachusetts funding sources referred to in that statute.

The Town of Sterling’s document copies produced in response to my Public Records Request show that in June 2022 the Town Administrator, Mr. Caldwell, submitted an application for “funds for the engineering and design of downtown underground infrastructure i.e. water and stormwater” as part of an overall plan to enhance “downtown viability.” Mr. Caldwell, on that form, acknowledged that Sterling is a so-called “MBTA Community.” The grant application sought $135,070. In response the Town of Sterling was granted $135,000 in 2023.

Next Mr. Caldwell, in June 2024, submitted a grant application for the Big Kahuna– $2.6 Million—seeking to tap the MassWorks Infrastructure Program and the Rural and Small Town Development Fund for the “construction phase” of the downtown infrastructure and revitalization plan. Again Mr. Caldwell acknowledged on the application form that Sterling is a so-called “MBTA Community.” THAT application was REJECTED.

After that, in June 2025, DPW Superintendent Ryan Mouradian filed a grant application in the amount of $67,500 for MassWorks Infrastructure Program and Rural Development Fund money in order to ameliorate PFAS contaminants in Town well water. Mr. Mouradian acknowledged, on the application form, that Sterling is a so-called ‘MBTA Community.’ That grant application is pending.

SO, thus far, since 1 January 2015, the Town of Sterling has received a GRAND TOTAL of $135,000 from the Commie Commonwealth of Massachusetts funding sources referred to in Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Sec. 3A. That’s absolute CHUMP CHANGE when one considers that during that span the Town budgets, collectively, have totaled more than $130 Million. This Fiscal Year the Town’s budget is $14,971,317.34.

For the Sterling Municipal Building MBTA Zoning CHUMPS, however, hope springs eternal, and, accordingly, they will always kiss Commie Commonwealth of Massachusetts officials’ asses in the false hope that someday the Town of Sterling will tap a taxpayer-funded state grant jackpot.

Clearly, then, it will be up to Sterling’s townspeople to vote down the so-called ‘MBTA MultiFamily Zoning District’ Warrant Article that will be on the upcoming Special Town Meeting Warrant, just as voters in Holden, Dracut, Marblehead and other towns have done to protect their respective Towns’ characters and local sovereignty.

Stay tuned.

J.G.