Unfortunately for taxpayers throughout the 5-Town WRSD, the Town of Princeton is chock full of babbling Limousine Lefties always willing to screw themselves and their taxpaying neighbors when it comes to funding the out-of-control spending racket known as the Wachusett Regional School District. They equate quantity—more spending—with school quality. That is an unproven premise at best, and an outright false one at worst. With a median family income of $152,884 according to the 2020 census, a lot of them are content to shell out, mindlessly, every year, for rank upon rank of WRSD ‘payroll patriots,’ many of whom are probably unable to make it in the competitive ‘dreaded private sector.’ Oh yeah, how many folks in ‘the dreaded private sector’ get summers off and retire with taxpayer-funded pensions and medical coverage???
So here are a few WRSD facts for Princeton’s reflex-spending Limousine Lefties:
The WRSD was founded in 1955. It took SIXTY (60) years for the WRSD to reach $81.3 million in total spending. That was in Fiscal Year 2015. WRSD total student enrollment was already falling in FY 2015 from its peak in FY 2010.
The WRSD total budget request for FY 2025 is $121.9 million, up a WHOPPING $40 million in just TEN (10) years despite total student enrollment dropping more than 10% since FY 2010.
WRSD total student enrollment peaked in FY 2010 at 7493.
WRSD total student enrollment this year—FY 2024—was 6676.
WRSD total student enrollment has fallen by 817—WELL MORE THAN 10%– since FY 2010.
That drop in WRSD total student enrollment is equivalent to 54.5 EMPTY CLASSROOMS given the WRSD’s stated student-teacher ratio of 15:1.
The Princeton Select Board, supposedly, has two (2) ‘fiscally responsible’ Select Board members, Robert Cumming and Phil Gott. The third member, Karen Cruise, is a reflexive Libtard spender. BUT, looking at the graphs below, you’d be correct in concluding that ALL of the Princeton Select Board members are Reflexive Dishonest Libtards.
FIRST, they lied by mislabeling Princeton’s FY 2025 WRSD-requested “Discretionary Contribution”–the amount requested of the Town of Princeton by the WRSD above Princeton’s State-required “net minimum contribution”– as “Operations Assessment” instead, thereby making a blatant effort to deceive Princeton voters into believing that that category is obligatory spending WHEREAS, IN REALITY, PRINCETON VOTERS HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE IT DOWN AT THE UPCOMING 11 JUNE 2024 PRINCETON ANNUAL TOWN MEETING.
SECOND, they shifted A BIG CHUNK OF $$$ from the REAL FY 2025 “DISCRETIONARY CONTRIBUTION” REQUESTED BY THE WRSD, SHOWN FROM THE ACTUAL WRSD SPREADSHEET YEARLY “DISCRETIONARY” CONTRIBUTION PROGRESSION FROM FY 2019 TO FY 2025, including two “Amended” columns, AS BEING $1,420,261 (The xls. spreadsheet itself would not transfer to this page)–
OVER TO THE “TRANSPORTATION” COLUMN, THEREBY REDUCING THE ACTUAL “DISCRETIONARY” AMOUNT PRINCETON VOTERS HAVE THE RIGHT TO SHOOT DOWN DURING THEIR 11 JUNE 2024 ANNUAL TOWN MEETING AND FURTHER DECEIVING THEM BY MAKING IT APPEAR THAT PRINCETON’S SHARE OF WRSD FY 2025 TRANSPORTATION COSTS INCREASED BY 48.62%, WHEREAS AS THEY ONLY REALLY INCREASED BY 9.90%
THESE ARE DISHONEST TACTICS THAT ONLY WRSD SHILLS/LYING SCUMBAGS WOULD EMPLOY, AND THAT TELLS YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRINCETON SELECT BOARD.
Here is the Princeton graph of what this year looks like compared to last year…using the real numbers, not the ones that they moved around.
ALL OF THIS IS CRITICAL INFORMATION BECAUSE IF PRINCETON VOTERS VOTE DOWN THE REAL WRSD “DISCRETIONARY CONTRIBUTION” AT THEIR 11 JUNE 2024 ANNUAL TOWN MEETING THEN THE WRSD WILL HAVE TO FORMULATE A NEW PROPOSED FY 2025 BUDGET–STERLING VOTERS, AT THEIR MAY 2024 ANNUAL TOWN MEETING, HAVING ALREADY REJECTED STERLING’S PORTION OF THE WRSD’S BLOATED FY 2025 REQUESTED APPROPRIATION.
For decades the Town of Sterling asserted false claims that the late Maryanne MacLeod did not have a deeded ‘easement’ (‘right of way’) over the land where her driveway, formerly a farm cart path, had existed and been used by her and her predecessors-in-title since 1945, and attempted to claim that land as part of its deeded ‘conservation land’ in that area. That she had a deeded driveway easement/right of way became even clearer when, during the lawsuit she was forced to commence–Maryanne MacLeod vs. Town of Sterling et al., Worcester Superior Court Civil Action No. 1885CV01098B– the Town of Sterling ADMITTED that the key recorded deed to the Town of land in issue, now conservation land, granted by Bertha Hall in 1973, contained a DRAFTING ERROR and referred to “Kendall Hill Road” INSTEAD OF, rightly, Swett Hill Road. The deeds in Maryanne MacLeod’s chain of title, starting with the 1945 deed granted by the late Bertha Hall and late her husband, state clearly that Maryanne MacLeod and her predecessors-in-title had an easement/right of way to “Kendall Hill Road.” Those deeds should have referred to Swett Hill Road instead.
The Town of Sterling did not have a financial incentive to settle the case early on BECAUSE IT WAS NOT PAYING ITS DEFENSE LAWYERS. INSTEAD, THE TOWN’S INSURER RETAINED THE LAW FIRM OF HASSETT & DONNELLY, Worcester, Massachusetts, and HASSETT & DONNELLY BILLED THE LIVING SH*T OUT OF THE TOWN’S INSURER DURING THE YEARS’ LONG LITIGATION.
The stress of litigation and mounting legal bills took their toll on Maryanne MacLeod. She suffered a debilitating stroke in 2022 and died months later in January 2023. Indeed, justice delayed is justice denied. Her sons continued her lawsuit.
In February 2024 her case finally settled. Under the written “Settlement Agreement,” a copy of which I obtained from the Town of Sterling by a Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Section 10 Public Records Request, the Town of Sterling relinquished all claims to the MacLeod driveway and recognized the MacLeods as owners of that driveway. In addition, the Town of Sterling agreed to pay the MacLeods $15,000 for dismissal of the lawsuit.
The Town of Sterling’s BOGUS CLAIMS in that matter constitute a shameful episode in the Town’s long history.
There is an open seat on the Sterling Planning Board and Eric Newman, the husband of Sterling Select Board MUPPET Kirsten Newman, the outright stupid anti-Sterling taxpayer shill for all of the WRSD and Sterling ‘collective bargaining units’–Unions–is on the ballot attempting to take it.
I don’t think Eric Newman is ‘running for’ that open seat. I think Eric Newman is ‘being run’ for it by ‘Conflict of Interest Carl’ Corrinne, Developer-Chair of the Sterling Planning Board, and the other developers in Town. If elected he’ll be a shill for them.
It is interesting to note that Sterling Town Treasurer Victoria Smith is married to Sterling Select Board MUPPET David Smith, also an outright stupid anti-Sterling taxpayer shill for all of the WRSD and Sterling ‘collective bargaining units’/Unions.
David Smith is a City of Leominster employee, meaning that BOTH Victoria Smith and David Smith feed from the taxpayer-funded public mammary gland. Get the picture???
By the way, the out-of-control WRSD has a total payroll of about 1000, or 1 employee for every 6.6 or 6.7 students. All 1000 WRSD employees feed from the taxpayer-funded public mammary gland. The WRSD is now a taxpayer-funded jobs agency for people who are unemployable in ‘the dreaded private sector.’
SO, what’s going on here in Sterling??? Is there a concerted effort to establish MUPPET mini-dynasties inside the Municipal Building??? Don’t facilitate that trend.
THANKFULLY, we have a viable WRITE-IN candidate for Sterling Planning Board—Mike Padula. You can read his open letter, “Experience matters,” on page 2 of the 8 May 2024 Sterling Meetinghouse News. He wants to preserve Sterling’s small-town character. YAY!!! He has lived in Sterling 43 years. Unlike Eric Newman, who has ZERO planning experience, Mr. Padula, previously, served for 10 years on the Sterling Planning Board.
ON 13 MAY 2024 PLEASE VOTE IN THE STERLING ANNUAL ELECTION AND WRITE IN MIKE PADULA FOR PLANNING BOARD.
Sterling’s present Select Board is comprised of 3 members, ALL OF THEM MUPPETS WHO DON’T GIVE A RAT’S ASS ABOUT STERLING TAXPAYERS OR THEIR HARD-EARNED MONEY.IN PANDERING FOR VOTES THEY’LL TAKE THE EASY, SELL-OUT ROUTE EVERY TIME.
Doubtless you’ve seen the “TakeBackSterling” lawn signs all around Town. WELL, IT’S TIME TOTAKE BACK STERLING IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE. IT’S CRUCIAL TO TAKE BACK STERLING FROM THE 3 MUPPETS NOW COMPRISING THE SELECT BOARD BEFORE THEY PUSH STERLING TAXPAYERS INTO A PROPOSITION 2 ½ PROPERTY TAX OVERRIDE VOTE NEXT YEAR. THAT DANGER IS IMMINENT DUE TO THE FACT THAT, IN ADDITION TO BEING OUTRIGHT STUPID, THE 3 MUPPETS NOW COMPRISING THE SELECT BOARD ARE ALSO ABSOLUTELY SPINELESS IN THEIR WILLINGNESS TO SELL OUT TO THE TOWN AND WACHUSETT REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT “COLLECTIVE BARGAINING UNITS”—UNIONS–LEAVING STERLING TAXPAYERS HOLDING THE BAG AND PAYING OUT THE WAZOO IN EVER INCREASING PROPERTY TAX BILLS.
SO, YOUR VOTE FOR BALLOT QUESTION 1 WILL BE A START TO DILUTING THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF THE 3 MUPPETS NOW COMPRISING THE STERLING SELECT BOARD AND PAVING THE WAY FOR A TAKE-BACK OF STERLING TOWN GOVERNMENT FOR THE TRUE BENEFIT OF ITS TAXPAYERS.
The Town of Wakefield is the latest to reject bogus so-called ‘MBTA Communities Zoning Districts’ under Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Sec. 3A, thereby protecting its territorial integrity and town character, and protecting itself from runaway additional costs for infrastructure, schools, fire protection, and police protection, joining the Towns of Holden, Littleton, Marshfield, Middleborough, and Milton in doing so.
IN ADDITION, the Town of Middleborough instructed its Town Counsel to write and file in the case of Attorney General vs. Town of Milton an Amicus Curiae Brief (friend of the Court Brief), in the Supreme Judicial Court where that case is pending, supporting the Town of Milton and challenging Ch. 40A, Section 3A and the TOTALLY BOGUS so-called ‘Compliance Guidelines’ promulgated under it by Gasbag Gov. Maura Healey’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (with all the illegal immigrants overrunning our state under Gasbag Gov. Healey that Executive Office is a F#&@ing Joke).
MESSAGE TO GASBAG GOV. MAURA HEALEY AND GASBAG AG ANDREA CAMPBELL: SHOVE SO-CALLED ‘MBTA COMMUNITIES ZONING DISTRICTS’ SIDEWAYS.
Note that KP Law, representing the Town of Middleborough, is Town Counsel for the Town of Sterling too. More than a month ago your correspondent emailed the Sterling Select Board, Town Administrator, Town Planner, and Town Counsel, Gregg Corbo, Esq. of KP Law, suggesting that the Town of Sterling file an Amicus Brief in that case also challenging Ch. 40A, Section 3A. I received no reply because our Town is run by invertebrates.
“Winthrop Says NO To 3A” is a WONDERFUL Facebook Page chock full of info about Ch. 40A, Sec. 3A.
As you know, the Sterling Finance Committee stuck up for all Sterling taxpayers earlier this Spring by proposing TWO (2) WRSD 2024 Annual Town Meeting Warrant Articles, as to the WRSD’s EXORBITANT AND OUTRAGEOUS FY 2025 BUDGET PROPOSAL, in accordance with the WRSD budget 2-Article practice in place for DECADES up through the 2018 Sterling Annual Town Meeting. The Finance Committee’s first proposed WRSD budget Article covered Sterling’s state-required/state-established ‘minimum net contribution’ toward the WRSD’s FY 2025 budget. The Finance Committee’s SECOND proposed WRSD budget Article recognized that Sterling taxpayers, IN VIOLATION OF THE “AMENDED WRSD AGREEMENT,” Section 4, now in effect among the 5 Towns, are paying the HIGHEST cost per student enrolled than taxpayers in the other 4 Towns.
The AMENDED WRSD AGREEMENT, Section 4, “METHOD OF APPORTIONING COSTS OF THE DISTRICT,” provides:
“Payment of all costs shall be apportioned and assessed to each Member Town based upon the prior October 1st student enrollment percentage of each Member Town and the requirements of Massachusetts General Laws.”
The Finance Committee’s SECOND proposed WRSD FY 2025 budget Article, as drafted, cut down the amount to be appropriated for the WRSD’s “excess costs” in alignment with that Section 4 AND, as it turns out, the REAL inflation rate of 3.5%, NOT the 17% GOUGING RATE SOUGHT BY THE WRSD.
Both of the Finance Committee’s proposed FY 2025 WRSD budget Articles made it into the Town of Sterling’s DRAFT 2024 ANNUAL TOWN MEETING WARRANT.
HOWEVER, the spineless WRSD lackeys constituting the Sterling Select Board, at their 27 March 2024 Meeting, HOSED the Finance Committee on their way to HOSING ALL STERLING TAXPAYERS by DELETING from the DRAFT WARRANT the Finance Committee’s proposed second WRSD budget Article and inserting in the FINAL 2024 ANNUAL TOWN MEETING WARRANT– 2024_atm_final-combined.pdf (sterling-ma.gov) — Article 2 that would be a complete sellout to the out-of-control WRSD.
Pay particular attention to the spineless Sterling Select Board WRSD lackeys from 1 hour, 13 minutes, 10 seconds to 1:26:37– Stream Video – Town Hall Streams
Later in that same meeting the spineless Sterling Select Board voted to relegate the Voters’ Petitioned Warrant Article, dealing with the WRSD’s outrageous FY 2025 budget request, to the end of the Warrant as Article 29, doing their utmost to tank it and render it moot.
SO, your correspondent, as the ‘Point of Contact’ for Warrant Article 29, wrote a letter to each Finance Committee member promising to make a Motion at the ATM to take Article 29 out of order and consider it immediately after the vote on Article 1, promising also to make a Motion to Amend Article 29 in alignment with the Finance Committee’s WRSD budget stance, thereby giving Article 29, if so amended, a chance of passage.
Below is that letter reproduced (apologies for spacing problems):
P.O. Box 1149
Sterling, MA 01564-1149
19 April 2024
Finance Committee
Town of Sterling
RE: 2024 Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article 29 Proposal
Dear Sterling Finance Committee Members,
I am the ‘Point of Contact’ (POC) for Article 29 on the ATM Warrant. I had to file my contact info sheet together with the Voters’ Petitions for that Article. That sheet is a public record now. SO, that means ANYONE can telephone or email me about it.
I propose the following steps in order to counteract the Select Board–
1. I will make a Motion at the ATM to take out of order and consider Article 29 IMMEDIATELY AFTER the vote on Article 1. A person has already agreed to SECOND that Motion. ANY VOTER can second that Motion.
2. I promise the Finance Committee and everyone else that I WILL AGREE TO A MOTION TO AMEND AND ELIMINATE FROM ARTICLE 29 THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGE– “and not one penny more” and substitute in its place “and additionally, a discretionary contribution not to exceed 3.5%, or $2,630,193, representing Sterling’s share of the WRSD’s total Fiscal Year 2025 requested excess costs, as apportioned to the Town of Sterling based upon the October 1, 2023 WRSD student enrollment percentage of each Member Town, all in accordance with Section 4 of the Amended Wachusett Regional School District Agreement now in effect” — if it is advanced by vote of those present at the ATM, and will so say at the ATM.
NOTE: The Finance Committee should OUT LOUD voice support for those moves at the ATM.
3. If Article 29 is advanced and so amended THEN we will, in essence, be back to what the Finance Committee proposed in its two DRAFT Warrant Articles approach subverted by the Select Board during the Select Board’s 27 March 2024 meeting.
I thank you for your consideration.
Best Regards,
Jim Gettens
The Sterling Finance Committee, during its 23 April 2024 meeting, voted to ADOPT that approach AND, if that approach fails, to make a Motion of its own to Amend present Warrant Article 2 in an effort to achieve the same result.
Watch the first hour or so of the Finance Committee’s 23 April 2024 meeting—
For DECADES, up through the 2018 Sterling Annual Town Meeting, the proposed next-fiscal-year WRSD Budget requests were presented in TWO Warrant Articles, the first Article for the state-required net minimum contribution from the Town of Sterling, in accordance with Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 70, Sections 3 and 6–
and the second Article for amounts above that state-required net minimum.
At the 2010 Sterling Annual Town Meeting voters actually REJECTED the WRSD’s FY 2011 budget request for the amount above required net minimum after then-Finance Committee Chair Larry Pape expounded upon the WRSD’s budget bloat and unaccountability. Not surprisingly, the Sterling Select Board, INVERTEBRATES THEN AS THEY ARE NOW, refused to re-appoint Larry Pape when his term on the Finance Committee expired in 2012.
Sterling voters, all those decades through the 2018 Annual Town Meeting, had no difficulty understanding the WRSD two-Article Budget request format and the reasons for it.
THIS YEAR, to its credit, the Sterling Finance Committee– appointed by the Sterling Select Board– attempted to restore that WRSD budget request two-Article Annual Town Meeting format. That two-Article format was ACTUALLY INCLUDED IN THE DRAFT 2024 Annual Town Meeting Warrant reviewed by the Select Board during its 27 March 2024 Meeting.
At that Select Board meeting Linda Woodland, dishonest shill/WRSD Committee member from Sterling, blew more smoke than a U.S. Navy destroyer smokescreen generator about the WRSD budgeting process and what it entailed. The utterly CRAVEN, INVERTEBRATE, PANDERING-FOR-VOTES Sterling Select Board, led off by Kirsten Newman, bought into Woodland’s BULLSHIT, pulled the rug out from under its own appointed Sterling Finance Committee, and TANKED the two-Article approach recommended by the Finance Committee after much hard work and study on its part. They’re all soft as rotten grapes. WATCH the disgusting and disgraceful charade beginning at 1 hour, 13 minutes, and ten seconds (1:13:10) and extending to 1:26:37–
NOTE TO SELECT BOARD MEMBERS CRANSON, SMITH, AND NEWMAN– Try going to Amazon and buying spines online.
SEE, HOWEVER, WARRANT ARTICLE 29, REQUESTED BY VOTERS’ PETITION, THAT WOULD LIMIT THE WRSD’S FY 2025 APPROPRIATION TO ONLY THE STATE-REQUIRED NET MINIMUM CONTRIBUTION.
Of course, the GUTLESS, CRAVEN, PANDERING-FOR-VOTES Select Board put Article 29 LAST on the Warrant, thereby attempting to render it moot.
Your correspondent will make a Motion to advance it for discussion and vote immediately after the vote on Article 1. I will need a ‘Second’ to support that Motion.
It is time to put a stop to the WRSD’s dishonesty, waste, and abuse of Sterling’s taxpayers. The WRSD’s total student enrollment dropped a full ten per cent (10%), the equivalent of FIFTY (50) empty classrooms, between FY 2015 and now, while the feckless, cowardly, out-of-control WRSD Committee and Administration ADDED employees rather implementing personnel cuts corresponding to that student enrollment drop as they were authorized to do according to Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 71, Section 42–
Pay special attention to “Central Office” and “District Wide” duplications and redundancy. Yeah, right, we need them as much as we all need additional bodily orifices.
The WRSD was founded in 1955 and it took SIXTY (60) years– to FY 2015– for it to reach a total budget of $85 million. In just ten (10) years WRSD budgets have BALLOONED from $85 million to the $121.9 million requested for FY 2025. That is absolutely disgusting abuse and exploitation of ALL district taxpayers and it is time for a taxpayer rebellion.
Thanks to a very smart and diligent Sterling Finance Committee member the truth about the WRSD Committee’s Budget Assessment practices, unfairly, unethically, and unlawfully favoring Holden and Rutland property taxpayers to the extreme disfavor and prejudice of Sterling’s property taxpayers, apparently implemented for years, have been revealed. The Amended Wachusett Regional School District Agreement, Section 4, METHOD OF APPORTIONING COSTS OF THE DISTRICT, provides:
“Payment of all costs shall be apportioned and assessed to each Member Town based upon the prior October 1st student enrollment percentage of each Member Town and the requirements of Massachusetts General Laws” (emphasis added).
Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 70, Section 6, LAST SENTENCE, provides:
“The district may choose to spend additional amounts; provided, however, that such decisions shall be made and such amounts charged to members according to the district’s regional agreement”(emphasis added).
In law “costs” and “charges” have the same meaning. It is time for Sterling Town Counsel to address the WRSD Committee’s unfair, unethical, and unlawful budget assessment practices in order to protect Sterling property taxpayers from now forward.
The following graphs and quoted commentary are courtesy of that astute Sterling Finance Committee member himself:
“As noted, the graphs below…convey the idea more clearly. Hovering over any bar segment will display the assessment value breakdown per student in $K. The width of each town section in the graph is representative of each towns’ population… Again, none of this is challenging the State imposed MRC [minimum required contribution], this is only about the disparity in the ‘above minimum contribution’ assessments by the district (the only differences [disparities] in these charts are the gray bars at the top).
The first graph shows the cost per student as it is currently proposed by WRSD, and clearly displays the unfair treatment that Sterling receives on a cost per student basis. Each child in the district receives the same education[.] Sterling (the highest per child charge) [students] do[] not receive a better education than Rutland (the lowest per child charge) [students].
The second graph shows what the cost per student should be according to the district agreement. Being a district where each child gets the same, equal education, the charge per student should be equal.”
THIS YEAR THE WRSD IS ATTEMPTING TO HOSE STERLING TAXPAYERS, UNFAIRLY AND DISPROPORTIONATELY, CLOSE TO $2 MILLION, A SUM THAT SHOULD BE FOOTED BY HOLDEN AND RUTLAND TAXPAYERS. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE. REMEMBER THAT AT THE MAY 2024 ANNUAL TOWN MEETING WHEN THE WRSD BUDGET REQUEST COMES UP FOR A VOTE.
Town of Sterling Regime Punks have been stealing “TakeBackSterling” — TakeBackSterling — lawn signs. Don’t let pro-Regime criminals stifle free speech and open debate in OUR Town. You can help. Send a message by displaying in YOUR front yard a “TakeBackSterling” lawn sign. To request such a lawn sign please contact former Board of Health member Gary Menin at gcmeninsr@gmail.com
MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT. THE TOWN OF MILTON AND ITS BRILLIANT LAWYERS ARE PROTECTING EVERY SO-CALLED ‘MBTA COMMUNITY’ IN MASSACHUSETTS FROM THE TYRANNY ATTEMPTED BY GASBAG AG ANDREA CAMPBELL AND GASBAG GOVERNOR MAURA HEALEY.
Your correspondent feels vindicated. I’ve maintained these positions and written about them for more than a year. During that time I felt like a voice in the wilderness.
Massachusetts Affirmative Action Hire AG Andrea Campbell got the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to retain her tyrannical ‘MBTA Zoning Districts’ case against the Town of Milton, but failed in her bid to have that Court hear the case before MANY eastern Massachusetts towns conduct their Springtime Annual Town Meetings. She wanted the SJC to expedite the case in an attempt to bludgeon eastern Massachusetts towns into creating so-called ‘high density MBTA Communities affordable housing zoning districts’ under Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A. She’s so intellectually dishonest that she refuses to acknowledge the CLEAR language of that statute providing that the only penalty for a so-called ‘MBTA Community’ falling under Ch. 40A, Section 3A, deciding not to adopt such bogus zoning districts, is the cut-off of funding enumerated in Section 3A(b). THERE IS NO PROVISION IN THAT STATUTE FOR INJUNCTIVE PEFORMANCE RELIEF.
Amended by St.2023, c. 7, §§ 152-153, effective 30 days following enactment pursuant to subsection (c) of section 2 Article LXXXVII of the Amendments to the Constitution.
(a)
(1) An MBTA community shall have a zoning ordinance or by-law that provides for at least 1 district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right; provided, however, that such multi-family housing shall be without age restrictions and shall be suitable for families with children. For the purposes of this section, a district of reasonable size shall: (i) have a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre, subject to any further limitations imposed by section 40 of chapter 131 and title 5 of the state environmental code established pursuant to section 13 of chapter 21A; and (ii) be located not more than 0.5 miles from a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal or bus station, if applicable.
(b)
An MBTA community that fails to comply with this section shall not be eligible for funds from: (i) the Housing Choice Initiative as described by the governor in a message to the general court dated December 11, 2017; (ii) the Local Capital Projects Fund established in section 2EEEE of chapter 29; (iii) the MassWorks infrastructure program established in section 63 of chapter 23A, or (iv) the HousingWorks infrastructure program established in section 27 of chapter 23B.
(c)
The executive office of housing and livable communities, in consultation with the executive office of economic development, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, shall promulgate guidelines to determine if an MBTA community is in compliance with this section.
It now appears that the full SJC will hear the Town of Milton case in October 2024.
Town Counsel for the Town of Milton, in his legal Brief filed with the SJC, pointed out, correctly, that the ONLY penalty set forth in Ch. 40A, Section 3A for ignoring that statute is the cut-off of funding categories enumerated in Section 3A(b).
NOTE: Commonwealth of Massachusetts officials would have us believe that the so-called ‘MBTA Communities Guidelines’ spewed out by outright dishonest hacks constituting the so-called ‘Guidelines Team’ collected by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, now the Department of Housing and Livable Communities (with all the China Joe Biden-Maura Healey illegal immigrants overrunning our cities and towns, what a F#*@ING JOKE), have some binding, legal effect. THEY DO NOT. THEY ARE SO-CALLED ‘GUIDELINES,’ NOT REGULATIONS, AND, THEREFORE, DO NOT HAVE THE FORCE OF LAW. The late Alex Whiteside, Esq., former Chief Counsel to the Department of Housing and Community Development, made that clear here:
The Town of Sterling, like the Town of Holden that refused to go along with Ch. 40A, Section 3A, is exempt from that statute because it has NO LAND WITHIN 1/2 MILE OF ANY TYPE OF TRANSIT STATION OR TERMINAL DESCRIBED IN THAT STATUTE.
NOTE THAT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION HIRE AG ANDREA CAMPBELL HAS NOT SUED THE TOWN OF HOLDEN. SHE KNOWS THAT SHE WILL LOSE IF SHE DOES.
DESPITE the clear language of that statute there are OUTRIGHT LIARS AND BUFFOONS in Sterling Town Government saying that the Town of Sterling is subject to Ch. 40A, Section 3A MBTA zoning districts requirements. IGNORE THEM ALL– THE MAKE-WORK SO-CALLED ‘TOWN PLANNER’ IN PARTICULAR.
Do I trust the SJC to apply the clear language of Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A(b) in the Town of Milton case. ANSWER: ABSOLUTELY NOT. MOST SJC APPOINTEES ARE INTELLECTUALLY DISHONEST RESULT-ORIENTED POLITICAL HACKS WHO ADOPT THE POSITIONS ADVOCATED BY THE COMMIE BOSTON GLOBE A/K/A BOSTON GLOB. In this matter the Boston Glob has gone all in for tyranny.
Want a notion as to how ‘highly qualified’ SJC appointees are??? Well then, check THIS out:
Bent Self-Serving Weasel, ‘Conflict of Interest Carl’ Corrinne, the developer-Chair of the Sterling Planning Board, unsurprisingly, is fighting ZBA Chair Patrick Fox’s attempts to increase the required lot sizes and setbacks for Sterling’s so-called ‘Multi-Family Developments.’
NO surprise here. It just so happens that ‘Conflict of Interest Carl’ is the self-serving weasel PoS attempting to claim that the land under the New England Power Company high-voltage lines northerly of Clinton Road, on the property known as 100 Clinton Road owned by him, counts as required ‘open space’ for his proposed multi-family development there–even though ONLY underground utilities are permitted within such required ‘open space.’ Here is the relevant language within Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Law Section 301-4.2 as to ‘Multifamily Developments’–
At least 60% of the parcel shall be maintained as open space, and at least 40% of the parcel shall be contiguous open space, excluding required yards and buffer areas.
The required open space shall be used for conservation, recreation, agriculture, horticulture, forestry, or for a combination of these uses, and shall be served by suitable access for such purpose.
Gasbag Cretin Affirmative Action Hire AG Andrea Campbell has filed a lawsuit against the Town of Milton– Campbell asks high court to force Milton into compliance with housing law (bostonherald.com) — after voters there, in a Town-wide election, rejected, intelligently, so-called ‘MBTA High-Density Affordable Housing Zoning Districts.’ Campbell is attempting to force the Town of Milton into designating at least one such so-called ‘MBTA Zoning District’ under Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A, set forth as follows:
(a)
(1) An MBTA community shall have a zoning ordinance or by-law that provides for at least 1 district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right; provided, however, that such multi-family housing shall be without age restrictions and shall be suitable for families with children. For the purposes of this section, a district of reasonable size shall: (i) have a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre, subject to any further limitations imposed by section 40 of chapter 131 and title 5 of the state environmental code established pursuant to section 13 of chapter 21A; and (ii) be located not more than 0.5 miles from a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal or bus station, if applicable.
(b)
An MBTA community that fails to comply with this section shall not be eligible for funds from: (i) the Housing Choice Initiative as described by the governor in a message to the general court dated December 11, 2017; (ii) the Local Capital Projects Fund established in section 2EEEE of chapter 29; (iii) the MassWorks infrastructure program established in section 63 of chapter 23A, or (iv) the HousingWorks infrastructure program established in section 27 of chapter 23B.
(c)
The executive office of housing and livable communities, in consultation with the executive office of economic development, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, shall promulgate guidelines to determine if an MBTA community is in compliance with this section.
BUT CAMPBELL-THE-DEMAGOGUE, WHO, APPARENTLY, WAS NEVER TRAINED TO READ STATUTES OR ANYTHING ELSE PROPERLY, HAS ONE BIG PROBLEM: UNDER SECTION (b) THE ONLY REMEDY FOR THE STATE IS THE CUT-OFF OF FUNDING SOURCES ENUMERATED THEREIN. THE STATUTE IS CRYSTAL CLEAR ABOUT THAT.
To their credit Town of Milton officials intend to fight vigorously against Campbell’s tyranny.
To Voters, Taxpayers and Concerned Citizens of Sterling:
A petition to recall Board of Health Chairman, Allen Hoffman, will begin soon. This will provide the voters of Sterling with an opportunity this May to elect three new members to the Board of Health (BOH). These will be members who care about Sterling residents and will be responsive to their needs.
The effort to remove Mr. Hoffman is driven by:
The BOH’s actions of callous indifference to the will of the voters.
Their enactment of unnecessary, burdensome, and costly septic regulations.
Exposing the town of Sterling to potential legal (and financial) liability by contradicting state regulations.
Creating regulations which negatively impact property values.
Their arrogance by ignoring the overwhelming town vote to reverse these flawed regulations.
Please sign the petition to remove Mr. Hoffman and allow us to take back our town. Our goal is to gather 1,500 signatures of registered voters (within a 20-day window) and we will need volunteers to help gather them.
In a resounding victory for those seeking to preserve the Town of Milton’s neighborhood character, Milton voters, on 14 February 2024, soundly rejected the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ attempted cram-down of so-called ‘MBTA High-Density Affordable Housing Districts’ despite de-funding and lawsuit threats from Gov. Maura ‘Hold It’ Healey and affirmative action hire AG Andrea Campbell– Milton thumbs its nose at MBTA zoning law – CommonWealth Beacon
Milton voters to Gov. Healey and AG Campbell—take your so-called ‘MBTA Zoning Districts’ and SHOVE them, SIDEWAYS!
So, add Milton to the Towns of Berkley, Holden, Littleton, and Middleborough that have rejected the onerous and tyrannical provisions set forth in Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A– Mass. General Laws c.40A § 3A | Mass.gov
It is good to know that the historical, but apparently long moribund, spirit of resistance to tyranny still lives on in Massachusetts!
Tired of Town of Sterling local government BULLSHIT??? Do you want to implement honest, responsive, fiscally responsible, common-sense programs to benefit Sterling’s citizen-taxpayers while at the same time squelching government overreach, inefficiency, waste, and cronyism? Well then, YOU can do something about it by pulling nomination papers at the Sterling Town Clerk’s Office after 20 January 2024– Voting FAQs | Sterling MA (sterling-ma.gov) –and running against self-perpetuating, self-serving, yadayadayadayada media-hound Chair of the Select Board, Maureen ‘Our Lady of Perpetual Bullshit’ Cranson, and rogue Board of Health Assclown Autocrat Ann Marie ‘Deep Hole Testing Regulation’ Catalano. Their current terms of office are up in May 2024.
You only need forty-three (43) validated Sterling registered voter signatures on your nomination papers to get on the ballot (make sure you get quite a few in addition as a cushion).
Let’s have a round of applause for the Town of Littleton voters who, at their 1 November 2023 Special Town Meeting, rejected the attempted tyrannical State cram-down of a bogus so-called ‘MBTA Communities Multi-Family Zoning District.”
Meanwhile, thousands of Town of Milton voters signed Petitions forcing the attempt to implement bogus so-called ‘MBTA Communities Multi-Family Zoning Districts’ there to a Town-wide election scheduled for 13 February 2024.
Town of Milton voters irate at the attempted State MBTA zoning cram-down established a website. Here is the link: https://www.mnrz.org/mbta-zoning.html
Unlike Littleton and Milton, Sterling does not have any transit stop or terminal referred to in Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A–
“(a)
(1) An MBTA community shall have a zoning ordinance or by-law that provides for at least 1 district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right; provided, however, that such multi-family housing shall be without age restrictions and shall be suitable for families with children. For the purposes of this section, a district of reasonable size shall: (i) have a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre, subject to any further limitations imposed by section 40 of chapter 131 and title 5 of the state environmental code established pursuant to section 13 of chapter 21A; and (ii) be located not more than 0.5 miles from a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal or bus station, if applicable.
(b)
An MBTA community that fails to comply with this section shall not be eligible for funds from: (i) the Housing Choice Initiative as described by the governor in a message to the general court dated December 11, 2017; (ii) the Local Capital Projects Fund established in section 2EEEE of chapter 29; (iii) the MassWorks infrastructure program established in section 63 of chapter 23A, or (iv) the HousingWorks infrastructure program established in section 27 of chapter 23B.
(c)
The executive office of housing and livable communities, in consultation with the executive office of economic development, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, shall promulgate guidelines to determine if an MBTA community is in compliance with this section.”
–– and does NOT have any land within 0.5 miles of any such transit stop or terminal. Therefore, the Town of Sterling is EXEMPT from Ch. 40A, Section 3A.
However, that fact has not prevented self-serving weasel developer “Conflict of Interest Carl” Corrinne and gutless Sterling Planning Board sheep from seeking to put bogus ‘MBTA Communities Multi-Family Zoning District’ Articles on the May 2024 Sterling Annual Town Meeting Warrant.
When the May 2024 Sterling Annual Town Meeting rolls around Sterling voters need to show up en masse and vote to protect Sterling’s resources and rural character by decisively voting down any and all such bogus ‘MBTA Communities Multi-Family Zoning Districts’ Warrant Articles.
On 16 November 2023 the Sterling Planning Board, Chaired by self-serving weasel developer Carl Corrinne, discussed putting bogus so-called ‘MBTA Communities Multi-Family Housing Zoning Districts’ articles on the May 2024 Sterling Annual Town Meeting Warrant–https://www.sterling-ma.gov/planning-board/events/123551 Of course, ‘Conflict of Interest Carl’ would LOVE to have such measures passed because it would give him an opportunity to build more housing for personal gain. Any such zoning amendments require a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote to pass and be adopted.
What the Town Planner, ‘Conflict of Interest Carl’ and the Planning Board, the pro-developer hacks constituting the Sterling ZBA, the Town Administrator, and the Sterling Select Board WILL NEVER TELL YOU IS THAT MASS.GEN.LAWS CH. 40A, SECTION 3A, the so-called ‘MBTA Communities Multi-Family Housing Zoning Districts’ statute, DOES NOT APPLY TO THE TOWN OF STERLING BECAUSE STERLING HAS NO LAND WITHIN ONE-HALF MILE (0.5 MILES) OF ANY TRANSIT STATION OR TERMINAL REFERRED TO IN THAT SECTION.
Here is the entire text of Ch. 40A, Section 3A:
“(a)
(1) An MBTA community shall have a zoning ordinance or by-law that provides for at least 1 district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right; provided, however, that such multi-family housing shall be without age restrictions and shall be suitable for families with children. For the purposes of this section, a district of reasonable size shall: (i) have a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre, subject to any further limitations imposed by section 40 of chapter 131 and title 5 of the state environmental code established pursuant to section 13 of chapter 21A; and (ii) be located not more than 0.5 miles from a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal or bus station, if applicable.
(b)
An MBTA community that fails to comply with this section shall not be eligible for funds from: (i) the Housing Choice Initiative as described by the governor in a message to the general court dated December 11, 2017; (ii) the Local Capital Projects Fund established in section 2EEEE of chapter 29; (iii) the MassWorks infrastructure program established in section 63 of chapter 23A, or (iv) the HousingWorks infrastructure program established in section 27 of chapter 23B.
(c)
The executive office of housing and livable communities, in consultation with the executive office of economic development, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, shall promulgate guidelines to determine if an MBTA community is in compliance with this section.”
The totally dishonest Mass. Dept. of Housing and Community Development ‘Guidelines Team’ ignored the clear limiting language of Section 3A(a) and promulgated totally bogus so-called ‘Guidelines’ attempting to force ALL 177 so-called ‘MBTA Communities’ into adopting so-called ‘MBTA Communities Multi-Family Housing Zoning Districts’– Section 3A Guidelines | Mass.gov
The TOWN OF HOLDEN, to its everlasting credit, REFUSED TO BUY THAT BULLSHIT and prevailed recently in a lawsuit brought by Lefty housing advocates attempting to compel the Town of Holden to knuckle under—
NOTE that Blowhard Affirmative-Action-Hire Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell HAS NOT filed an action against the Town of Holden BECAUSE SHE KNOWS THAT THE ONLY STATUTORY SANCTION/PENALTY FOR ALLEGED NON-COMPLIANCE IS THE CUT-OFF OF STATE FUNDING REFERRED TO IN SECTION 3A(b).
The Sterling Town Administrator has admitted that the Town of Sterling HAS NOT BEEN RECEIVING ANY FUNDS REFERRED TO IN SECTION 3A(b).
NOW Town of Milton voters are stepping up to defeat ‘MBTA Communities Multi-Family Housing Zoning Districts’ State Tyranny:
It behooves ALL Sterling voters to show up at the 2024 Sterling Annual Town Meeting and vote to protect and preserve the Town’s integrity and character BY VOTING DOWN ANY AND ALL SO-CALLED ‘MBTA COMMUNITIES MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING ZONING DISTRICT’ ARTICLES ON THAT ANNUAL TOWN MEETING’S WARRANT.
Until recently the Wachusett Regional School District had not posted its 2023-2024 total student enrollment numbers, so a few weeks ago your correspondent emailed the Mass. Dept. of Elementary and Secondary education and asked where the hell were they? VOILA! The figures are now posted—
And you guessed it—total enrollment is flat, down 10% since Fiscal Year 2015. BUT that has not stopped the tax-fattened hyenas constituting the WRSD Administration, or the Gutless Grifters constituting the WRSD Committee, from bloating the WRSD budget MORE THAN 30% DURING THE SAME PERIOD. Last year the Town of Sterling’s WRSD tax assessment increased more than 4% over the previous year. AND, OH YEAH—the previous Fiscal Year outside audit report made the WRSD look like the FRAUDGHANISTAN it is. The then-Superintendent, McCall, WAAAAY overspent the WRSD’s authorized budget; there were 65 OPEN BANK ACCOUNTS PURPORTEDLY FOR THE WRSD; AND THERE WAS NO CHECK-WRITING/SPENDING OVERSIGHT. CAN YOU SAY “RECIPE FOR OUTRIGHT EMBEZZLEMENT”???
Moreover, the WRSD Committee’s Gutless Grifters have demonstrated a total lack of fiscal responsibility and accountability in failing to cut the WRSD payroll by 10%, as authorized by statute, to reflect the 10% enrollment drop since FY 2015. They are virtue-signaling preening clowns screwing WRSD taxpayers across the board year after year. The WRSD’s posted employee roster, single-spaced, runs to 22-23 pages. Check it out—
SO, with the flat 2023-2024 WRSD total enrollment figures out let’s see what the respective 5-District-Town Finance Committees have to say about the WRSD’s ongoing massive bloat and fiscal irresponsibility.
I’m watching…AND you can be sure that I’ll be sending the WRSD yet another pertinent Public Records Request in or about March 2024.
Months ago, immediately after the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance filed its absolutely BULLSHIT so-called ‘MBTA Zoning’ lawsuit against the Town of Holden, your correspondent on this Blog site wrote that that lawsuit should be dismissed for the plaintiffs’/claimants’ “lack of standing.” Welp, Worcester Superior Court Judge Daniel Wrenn did just THAT this week and dismissed that lawsuit for plaintiffs’ “lack of standing.”
Let’s have a BIG round of applause for the Town of Holden’s Select Board and Town Manager. THEY displayed real cojones and stood up for the rule of law in defending against these bogus claims AND the bogus threats made by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell who has pushed the illegal and ultra vires so-called ‘MBTA Zoning Guidelines,’ promulgated by the intellectually dishonest Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, that warp the clear intent of Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A.
The truth is that Ch. 40A, Section 3A APPLIES ONLY TO THOSE SO-CALLED ‘MBTA COMMUNITIES’ THAT HAVE LAND WITHIN HALF A MILE (0.5 MILES) OF ONE OF THE TRANSIT STOPS OR TERMINALS DESCRIBED IN THAT STATUTE. MOREOVER, THE ONLY SANCTION/PENALTY FOR NOT COMPLYING WITH THAT STATUTE IS THE CUT-OFF OF STATE FUNDS DESCRIBED IN SECTION 3A(b).
STERLING has received NO STATE FUNDS described in Section 3A(b) AND DOES NOT HAVE ANY LAND WITHIN HALF A MILE OF ANY TRANSIT STOP OR TERMINAL LISTED IN SECTION 3A, YET THE GUTLESS STERLING PLANNING BOARD AND TOWN PLANNER HAVE UNDERTAKEN TO DESIGNATE BOGUS ‘MBTA ZONING DISTRICT’ PROVISIONS WITHIN THE TOWN OF STERLING. WHAT GROVELING CLOWNS.
ANY SUCH ZONING CHANGES MUST BE APPROVED AT A STERLING TOWN MEETING. MAKE SURE YOU SHOW UP AND VOTE THEM DOWN. WITH THE TOWN WELL-WATER SHORTAGE WE DON’T NEED ANY MORE HIGH-DENSITY HOUSING THAT SELF-SERVING WEASEL DEVELOPER, CARL CORRINNE, BENT CHAIRMAN OF THE STERLING PLANNING BOARD, WOULD LOVE TO BUILD.
I’d like to think that the principled stand taken by Town of Holden officials will stiffen the spines of Sterling officials when it comes to these matters, but experience demonstrates that that result is highly unlikely.
On 6 December 2023 the Sterling Select Board will meet jointly with the corrupt Board of Health to pick an interim BOH member following Ms. Martin’s resignation, AND to pick a BOH Audit Committee member from among applicants who were signatories to the 16 October 2023 Sterling Special Town Meeting Voter Petitions—
That oughta be fun to watch, so come on out to that meeting if you are able to do so.
In upcoming weeks and months, as the BOH audit progresses, we can expect layers of Sterling BOH cronyism, fraud, waste, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, misrepresentation, abuse of power, and incompetence to be exposed.
And THAT means, among other things, that the firing of the Sterling BOH’s ‘full-time Health Agent’ [WINK, WINK], David “Nowhere Man” Favreau, should be effected sometime during 2024.
Sterling Board of Health Assclown Autocrats Hoffman and Catalano remain intractable advocates for their illegal December 2022 “Deep Observation Hole” local regulation that may, one hopes, get them sued someday soon in Housing Court or Superior Court by an adversely-affected property owner. In the meantime the other BOH member, Catherine Martin, has resigned and jumped ship– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/home/news/board-of-health-vacancy
Hoffman and Catalano continue running their David “Nowhere Man” Favreau full-time [WINK, WINK] Health Agent protection racket too.
Will someone honorable, knowledgeable, and responsible PLEASE step up to challenge her in 2024 so that the Townspeople can boot her sorry ass into oblivion???
Sterling’s corrupt, incompetent, lawless and wasteful Board of Health, soon to be subject to an audit investigation thanks to Warrant Article 9’s passage during the 16 October 2023 Sterling Special Town Meeting, will be discussing the passage of Warrant Articles 8 and 9, by OVERWHELMING voter majorities, during its 9 November 2023 public meeting– 11-09-2023_posted_agenda_form_sterling.pdf (sterling-ma.gov)
The 16 October 2023 Special Town Meeting was conducted after more than 600 Sterling voter-petitioners called for it to protest the crooked Board of Health’s ILLEGAL December 2022 local regulation requiring “Deep Observation Hole” testing of all pre-April 1995 septic systems upon pending sale or transfer of the targeted properties.
Your correspondent was informed that the crooked Board of Health’s so-called ‘full time’ Agent [Wink, Wink], David Favreau, who continues to submit big ‘overtime’ claims on his official Town of Sterling time sheets while running Favreau Construction & Septic Services– Title 5 Inspections | Sterling, MA | David Favreau Construction & Septic Services (favreausepticservices.com)— pushed for adoption of the illegal “Deep Observation Hole” testing local regulation after he had a dispute with an intelligent Bean Road septic system owner who knew what the Massachusetts state-level septic system regulations say about “Deep Observation Hole” tests—they are the LAST RESORT, NOT THE FIRST RESORT, in determining seasonal high ground water levels. What David Favreau needs to wear is a locked-on GPS tracking collar—the kind put on wolves—so that the Auditors and the rest of us can learn what he really does and where he really goes every day.
But David Favreau IS NOT the only Sterling Favreau Clan member in position to profit from the crooked Board of Health’s illegal December 2022 “Deep Observation Hole” local regulation. These Favreau Clan members are too—
SO, PLEASE come on out to the 9 November 2023 Sterling Board of Health public meeting and point out these fascinating Favreau Clan Conflicts of Interest. Under the March 2023 landmark Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision in Barron et al. vs. Kolenda et al.— BARRON vs. KOLENDA, 491 Mass. 408 (masscases.com) — you have an absolute Constitutional right to do so.
Sterling Town Moderator Jennifer Scalise-Mullett, during Sterling Annual and Special Town Meetings, runs a PROTECTION RACKET for bent Town of Sterling officials and employees by implementing her UNCONSTITUTIONAL speech suppression/discussion suppression ‘Decorum Policy’ prohibiting the mention, by name, of such bent Town officials and employees.
That ‘Decorum Policy’ was rendered UNCONSTITUTIONAL by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in its March 2023 landmark case, Barron et al. vs. Kolenda et al., 491 Mass. 408 (2023), involving bent Town of Southborough officials protecting themselves by means of UNCONSTITUTIONAL speech and discussion suppression during official meetings. SEE BARRON vs. KOLENDA, 491 Mass. 408 (masscases.com)
You can bet that Jennifer Scalise-Mullett did not cook up her UNCONSTITUTIONAL ‘Decorum Policy’ alone.
By letter, in spring 2023, ccd to the Sterling Select Board, I warned Ms. Scalise-Mullett about her violations of Sterling voters’ free speech and discussion rights during Sterling Town Meetings. In view of her continued illegal conduct displayed during the 16 October 2023 Sterling Special Town Meeting I filed a ‘Case Report’ about her with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). FIRE has staff lawyers and also retains outside lawyers where needed to bring lawsuits against government officials violating individuals’ free speech rights. FIRE is now the PREMIER U.S. organization upholding citizens’ speech protections. SEE https://www.thefire.org/ I have donated to FIRE for many years.
Below is the email I sent on 17 October 2023, about Ms. Scalise-Mullett’s UNCONSTITUTIONAL Town Meeting ‘Decorum Policy,’ to the Sterling Select Board, Town Administrator, Secretary to the Select Board, and Town Clerk, with ccs to the Massachusetts Municipal Association, FIRE, and Town Counsel Gregg Corbo.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you know, immediately before the 16 October 2023 Sterling Special Town Meeting, Jennifer Scalise-Mullett, elected Sterling Town Moderator, announced her ‘decorum’ policy that speakers having the floor were not permitted to mention Town officials or Town employees by name during Warrant Article discussions. That policy constitutes an official Town of Sterling speech suppression/discussion suppression and Town officialTown/employee PROTECTION RACKET rendered UNCONSTITUTIONAL by the landmark decision handed down by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in March, 2023, Barron et al. vs. Kolenda et al., 491 Mass. 408 (2023). SEE BARRON vs. KOLENDA, 491 Mass. 408 (masscases.com)
In spring 2023, by letter, with cc to the Sterling Select Board, enclosing a full copy of the Barron vs. Kolenda decision, I warned Ms. Scalise-Mullett about her unconstitutional Sterling Town Meeting speech suppression/discussion suppression policy and practices.
During the 16 October 2023 Sterling Special Town Meeting, when Ms. Scalise-Mullett attempted to cut off, in violation of my rights under the Massachusetts Constitution, my mention of David Favreau, the Sterling Board of Health Agent who continues running up big overtime claims on his official Town of Sterling Time Sheets while running David Favreau Construction & Septic Services–Title 5 Inspections | Sterling, MA | David Favreau Construction & Septic Services (favreausepticservices.com) — and his being in an obvious conflict of interest, I talked over her deliberately to share that information with the Special Town Meeting attendees. I had a Constitutional right to do so.
In view of Ms. Scalise-Mullett’s ongoing, official, violations of Sterling Town Meeting speakers’ Constitutional rights I have filed a ‘Case Report’ with the Foundation for Individual Rights & Expression (FIRE). FIRE has staff lawyers and also retains private counsel to uphold the free speech/free discussion rights of all U.S. citizens.
Thanks to two or three sharp-eyed Sterling citizen-voters it has come to light that as-yet unidentified STERLING TOWN GOVERNMENT SCUMBAGS typed out, ILLEGALLY, the 16 October 2023 Special Town Meeting Warrant Article 9 with language DIFFERENT FROM the language set forth in the Petition for that Warrant Article signed by more than 200 Sterling citizen-voters. HATS OFF to those vigilant citizen-voters!
The following material is reproduced from emails sent and received by Petition organizer Gary Menin concerning this unfolding scandal (some names have been omitted for privacy/confidentiality purposes):
“shall” and “all” are keywords here.
MGL Chap 39, sect 10:
The selectmen shall insert in the warrant for the annual meeting all subjects the insertion of which shall be requested of them in writing by ten or more registered voters of the town and in the warrant for every special town meeting all subjects the insertion of which shall be requested of them in writing by one hundred registered voters or by ten per cent of the total number of registered voters of the town whichever number is the lesser.
Gary
978 422 8155
It’s just another way to try to get the article thrown out. So they have two choices I guess. They can either type up the article and make a new warrant and spend our money at the printing press that way, or they can just have handouts available to take the place of the wrong wording in the warrant.
But I think they were hoping that no one would see and then the instructions would be different and not as detailed as Gary wants. They reworded the most important task, which is to compare with other towns in the area.
The biggest section that is wrong is around line 296
It’s supposed to say:
This independent audit shall review the Board of Health’s financial records to evaluate operating procedures, verify financial controls, and comment on management practices in a formal, transparent process in comparison to other comparable rural residential Towns in Central Massachusetts. The audit shall be comprised of three components: an opinion, financial statements and supplementary information, and a separate management letter. And audit committee shall be formed for this specific process. It doesn’t say that in the warrant
They changed the word expertise to experience in two places…..line 280 and 300
On line 307 it’s supposed to say The audit committee SHOULD identify areas………and they changed it to CAN identify areas.
On line 310 it’s supposed to say DELIBERATION METHODS and they left out METHODS and changed it to just DELIBERATIONS!!!!
On line 311 it says questions concerning the efficiency of the Board and it’s supposed to say efficiency and FOCUS of the Board.
There’s a misspelling on line 279……..One vs. on
There’s a couple of other small mistakes, but even still, it’s supposed to be word for word.
The one about the deep hole itself does not have misspellings and changes.
This is not just one typo, it’s a change of phrases and sentences and instructions.
I wonder what kind of repercussions they could get for altering this? Whoever did that clearly has no clue that you are not supposed to change the wording since that’s what people signed their names on the other side of the paper for.
Notwithstanding that we followed Town recommendations for review of the Petition Motion – prior to signature collection – the following highlighted “most important” statement was surreptitiously removed in the published version after the 214 signatures signed version was submitted.
If you didn’t think that some real SCUMBAGS populate the Sterling Municipal Building, then you need to think again and start voting intelligently. This Blog was started to expose them and their underhanded maneuvers after local media ignored the problem.
UPDATE: The Sterling Police Department should initiate a felony investigation under Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 267, Sec. 1– https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter267/Section1 — beginning with Town Administrator William Caldwell, then to Maureen “Our Lady of Perpetual Bullshit” Cranson, and thence up and down the Sterling Municipal Building chain.
KUDOS to former Sterling Board of Health member Gary Menin for organizing and spearheading the Petition drives (2) that succeeded in calling the Special Town Meeting scheduled for 16 October 2023 and getting Articles 8 and 9 on that Special Town Meeting Warrant. Unlike ANY of the current Board of Health members, Gary Menin is actually trained and certified in Massachusetts septic system requirements, parameters, and testing under Massachusetts Title V, 310 CMR 15.000. SEEdownload (mass.gov)
THE SPECIAL TOWN MEETING WARRANT: 10_16_2023_stm_warrant.pdf (sterling-ma.gov) More than 600 Sterling citizen-voters signed the Petition for what is now Article 8, and, as a follow-up, given only a 3-day window, more than 200 Sterling citizen-voters signed a second Petition for what is now Article 9. Since the successful Petitions required the Town to schedule the Special Town Meeting, the Town then added Articles 1-7 to the Warrant.
BACKGROUND, ARTICLE 8: In December 2022 the autocratic, out-of-control, dishonest Board of Health slid through its new local regulation requiring “Deep Observation Hole” septic system testing for pre-1995 Sterling septic systems in cases of property sales/transfers, IN VIOLATION OF 310 CMR 15.302(4). This new local regulation serves no purpose EXCEPT TO BENEFIT THE LOCAL SEPTIC SERVICE COMPANIES BY GENERATING WORK/REVENUES FOR THEM.
YEAH, the BOH’s new “Deep Observation Hole” testing requirement—SUCH A DEAL!
ARTICLE 9, if passed, would require an Audit of the Sterling BOH. Maybe the Auditors will suggest that, as a condition of continued BOH employment, David ‘Nowhere Man’ Favreau wear a GPS tracking device at all times so we can learn what he really does all day!
COME OUT AND PASS ARTICLES 8 AND 9 AT THE STERLING SPECIAL TOWN MEETING ON 16 OCTOBER 2023 AND DELIVER THE BITCH-SLAP THAT THE CORRUPT, DISHONEST, OUT-OF-CONTROL STERLING BOARD OF HEALTH WELL-DESERVES.
Make NO mistake about it: Anthony Fauci is a self-serving lying little psychopathic PRICK, and he has plenty of like company populating the corrupt C.I.A.. So it should come as no surprise that the C.I.A. had Fauci come over to C.I.A. HQ to help cover up the fact that the bio-engineered Covid virus escaped from the Chinese Commie Wuhan Institute of Virology, a CHICOM bio-weapons lab.
Fauci, of course, was more than happy to help the corrupt C.I.A. lie about the real source of the Covid virus BECAUSE FAUCI’S NIH FUNDED VIRUS ‘GAIN OF FUNCTION’ WORK, MEANING BIO-ENGINEERED VIRUS DANGEROUSNESS ENHANCEMENT, AT THAT VERY LAB, AND FAUCI LIED ABOUTTHAT.
And all this corruption and lying was going on as the Biden Crime Family was taking $Millions in bribes from our foremost geo-political enemies, the CHICOMS THEMSELVES, all the while being protected by the totally corrupt, DemocRAT-dominated F.B.I./F#cking Bent Inquisitors, and DoJ.
Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., and his fellow co-plaintiffs, won a BIG 1st Amendment case for ALL OF US against the corrupt, repressive, totalitarian Biden Regime.
On 18 August 2023 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court washed its hands of the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance’s BULLSH*T so-called “MBTA Communities” lawsuit against the Town of Holden and transferred the frivolous case to the Worcester Superior Court.
The DemocRAT/Commie Gimme Girls and Boys constituting the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance, and their intellectually dishonest Lefty/Commie lawyers, must surely be disappointed. You see, Worcester County Superior Court judges aren’t likely to be swayed by the Boston-centered Lefty/Government media/propagandists, particularly The Boston Glob, ravening for so-called ‘housing equity’ in ALL the 177 so-called “MBTA Communities” despite the clear limiting language of Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A and operative limiting geographical facts. The Boston Glob’s Editorial Board have been patently, robotically dishonest/mindless Town of Holden detractors. Yeah, yeah, I’ll support ‘housing equity’ whenALL The Boston Glob’s two-faced hypocrite staff writers and Editorial Board members open their homes to illegal immigrants let into our Nation by the Bribed, Treasonous, Senile, Psychopathic, Pathologically Lying Head of the Biden Crime Family, Felon Joe Biden. https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/08/10/howie-carr-lt-gov-driscoll-wants-massachusetts-families-to-house-migrants/ That means never.
The Town of Holden has not yet filed its Answer to the Complaint. I’m looking forward to reading it.
GO TOWN OF HOLDEN– KICK CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS HOUSING ALLIANCE ASS!!!
The Bleeding Heart Gimme Girls and Boys constituting the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance, in conjunction with their intellectually dishonest lawyers, have filed a frivolous/bullsh*t lawsuit against the Town of Holden, a so-called “MBTA Community,” under Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A. That statute is set forth as follows:
Amended by St.2023, c. 7, §§ 152-153, effective 30 days following enactment pursuant to subsection (c) of section 2 Article LXXXVII of the Amendments to the Constitution.
(a)
(1) An MBTA community shall have a zoning ordinance or by-law that provides for at least 1 district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right; provided, however, that such multi-family housing shall be without age restrictions and shall be suitable for families with children. For the purposes of this section, a district of reasonable size shall: (i) have a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre, subject to any further limitations imposed by section 40 of chapter 131 and title 5 of the state environmental code established pursuant to section 13 of chapter 21A; and (ii) be located not more than 0.5 miles from a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal or bus station, if applicable.
(b)
An MBTA community that fails to comply with this section shall not be eligible for funds from: (i) the Housing Choice Initiative as described by the governor in a message to the general court dated December 11, 2017; (ii) the Local Capital Projects Fund established in section 2EEEE of chapter 29; (iii) the MassWorks infrastructure program established in section 63 of chapter 23A, or (iv) the HousingWorks infrastructure program established in section 27 of chapter 23B.
(c)
The executive office of housing and livable communities, in consultation with the executive office of economic development, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, shall promulgate guidelines to determine if an MBTA community is in compliance with this section.
The Town of Holden should prevail right off the bat, on a Motion to Dismiss the Complaint, or on a Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, because:
1. Ch. 40A, Section 3A does not apply to the Town of Holden since that Town, like Sterling, has no land within 0.5 miles of a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal or bus station; and
2. The only statutory remedies are the cut-off of state funds listed in subsection (b).
There is no private right of action under that statute.
So, the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance lacks ‘standing’ to maintain its lawsuit and has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.
If the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance boys and girls and their intellectually dishonest lawyers have a problem with a purported regional housing shortage then they should blame the guy who caused it–their DemocRAT Hero and Boss of the Biden Crime Family, the bribed, treasonous, lying, corrupt, imbecilic, senile Dementia Joe Biden himself, who has let 7 million illegal immigrants pass over our southern border, with thousands more crossing over every day. Even our Dopey Leftist-Lesbian DemocRAT Governor has noticed that there is a problem. SEE State of emergency declared in Mass. as migrant shelter fills up (bostonherald.com)
These Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance MauMauing Clowns won’t, though–they all drink the DemocRAT/Commie Kool-Aid. How much you wanna bet they donated to Biden’s campaign or to the DNC???
If Sterling officials had ANY balls and principles—and they don’t—they’d be aligned with the Town of Holden when it comes to the non-applicability of Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A. Maybe, someday, they’ll find some substitute balls rolling around on a floor somewhere. In the meantime I’m rooting BIG TIME for the Town of Holden in this matter.
GO TOWN OF HOLDEN—KICK CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS HOUSING ALLIANCE ASS!!!
The Sterling Municipal Light Department did Sterling Board of Health dirty work by distributing the BOH’s false “deep observation hole” testing propaganda in the SMLD’s latest town-wide mailing. Former BOH member Gary Menin, fully licensed in Title V septic matters, responded in his open letter re-printed hereinbelow—
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE STERLING MUNICIPAL LIGHT DEPARTMENT
July 25, 2023
I was disappointed to find an insert in my monthly electric bill that: (1) Has nothing to do with the business of the SMLD and (2) Ironically further promulgates the misinformation (precipitated/promulgated by the BOH itself) surrounding the Sterling Board Of Health’s December 8, 2022 decision to require a Deep Observation Hole (DOH) based Soil Evaluation for all homes sales since that date.
FACT – This is the specific decision of concern:
FACT – The DOH is codified terminology of the Title 5 statute:
“Deep observation holes shall be excavated in two adjoining segments, the first ending at approximately the five-foot level to allow detailed examination by the Soil Evaluator without need for shoring, and an adjoining segment which shall extend to a minimum depth of four feet below the bottom elevation of the proposed soil absorption system but in no case less than ten feet below existing/natural grade …”
FACT – In order to perform a code compliant soil evaluation via the DOH process, excavation in accordance with the governing statute (310 CMR 15.000 per above quote) must be accomplished. In this regard Title 5’s Form 11 (all five pages thereof) is the statutory working document that covers details the necessary observations of the DOH. As per a preeminent MA-DEP Soil Evaluation instructor:
“(Soil Evaluators) need to completely fill out the form 11 sections A-E.”
FACT – When I forwarded all accepted/filed (though incomplete) Soil Evaluations that were available from January through June for pre-1996 home sales to the MA-DEP this was that MA-DEP Soil Evaluation instructor’s response:
“ That (a completed Form 11) is what is required in Title 5 so they need to submit them. I would ask for completed Form 11’s for all of these..“
Thus all those filed aforementioned “Soil Evaluations” are invalid.
FACT – With this SMLD insert the BOH is now apparently defining their own DOH. If so they should once again revise their requirements since the previously depicted 120822 revision excerpt still stands.
FACT – The aforementioned discussion of the specifics of what a DOH is and when it’s required notwithstanding – all that should be irrelevant – as the DOH is DEP statutorily intended ONLY for new construction. Further, for existing homes (as noted above) there are numerous other less invasive ways to determine the Seasonal High Ground Water level – and towards that end the MA-DEP indicates that the LEAST INVASIVE method should be chosen. The DOH is the MOST invasive ! Those other methods have worked fine for decades in Sterling and in all other of the 350 Massachusetts Cities and Towns as I have not found one that requires a DOH for existing homes as a matter of course.* Why should Sterling be singled out ? There’s simply no data showing pre-’96 constructed homes are contaminating groundwater in Sterling as the linked letter alleges.
*FACT – Such onerous changes to bylaws/requirements affecting tenets that would normally be grandfathered should be offered greater public scrutiny than being surreptitiously rushed through in an early December meeting that saw no citizen attendance and only two Board members present. *RE: The other 350 cities and Towns – Because of the preponderance of estuaries and embayments on Cape Cod and apparent water quality degradation thereon – Title 5 requirements for Cape Cod have been revised. However these location specific revisions only took place after an extensive comment period for public input unlike in Sterling.
FACT – None of the Board members are either Title 5 Inspection or Soil Evaluator certified.
FACT – A petition is currently being circulated and will continue (through the summer) towards the holding of a Special Town Meeting this fall to request that the Board rescind their ill-advised decision. To date nearly 500 signatures have been collected.
In fairness to these many tax paying citizens and certainly SMLD customers and to the debate at hand – and to STOP the misinformation once and for all – it would appropriate for the SMLD to include in their next billing – this letter as a public service.
In December 2022 Sterling’s overweening, lying, and corrupt Board of Health snuck through its local regulation requiring septic system “deep observation hole” tests for pre-April 1995 septic systems, applied at the time of property transfer/sale, in outright violation to 310 CMR 15.101, 102 and 310 CMR 15.301, 302.
It had NO legal authority to do so. NO other Massachusetts municipality has adopted such a bogus, ultra vires local regulation so far as we know.
SEE 310 CMR 15.00 (Title V Regulations) effective 7 July 2023– download (mass.gov)
Indeed, 310 CMR 15.302(4) provides as follows:
“(4) Determination of High Groundwater Elevation. A deep hole observation test is not required to determine high groundwater elevation during an inspection. High groundwater elevation shall be estimated by the inspector, using best professional judgment, based on the methods described in 310 CMR 15.302(4)(a) through (c).
(a) The inspector shall review local maps and records of groundwater elevation (previous deep hole observation tests or groundwater monitoring results) on the site and nearby properties, if available.
(b) If the system includes a cesspool, the cesspool shall be pumped during the inspection and then examined to determine whether groundwater flows into the cesspool, indicating that the cesspool is below high groundwater elevation.
(c) If the system includes a septic tank and distribution box, the condition of these components and the surrounding soil shall be observed for indications that groundwater has infiltrated the system. Care should be taken not to destabilize the distribution box or the piping to or from the box. These minimum requirements shall not prevent the use of additional methods. The elevation of nearby water bodies, or evidence of groundwater infiltration in other subsurface structures (for example, cellars), or hand augering to determine depth may aid in determining whether the system is located in the groundwater. The methods used to determine high groundwater elevation shall be described in the inspection report. A system owner may choose to have the high groundwater elevation determined by an observation well or deep hole observation test to confirm or disprove the results obtained by the minimum requirements of 310 CMR 15.302(4), or in place of the minimum requirements”(emphasis added).
Aware of public dissatisfaction with its totally illegal and ultra vires local regulation, the corrupt Board of Health posted this dishonest and deceptive letter on the Town of Sterling’s website, 28 June 2023—
Compounding its abuse and deception, the corrupt Board of Health, presumably using taxpayer money to do so, had that letter reproduced in the Sterling Meetinghouse News July edition.
YEAH, there has been a “considerable amount of misinformation” circulated about the Board of Health’s recent regulation, ALL of it spread by the lying and corrupt Board of Health itself.
Below is reproduced the email about these matters I sent to the Sterling Town Administrator, with ccs to Board of Health employees and the Town Clerk. It is now a public record (all text is ‘justified’ to left margin for this medium. Apologies for any spacing gaps imposed by this medium):
“Mr. Caldwell,
The following septic system ground water level determination guidance is re-printed from MassDEP’s website. Scrolling all the way down you will see that “Deep Observation Hole” testing, requiring holes dug to 12 feet below grade or 6 feet below the bottom of a leaching field, is the “last resort” in determining high groundwater levels at any particular site. The other listed and approved methodologies are to be employed and exhausted first.
Ground Water Determination
Location of the bottom of the leaching facility compared to the HIGH ground water elevation is the most common reason for the failure of systems inspected. It is also the most important reason that sewage is not adequately treated before it enters the ground water table. For these reasons it is most important that the HIGH ground water elevation be properly determined.
The phrase High ground water elevation is used throughout this section because the ground water elevation can vary significantly throughout the year, from year to year and in different types of soil.
High ground water is defined in Title 5 (310 CMR 15.00) in the definition section (15.002) as follows:
Inland – The elevation above which in eight out of ten consecutive years the ground water table does not rise. This elevation is commonly but not invariably reached during the months of December through April.
Coastal – For ground water influenced by tidal action, the average of the monthly spring high tide ground water level as recorded over the most recent consecutive 19 year period.
At the present time the most reliable method of determining the high ground water elevation is to excavate a deep test hole and have it evaluated by a certified soil evaluator. This method is probably beyond a routine system inspection and should be used only in rare cases where there is disagreement among the inspector, the homeowner and the Board of Health and then only after consultation with the homeowner and the Board of Health.
Acceptable methods of estimating high ground water elevation are as follows:
a. READ IT FROM PLANS: If plans of the disposal system are available they should show the ground water elevation on which the plan was based. Unfortunately, many older systems have no plans available and some have plans that merely recorded the ground water elevation at the time of testing. This may or may not be the HIGH ground water elevation. Be aware of the date these tests were performed, and how that fits into the water year.
b. OBSERVATION ON SITE: Look for infiltration into the septic tank, cesspool or distribution box…even leaching pits, galley, or chambers if appropriate. Investigate the surrounding soil by the use of hand augers to determine ground water elevation.
c. DETERMINE IT FROM LOCAL CONDITIONS: Observe the elevation of nearby wetlands; check for ground water elevations on plans for systems located nearby; see if there is a sump pump in the building whose system you are inspecting; look for water marks on cellar walls. NEARBY is of course a subjective word. Be prepared to justify this use.
d. CHECK WITH THE LOCAL BOARD OF HEATLH: Many towns maintain a network of ground water monitoring wells that show relative ground water elevations.
e. Check with the USDA: The Unites States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service often has maps, records and soil surveys, along with knowledgeable staff, which may be helpful in determining high ground water elevation.
f. Check FEMA MAPS: These flood plain maps, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency can be useful. They are often available from the local Conservation Commission.
g. CHECK, PUMPING RECORDS: If the system you are inspecting is pumped each spring it is possible this is needed due to high ground water.
h. CHECK WITH LOCAL DIGGERS: Talk with the local water department and sewer department to learn if they have any first hand knowledge of water depths. Do the same with local excavators and installers, also, gas, telephone and electronic companies.
i. Subscribe to USGS: Subscribe to USGS ground water records available at their website below.
j. KNOW THE CURRENT STATE OF GROUND WATER Ground water elevations are recorded monthly by the USGS throughout New England, including over 100 wells within Massachusetts. Examination of the records from these wells shows water elevation changes varying from less than a few feet to more than seventeen feet in a given well. These records are available from: http://ma.water.usgs.gov/
Methods k through n below constitute more invasive means of determining high ground water elevation. This guidance does not suggest that these methods are required in all cases. However, in instances where methods a through h have failed to provide adequate information for determining high ground water elevation, it may be necessary to employ these methods as described below.
k. Small diameter wellpoints can be driven to monitor ground water elevation. Use appropriate adjustments to determine high ground water elevation. This method may not be suitable for all soil conditions.
l. After observing effluent water levels, pump the leaching facility and monitor to see if ground water rises to the bottom (may be more applicable to pits, chambers and galleries than trenches and fields).This approach should be taken with caution. If done during the dry season, the results do not guarantee that subsequent ground water level rise will not inundate the leaching system. Best professional judgment must be used in order to determine at what point backflow into the system is due to ground water infiltration or other factors. Also, in some soils, ground water may take some time to stabilize. In these instances proper precautions must be taken to insure that the open area around the leaching facility is properly secured to prevent injury.
The system owner may choose to have the high ground water elevation determined by the methods described in m and n below to confirm or disprove the results obtained by other methods or in place of the minimum requirements.
m. Drive an observation well with a powered auger, observe the ground water elevation and make appropriate adjustments to determine high ground water elevation. The maximum depth of the well should be twelve feet below grade at the lowest natural elevation on the site or, six feet below the bottom of the leaching facility.
n. Dig a deep observation hole (generally the last resort) and use appropriate adjustments to determine maximum high ground water elevation. The maximum depth of the hole should be twelve feet below grade at the lowest natural elevation on the site or six feet below the bottom of the leaching facility.
THE STERLING BOARD OF HEALTH’S DECEMBER 2022 “DEEP OBSERVATION HOLE” LOCAL REGULATION IS IN CONTRAVENTION OF, AND VIOLATES, MASSACHUSETTS TITLE V SEPTIC SYSTEM REGULATIONS AND MASSDEP GUIDANCE:
The Sterling Board of Health’s December 2022 local regulation requiring “Deep Observation Hole” Testing is set forth as “V. SYSTEM INSPECTION AT TIME OF TRANSFER,” sub-part “d.,” here:
As you can see, that local regulation violates Massachusetts Title V and MassDEP guidance by requiring “deep observation hole” testing rather than reserving “deep observation hole” testing as the “last resort.”
THE STERLING BOARD OF HEALTH’S 25 JUNE 2023 “LETTER TO THE PUBLIC REGARDING SEPTIC TEST HOLES”:
The Sterling Board of Health has placed this letter on the Town of Sterling website:
As you can see, the Sterling BOH, by that letter, in blatantly dishonest fashion, misrepresented and misconstrued Massachusetts Title V groundwater level evaluation standards and requirements and MassDEP guidance, AND unilaterally derogated from its own December 2022 local regulation and Title V “Deep Observation Hole” depth requirements by reducing them markedly.
CONCLUSION:
In this matter the Sterling Board of Health has demonstrated its autocratic arbitrariness and capriciousness, its dishonesty, and its incompetence. It is now readily apparent to Sterling residents that Sterling Board of Health members don’t even know the difference between their own asses and holes in the ground.
Sincerely,
James F. Gettens, Esq.”
LIKE A NEGLECTED, UN-PUMPED-OUT SEPTIC SYSTEM, THE STERLING BOARD OF HEALTH IS FULL OF SH*T.
IT’S TIME TO TAKE OUT THESE JACKASSES. LET’S START DURING THE 2024 MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.
GEE, what could possibly go wrong in the Town of Sterling when its self-serving weasel-developer Planning Board Chair, Carl Corrinne, and superfluous Town Planner, Stephen Wallace, the latter looking for ways to justify his continued feeding from the Sterling taxpayer-funded public mammary gland, announce their intentions to “overhaul” Sterling’s Protective [Zoning] By-Laws???
That little weasel Corrinne, in conjunction with the Packards, failed in two recent, successive Sterling Annual Town Meetings to get “Performance Zone 1,” along Route 140, re-zoned to “Commercial,” the Packards having bought up many of the parcels on both sides of Route 140 southeasterly of the Dana Hill Road intersection. They want another bite at the apple– Wallace, Corrinne, and the remainder of the Planning Board being avid pro-development cheerleading tools.
Zoom in on that mapped area and check the “layers” boxes “Conservation 1,” “Conservation 2,” and “Resource Protection Maps” — Sterling, MA (axisgis.com)
As you can see, “Performance Zone 1” is, essentially, surrounded by MassDCR watershed protection lands protecting the Stillwater River and Wachusett Reservoir Watersheds. THAT’S WHY “Performance Zone 1” was zoned the way it was MANY years ago rather than being zoned “Commercial” or “Industrial.” Obviously, the pro-development hacks populating what passes for ‘Sterling Town Government’ don’t care about such niceties. That’s why, for example, self-serving pro-development hacks Carl Corrinne, and Zoning Board of Appeals Vice-Chair Joe Curtin, the latter employed as an engineer by development-dependent Pandolf-Perkins Quarry/Sterling Concrete– E.H Perkins Construction (ehperkins.com)–spearheaded the effort, approximately three years ago, to have the North Sterling Wekepeke Aquifer Wellhead Protection Zone reduced in size– while the Town of Sterling seeks, desperately, another Town wellfield. Nice going, A$$h—s.
“Performance Zone 1” re-zoning is not the only item—by a longshot– on the pro-development hacks’ checklist, as you can see from the April 2023 Planning Board Minutes, link above. Of course, among other aims, that transparently self-serving PoS Corrinne wants ‘Special Permit’ granting authority transferred from the Zoning Board of Appeals, where it has resided for decades, to his Planning Board. OF COURSE HE DOES.
It behooves good, responsible Sterling citizens to monitor the Planning Board and the Town Planner between now and the 2024 Sterling Annual Town Meeting when, doubtless, the proposed Zoning By-Laws changes these clowns come up with will appear on the Town Meeting Warrant. You can expect the Zoning Board of Appeals to roll over. They always do. It’ll be up to 2024 Sterling Annual Town Meeting voters to show up in droves and shoot down the proposed changes.
In March 2023 I sent the following letter to bloviating Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell who, back then, was threatening to sue into submission the four (4) principled, courageous, and legally justified Massachusetts municipalities refusing to adopt so-called ‘MBTA High Density Affordable Housing Zoning Districts’ under the spurious and illegal 17 pages of ‘Guidelines’ put out by MassDHCD that ‘interpreted,’ falsely, new Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A:
P.O. Box 1149
Sterling, MA 01564-1149
21 March 2023
Attorney General Andrea Campbell
1 Ashburton Place, 20th Floor
Boston, MA 02108
RE: Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 40A, Sec. 3A
In 2022 the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) promulgated 17 pages of completely arbitrary and capricious so called ‘Guidelines’ (see link, below) in an effort to extort the many so-called ‘MBTA Communities’ into creating ‘Multifamily affordable housing zoning districts.’ In other words, to do what DHCD wants or face the cut-off of three (3) state funding sources. The REAL villains behind all this are the gutless cretins constituting the Massachusetts Legislature. In drafting Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A they failed to set forth any meaningful limits, standards, parameters, or definitions because they did not want to face any blowback. In true cowardly fashion they directed DHCD to ‘promulgate’ the ‘Guidelines.’
The DHCD “Guidelines Team,” in turn, vomited out the 17 pages’ worth of completely arbitrary and capricious junk. It is not inaccurate to say that that ‘Team’ pulled the ‘Guidelines’ entirely out of their asses. The so-called ‘MBTA Communities’ willing to prostitute themselves under those ‘Guidelines,’ in return for purported state funding that can be limited or zeroed-out by the very same gutless Legislature in any future budget, face dire economic, infrastructure, schooling, transportation, traffic, water, and sewer consequences from high density so-called ‘affordable housing.’
Massachusetts General Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A provides:
“Section 3A. (a)(1) An MBTA community shall have a zoning ordinance or by-law that provides for at least 1 district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right; provided, however, that such multi-family housing shall be without age restrictions and shall be suitable for families with children. For the purposes of this section, a district of reasonable size shall: (i) have a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre, subject to any further limitations imposed by section 40 of chapter 131 and title 5 of the state environmental code established pursuant to section 13 of chapter 21A; and (ii) be located not more than 0.5 miles from a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal or bus station, if applicable.
(b) An MBTA community that fails to comply with this section shall not be eligible for funds from: (i) the Housing Choice Initiative as described by the governor in a message to the general court dated December 11, 2017; (ii) the Local Capital Projects Fund established in section 2EEEE of chapter 29; or (iii) the MassWorks infrastructure program established in section 63 of chapter 23A.
[ Subsection (c) effective until July 29, 2021. For text effective July 29, 2021, see below.]
(c) The department, in consultation with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, shall promulgate guidelines to determine if an MBTA community is in compliance with this section.
[ Subsection (c) as amended by 2021, 29, Sec. 10 effective July 29, 2021. For text effective until July 29, 2021, see above.]
(c) The department of housing and community development, in consultation with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, shall promulgate guidelines to determine if an MBTA community is in compliance with this section” (emphasis added).
Section 3A refers to “An MBTA community,” NOT “All MBTA communities.” It is clear from the language actually employed, therefore, that ONLY AN ‘MBTA community’ that has land 0.5 miles or closer to one of the relevant stations or terminals is subject to the ‘Multifamily’ districting dictates and that Sec. 3A is not “applicable” to municipalities that have no land within that specified proximity to a pertinent station or terminal.
The Department of Housing and Community Development ignored and subverted that clear language and the clear legislative intent in its so-called ‘Guidelines’ by attempting to extort ALL ‘MBTA communities’ into adopting ‘Multifamily’ zoning districts, even the cities and towns having NO land 0.5 miles or closer to any relevant station or terminal.
The Town of Sterling, where I reside, is a so-called ‘MBTA community’ having NO land 0.5 miles or closer to any station or terminal referred to in Section 3A. The Town of Sterling, therefore, and other cities and towns like it, ARE NOT subject to the bogus DHCD ‘Guidelines’ referred to above.
The ONLY statutory sanction permitted against any city or town upholding its territorial integrity by refusing to implement those bogus DHCD ‘Guidelines’ is the cut-off of funds referred to in Sec. 3A(b). Your threats to impose additional sanctions constitute empty bluster.
I applaud the four (4) Massachusetts municipalities resisting your gasbag threats.
Sincerely,
James F. Gettens, Esq.
cc:
Peter Luke, Town Manager, Holden, MA
Select Board, Town of Middleborough, MA
Town Planner, Sterling, MA
Greg Vasil, CEO, Greater Boston Real Estate Board
NOTE: All letter text is ‘justified’ to left margin for this medium. Apologies for the spacing irregularities in this medium.
As you can see, I sent a cc to Sterling’s very own superfluous ‘Town Planner’ who is looking for ways to justify his continued feeding from the Sterling taxpayer-funded public mammary gland.
Previously, in response to my public records request, the Sterling Town Administrator admitted that the Town of Sterling had NEVER received ANY state funding from the sources listed in Ch. 40A, Section 3A(b).
Immediately after I mailed out that letter AG Andrea Campbell shut her yap about this issue and went silent. Moreover, the Town of Holden and the Town of Middleborough, in essence, told Campbell to ‘shove’ the ultra vires DHCD ‘Guidelines.’
Notwithstanding all of that, the Sterling Planning Board, Chaired by Self-Serving Weasel Developer Carl Corrinne, has decided to re-visit this discredited matter during its 22 June 2023 meeting.
For years government school groomer perverts have engaged in LGBTQ brainwashing campaigns to indoctrinate kids across the United States. Government school groomer perverts here in the Commie Republic of Massachusetts were in the forefront. So it came as a total, heartwarming surprise when, yesterday, based, gutsy Burlington, Massachusetts, middle schoolers staged a counter-protest, chanting “USA are my pronouns” and tearing down ‘Pride’ propaganda decorations. Let’s have similar protests across the Wachusett Regional School District, the Commie Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the entire USA. Hats off to those gutsy Burlington middle schoolers who exercised their First Amendment Rights!!!
YEP, it is so-called ‘Pride Month’ and I’m REALLY PROUD of the Armenian immigrant REAL MEN who beat the crap out of GROOMER PERVERTS, ANTIFA, and OTHER ASSORTED LEFTY SOCIOPATHS AND PSYCHOPATHS outside the local school board meeting on 6 June 2023.
Message: don’t mess with the minds or bodies of our children.
Here are a couple feel-good videos of the confrontation:
Armenian men fight Antifa & other Leftists outside a school board meeting in Glendale CA
Families are angry about pride events in elementary schools
If there’s 1 thing I learned about living in the Valley, it’s that you don’t mess with the Armenians pic.twitter.com/TihRIrLMTX
Readers of this Blog know that I have long stressed the importance of creating additional Sterling downtown parking capacity as a REAL driver of economic development while Sterling’s so-called ‘Economic Development Committee’ wastes time, effort, and taxpayer money dicking around and scheming ways to lavish taxpayer money on Main Street’s private property owners–at least one of whom also owns commercial property elsewhere in Massachusetts–from the Brick Restaurant down to Appletown Market in order to prettify their building facades. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a prime example of stressing ‘form over substance’ and yet more evidence that the Town of Sterling is run by grifters, self-dealers, double-dealers, self-promoters, and morons unable to discern, comprehend or address real pressing needs and shortcomings.
In order to address Sterling’s downtown parking shortcomings a new group has formed called LAMBs–“LOCAL AREA & MAINSTREET BUSINESSES” (Sterling’s mascot is Mary Sawyer’s “little lamb,” get it?) and has created this Facebook page– Downtown Sterling MA Community Parking Solutions | Facebook Please join to be engaged and in the loop.
I am informed that none other than Richard Maki of Sterling’s so-called ‘Economic Development Committee’ attended and monitored that group’s recent meeting, remaining silent with, doubtless, his thumbs stuck up his ass throughout. I suspect that he was disappointed that this new group is actually addressing a key driver of public safety and economic development while his so-called ‘Economic Development Committee’ focuses on superficialities such as Main Street building facades and graffiti sprayed on Interstate 190 bridge abutments.
During the 11 April 2023 initial hearing on Sterling Planning Board Chair and Weasel’s Weasel Carl Corrinne’s proposed multi-family development on the parcel known as 100 Clinton Road, Sterling, Massachusetts, Corrinne’s Hack Buddies on the Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals a/k/a ‘The Developers’ Doormat,’ when asked point-blank by one in attendance if Corrinne was on any Town of Sterling Board or Committee, pretended not to know and never answered the question. The ZBA Hacks know well that Corrinne is Chair of the Sterling Planning Board and Chair of the 1835 Town Hall Committee and is in a total conflict of interest. The ZBA Hacks are playing footsie with Corrinne and attempted to deceive the public. As you can tell, they aren’t very bright but think that we are all stupid and uninformed. Following an abutter’s telephone call to me on 12 April 2023, reporting on that hearing, I typed and mailed out the two following letters that are self-explanatory (all text is ‘justified’ to the left margin for this medium in hopes that this thing works. Apologies for the spacing gaps here that I am unable to correct).
P.O. Box 1149
Sterling, MA 01564-1149
12 April 2023
Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals
Municipal Building
1 Park Street
Sterling, MA 01564
RE: Proposed Multi-Family Development at 100 Clinton Road, Sterling, Massachusetts
Dear Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals Members,
This day I received a telephone call from an abutter about the Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals hearing conducted 11 April 2023 on CD Corrinne Builders’ petition to construct a multi-family development on the property known as 100 Clinton Road, Sterling, Massachusetts. The caller reported that, in response to a direct question from one in attendance as to whether Carl Corrinne d/b/a CD Corrinne Builders was on any Town of Sterling Boards or Committees, you all refused to answer.
Of course, as you well know, Carl Corrinne is the two-faced little weasel who just happens to be Chair of the Sterling Planning Board and Chair of the 1835 Town Hall Committee with whom you are playing footsie at the expense of the Town of Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Laws and the property owners abutting 100 Clinton Road. Corrinne is in a total conflict of interest and you all know it. I am sure Corrinne was seated in the crowd during your 11 April 2023 hearing, while his hired mouthpiece spoke, but lacked the honesty and integrity to speak up and acknowledge his two Town Committee chairmanships.
You also told those in attendance that Town Counsel opined that the land within the power line easement constitutes “Open Space” required for the project even though under the Town of Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Laws it does not qualify as “Open Space” for multiple reasons. Since you possess zero credibility I have sent you a separate written request, in accordance with Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Sec. 10, with a copy to the Town Clerk, for any such written opinion rendered by Sterling Town Counsel.
The Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals has perverted and subverted the Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Laws, in favor of developers, for years. You all and Corrinne are cowards and are so crooked that when you die you won’t be buried—you’ll be screwed into the ground instead.
And since you are all so crooked I have advised abutters to this proposed development to retain competent legal counsel and prepare for litigation.
RE: Public Records Request in Accordance With Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Sec. 10
Dear Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals Members,
In accordance with Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Sec.10, request is hereby made for complete copies of the following public records:
I. Any and all written opinions sent or provided to the Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals by Sterling Town Counsel concerning or related to open space within the proposed multi-family development on the property known as 100 Clinton Road, Sterling, Massachusetts.
Please advise me of the cost for producing and mailing to me the requested document 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:
Clerk, Town of Sterling
MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT— THIS IS TOTAL CRONYISM AND THESE PERNICIOUS ACTORS ARE TOTAL ASSHOLES. And as you can tell, my fuse is lit.
The Hacks constituting the Sterling ZBA a/k/a ‘The Developers Doormat’ continued the hearing on this matter to 9 May 2023. Show up and make them look like the TOTAL ASSHOLES they truly are.
MEMO TO STERLING’S PREENING SO-CALLED ‘ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE’: Main Street storefront beautification/aesthetic improvement HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR STATED MISSION OF BRINGING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TO STERLING.
So where do you get off scheming to bestow taxpayer-funded LARGESSE on Main Street private property owners to improve the appearance of their storefronts when they can do it themselves at their own expense??? You are playing favorites with OUR money– 2023_03_23_edc_subcom_agenda.pdf (sterling-ma.gov)
Suggest you spend your time much more wisely by scheming to increase the number of downtown parking spaces whose increase will actually foster economic activity along Main Street.
To check out the private property owners on Main Street between ‘The Brick’ restaurant and Leominster Credit Union use the Sterling GIS mapping platform and zoom in on those properties– Sterling, MA (axisgis.com) Note that Hands Star, LLC owns 27 Main Street with the longest exposure of storefronts along that stretch of Main Street. Hands Star, LLC is managed by one Hung C. Tran.
SEEMA Corporations Search Entity Summary (state.ma.us) Gee, Hung C. Tran just happens to manage the Hands Family Trust, LLC with a business address in Raynham, Massachusetts, too. SEEMA Corporations Search Entity Summary (state.ma.us) The Tran family, obviously, are not poor, but that hasn’t deterred the witless Sterling Economic Development Committee from scheming to bestow upon the Tran family’s ‘Hands LLCs’ OUR hard-earned tax dollars. What dopes.
This unjust funding matter will, doubtless, be presented at a future Sterling Annual Town Meeting during which the voters-taxpayers should shoot it down in flames.
The Wachusett Regional School District annual budgets BALLOONED from $81.3 million for Fiscal Year 2015 to $105 million for Fiscal Year 2022– almost 25% in just seven (7) years–AND that DOES NOT include the $1.6 million that the WRSD OVERSPENT in Fiscal Year 2022.
The WRSD has failed to submit FY 2021 and FY 2022 audit reports and end-of-year financial reports required by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The WRSD District Treasurer resigned, mysteriously, within two (2) weeks after I mailed the WRSD my 14 February 2023 Public Records Request seeking WRSD payroll and other financial data. WHAT A COINCIDENCE!
WRSD total student enrollment has dropped 754 from a FY 2010 peak of 7493 to the FY 2023 number of 6739, YET between FY 2015 and FY 2022 the WRSD annual budgets increased 25%, a MASSIVE taxpayer rip-off. The WRSD claims a student-teacher ratio of 15:1, so that enrollment drop equates to 50.27 EMPTY CLASSROOMS.
The WRSD employs approximately 1000 individuals, or approximately 1 employee per 6.7 students– MASSIVE BLOAT.SEEWRSD Staff Directory (wrsdonline.net) Apparently the WRSD Administration considers the WRSD to be a taxpayer-funded job program for people unable to find employment in ‘the dreaded private sector.’
The WRSD has been hosing District taxpayers for years. AT THIS YEAR’S STERLING ANNUAL TOWN MEETING DRAW A LINE AND CALL A HALT TO THESE CONTINUING RIP-OFFS. VOTE DOWN THE WRSD FISCAL YEAR 2024 BUDGET REQUEST.
Any property developer who becomes Chair of the Sterling Planning Board is, by definition, a self-serving, self-dealing Weasel’s Weasel, and Carl Corrinne is IT. He’s a smoke-blowing walking Conflict of Interest. Sterling developers are accustomed to getting unwarranted Special Permits and Variances, undermining the letter and intent of the Town of Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Laws, from their pro-developer buddy hacks on the Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals a/k/a The Developers’ Doormat, so Corrinne decided that he may as well feed, figurately speaking, at that slop chute too.
Over the last two years or so Corrinne contributed to drafting and/or getting passed at Annual Town Meetings the atrocious new pro-developer Earth Removal/Mining general by-law, and pro-developer Zoning By-Law amendments shrinking the North Sterling Wekepeke Aquifer Wellhead Protection Zone; loosening restrictions on ‘accessory dwelling unit’ construction; and determining not to re-authorize limits on building permits issued annually, all of that despite Sterling’s chronic municipal well-water shortages/limitations. He’s beneath contempt.
So it should surprise no one that Corrinne filed recently a Petition for a Special Permit (to, in essence, subvert certain Sterling Zoning By-Laws restrictions), with the Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals a/k/a The Developers’ Doormat, in order to build a Multi-Family Development consisting of 19 duplexes (38 dwelling units) on the parcel known as 100 Clinton Road, Sterling. You can check out that parcel using Sterling GIS– https://www.axisgis.com/SterlingMA/ Use various “layers” to examine land features. Zoom in on that parcel to see the New England Power Company/National Grid transmission line easement.
Corrinne’s engineering site plan for that proposed development JUST HAPPENED to leave out ALL the high voltage line transmission towers, so I signed and mailed out the letter dated 4 March 2023 reproduced below (all text is justified to the left margin so this thing works–somewhat):
P.O. Box 1149, Sterling, MA 01564-1149
3 March 2023
Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals, Municipal Building, 1 Park Street, Sterling, MA 01564
RE: 100 Clinton Road, Sterling, Massachusetts– Corrinne’s Petition for a Special Permit to Build a Multi-Family Development
Dear Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals Members,
CD Corrinne Builders, Inc.’s Petition for a Special Permit to build a Multi-Family Development on the parcel known as 100 Clinton Road, Sterling, Massachusetts, is defective as a matter of fact and controlling law (the Town of Sterling Protective By-Laws) and must be rejected in its entirety.
CLAIMED “OPEN SPACE” — MISREPRESENTATION BY OMISSION
The engineering design plan submitted by Corrinne with his Petition for a Special Permit, prepared by Haley Ward Engineers, Leominster, Massachusetts, shows only “Overhead Wires” within the New England Power Company/National Grid easement that runs through almost the entire length of that 100 Clinton Road parcel. Corrinne is claiming that easement as “Open Space” to satisfy the “Open Space” requirements set forth in Town of Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Laws Section 301- 4.2.3.4. as follows:
“a. At least sixty percent (60%) of the parcel shall be maintained as open space, and at least forty percent (40%) of the parcel shall be contiguous open space, excluding required yards and buffer areas.
b. The required open space shall be used for conservation, recreation, agriculture, horticulture, forestry, or a combination of these uses, and shall be served by suitable access for such purpose.
c. Underground utilities to serve the development may be located within the required open space (emphasis added).”
The Haley Ward plan indicates that the New England Power Company/National Grid “Overhead Wires” within its easement traverse the length of Corrinne’s property by “Immaculate Suspension”— without supporting towers. We can assume that Haley Ward’s failure to show the location of any tower within that easement was deliberate and constitutes misrepresentation by omission because Corrinne had a motive to leave out the towers.
As a matter of fact, there are three (3) parallel sets of high voltage lines traversing that easement supported by three (3) parallel sets of towers, amounting to MULTIPLE TOWERS within that easement. Those towers take the ENTIRE power line easement outside the definition of “Open Space” set forth in the Town of Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Laws, in pertinent part, as follows:
“Open Space shall mean ground space other than that occupied by structures, walkways, drives, parking or other surfaces.”
The Town of Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Laws define structure in pertinent part as follows:
“Structure shall mean a combination of materials to form a construction including among others…platforms, stagings, observation towers…play tower…trestles…flagpoles, masts for radio antenna….”
It is clear then that the multitude of high voltage transmission towers within that New England Power Company/National Grid easement take the easement completely outside the definition of “Open Space” set forth in those Protective By-Laws. This fact is bolstered by sub-section 4.2.3.4.c., set forth above, that allows “underground utilities…within the required open space” but not above-ground utilities.
Moreover, Corrinne cannot satisfy the sub-section 4.2.3.4.b. requirement that that power line easement “be used for conservation, recreation, agriculture, horticulture, forestry, or a combination of these uses” because Corrinne does not have exclusive control over uses permitted on that power line easement. On the contrary, New England Power Company/National Grid has the legal right to prohibit uses of that property interfering with its easement and has the right to construct additional towers or other appropriate electrical transmission infrastructure on that easement now or in the future.
CONCLUSION
Other particulars concerning Corrinne’s Petition for a Special Permit to construct a Multi-Family Development on the parcel known as 100 Clinton Road, Sterling, Massachusetts, need not be addressed at this time because it is clear that Corrinne’s Petition is defective and must be rejected in its entirety since his proposed project does not include sufficient “Open Space.”
So do your duty by the letter and intent of the Town of Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Laws –for a change– and reject Corrinne’s Petition.
Sincerely,
James F. Gettens, Esq.
cc:
Clerk, Town of Sterling
Town Planner, Town of Sterling
Conservation Commission, Town of Sterling
Board of Registration of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, 1000 Washington Street, Suite 710, Boston, MA 02118
The Item, Newspaper
After doing that I mused about potential conflicts of interest involving Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals a/k/a The Developers’ Doormat’s Vice Chair, Joseph Curtin, who just happens to be the registered professional engineer employed by Sterling’s Pandolf-Perkins Quarry/Crushed Stone business– http://www.ehperkins.com/plant_locations.html
What odds are you layin’ that Corrinne has a contractor’s crushed stone purchasing account with Pandolf-Perkins, Sterling?
Oh well, another day, another fat conflict of interest target or two in Sterling, Massachusetts. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel…except that the fish keep proliferating.
Unbeknownst to almost everyone in Sterling, the Sterling Board of Health slid through, recently, a completely arbitrary and capricious septic system “Deep Observation Hole” evaluation regulation for real estate transfers involving subject properties that have not had a septic system “Deep Observation Hole” evaluation performed any time after April 1995. So, for all practical purposes, every home or business in Sterling constructed before April 1995, intended to be sold or otherwise transferred, is subject to this uncalled-for, asinine local regulation.
This specious new local regulation is in outright derogation of 310 CMR 15.101, 102 and 310 CMR 15.301, 302. In other words it is Ultra Vires, promulgated by the Sterling Board of Health without legal authority and contrary to applicable state regulations.
The Sterling Board of Health’s December 2022 Meeting Minutes have this entry: “Discuss revisions to Local Subsurface Disposal Regulation.” There are a few similar entries in the Board of Health’s Meeting Minutes going back through 2022 BUT NOT ONE REFERS TO ANY NEW “DEEP OBSERVATION HOLE” evaluation requirement OR MENTIONS WHO PROPOSED THAT NEW REGULATION. WHY? Because the BOH are slippery cowards.
SO, who stands to PROFIT from the new Sterling Board of Health’s “Deep Observation Hole” evaluation regulation? Well, none other than the Sterling Board of Health’s ‘full-time’ [wink, wink] Agent, David “Nowhere Man” Favreau himself!
He can be hired and paid by Sterling homeowners and businesses to dig those newly-required “Deep Observation Hole[s]” and have the Sterling Board of Health’s “alternate Inspector,” Robert Moore, certify the results, or bring in a neighboring Town’s Board of Health Agent or Inspector to do it.
Yet another Sterling Board of Health/“Nowhere Man” conflict of interest. How convenient! What a potential racket!
Sterling Board of Health Agent David “Nowhere Man” Favreau, Sterling’s king of municipal time sheet ‘overtime’ fraud, as reported previously on this Blog site, just happens to run F & G Construction Company, Inc. d/b/a David Favreau Construction and Septic Services when he’s supposed to be the Sterling Board of Health’s “full time” [wink, wink] Agent.
IT is FASCINATING to note, therefore, that the following comment about David “Nowhere Man” Favreau, who is in a total self-serving conflict of interest, appeared 16 February 2023 on the ‘Sterling Community Facebook Page’—
“In May of 2021 I had clients who were really excited to move to sterling. Very nice couple of kids in their early 20’s. The property needed a new septic. The approval of the plans for said septic system kept getting delayed by a certain person on SBOH who has a vested interest in NOT approving any outside of town septic plans. Fast forward to November of 2021. We are ready to close on the property and only need the inspector’s approval on the new septic. He shows up 3 hours late. Attempts to “stare down” and intimidate the septic engineer and almost got into a fist fight. The closing now is delayed indefinitely. A week after this inspection farce, my client who was supposed to be living in sterling months ago got into a vehicle accident and passed away going home from work. His commute was an hour away instead of the 20 minutes it would have been from sterling. The death of officer Curtis Byner will NEVER be forgotten and it will NEVER be forgiven (emphasis added).”
If Sterling Board of Health members possessed a scintilla of integrity they would have fired “Nowhere Man” long ago. They have none, obviously. SO, a few months ago one of the out-of-town licensed septic system inspectors/installers apparently disfavored by “Nowhere Man” as being a competitor took matters into his own hands and whupped Favreau’s crooked ass—
Curtis went a little overboard by using a metal pipe. Had I undertaken that salutary task I would have gotten the job done, more fairly and effectively, just using my hands.
If the Sterling Board of Health, utterly lacking in integrity, won’t fire “Nowhere Man” because he’s bent then they should at least shitcan him for his own protection.
The Wachusett Regional School District’s total student enrollment numbers have dropped radically since Fiscal Year 2016, a trend that should accelerate now that the WRSD Committee’s anti-merit, anti-white racist, low-IQ, morally bankrupt, faux-virtue-signaling Commies have adopted a so-called “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” Policy. That move should spur intelligent parents in Sterling, Princeton, Rutland, Paxton, and Holden to home-school their kids or send them to nearby non-“woke” Catholic, other Christian, or private schools.
Yeah, so check out my immediately-preceding Blog post dated 7 February 2023. WHAT A CO-INCIDENCE!!! DemocRAT State Rep. Meghan Kilcoyne, daughter of none other than self-serving, self-perpetuating Sterling Select Board member John “Bent Buffoon” Kilcoyne himself, purportedly filed the Bill to expand the Sterling Select Board from three (3) to five (5) members, in accordance with the wishes/votes of 2022 Sterling Annual Town Meeting voters, on —you guessed it— 8 February 2023.She could have filed it in June 2022, but in the One-Party Commie Republic of Massachusetts fulfilling the wishes of voters exercising their God-given rights and prerogatives is an alien concept.
Here is a copy of an email from her State House office to a Sterling constituent whose last name I shall retain in confidence—
On Wed, Feb 8, 2023 at 3:06 PM Duhamel, Joshua (HOU) <Joshua.Duhamel@mahouse.gov> wrote:
Dan,
Good afternoon my name is Dewey and I work with State Rep. Meghan Kilcoyne. We receive your email regarding the Sterling select board expansion. We filed the bill earlier today. The docket # is HD.4150. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Best,
Joshua “Dewey” Duhamel
Legislative Aide
Office of Representative Meghan Kilcoyne
State Representative, 12th Worcester District
C: 978-660-0920
O: 617-722-2460 x8963
It is now incumbent upon intrepid and dogged Sterling citizens to keep pushing for passage of this Bill in the House and Senate because Rep. Kilcoyne would, obviously, prefer to have it languish and die in some useless (but I repeat myself) House Committee. HAVE AT IT, GOOD PEOPLE OF STERLING!!!
WELL FOLKS, appearing in the 1 January 2026 The Landmark–https://www.thelandmark.com/ — is the Sterling First Church Lefty Governance Board’s 2026 Communist Manifesto, also posted on the Sterling First Church Facebook page. It is reproduced below. That Governance Board, spewing out unsubstantiated generalities, suffers from an obvious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).
A Position Statement of the First Church in Sterling (2025)
At this time of political, economic, and social upheaval in our country, we are witnessing the dehumanization, vilification, and scapegoating of our immigrant, disabled, poor, and LGBTQIA+ neighbors. Violence, and threats of violence, are being used to harass and intimidate the most vulnerable among us. Innocent people are being blamed for societal ills and for manufactured crises. Bigotry and racism are being disguised as security and justice. The wealth of the few is being prioritized over the good of the many.
As a congregation gathered in the Spirit of Jesus and committed to creating heaven on earth, who strive to live out the Gospel command to love God and neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39), First Church in Sterling cannot stay silent. We must stand up and cry out our moral opposition to every form of injustice in which human dignity is denied, truth is twisted to serve power, or communities are targeted by hatred, violence, fear, and lies. Such acts are an affront not only to our democratic ideals but, more heartbreakingly, to our Christian values. Values like truth, radical love, and justice are not optional. They are essential to our mission of creating heaven on earth.
First Church has been a pillar of the Sterling community since World War II and has long offered support and safety to the vulnerable while bringing hope in the darkest times. We know that the Scriptures are filled with calls to defend the orphan, the widow, and the stranger (Deut. 10:18–19; Isaiah 1:17); that all people are created in the image of God and endowed with inherent dignity (Genesis 1:27); that mercy, compassion, and justice are at the heart of God’s desire for the world (Micah 6:8); and that love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). We are committed to living into these values and opposing today’s climate of division and fear. However, we know that the antidote to division is not the elimination of difference or dissent. The answer to division is connection, consensus, care, and a commitment to inclusion and equity for everyone God loves – in all our amazing, beautiful diversity.
It is in this spirit, and with Love, that we resolve:
To continue speaking out, collectively and individually;
To commit our resources, energy, and presence to partnerships and programs that prioritize the care and dignity of immigrants, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, people of color, and all who are marginalized;
To strengthen our ongoing work of education by hosting and attending trainings, classes, talks, and public gatherings;
To collaborate with other congregations, faith communities, civic leaders, neighbors, and especially those most affected by injustice, so that we may join our strength to theirs;
To remain open to new and creative ways of expanding our engagement in pursuit of justice and peace;
To foster courageous conversations in our community that can lead to better understanding – meeting in the middle rather than retreating to ideological extremes;
To avoid partisanship, instead pursuing truth and opposing hatred, injustice, oppression, and violence in our communities, systems, and institutions regardless of the source;
To heed Christ’s call to love our neighbors, guarding against our human impulse to hate that which we fear or which angers us, remembering that every person is our neighbor and a beloved child of God.
To avoid imposing our Christian beliefs, but to embody our Christian values in solidarity with people of all faiths or no faith, who share in the work of building a more just and loving world.
May our witness be bold, timely, and faithful, and may all who hear our call – neighbors, partners, and friends – choose to join us in this holy work.
The Governance Board of the First Church in Sterling
Sarah Goodwin, Chair; Shawn O’Reilly, Pat Keay, Gereda Burger, Doug Davis and Rev. Robin Bartlett
Let’s decipher and address these bald, unsubstantiated assertions.
A. ILLEGAL ENTRY INTO THE UNITED STATES IS A FEDERAL CRIME. ALL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE SUBJECT TO DEPORTATION/PROSECUTION
The First Church crowd are fond of spouting, and lawn signs pronouncing, tautologies and platitudes such as ‘No Human Is Illegal’ that are deliberately off-point, but the fact is that there are 20-30 million illegal immigrants/criminal aliens in the United States squeezing legitimate U.S. citizens when it comes to housing opportunities, health care availability, and educational opportunities, and many of the illegal aliens are outright criminal thugs preying on U.S. citizens.
Under the Trump Administration they are now being rounded up and deported or prosecuted, RIGHTLY. So cry me a river, First Church Governance Board. I say get rid of them all.
B. THE DISABLED AND POOR ARE BEING DEHUMANIZED, VILIFIED, AND SCAPEGOATED??? BULLSHIT!
The First Church Governance Board did not cite a single example of the disabled or poor being dehumanized, vilified, or scapegoated. They, therefore, have ZERO credibility. Perhaps, however, they are alluding to the 31 December 2025 termination of [N]Obamacare subsidies. WELL, in October 2025 even Leftwing The Washington Post editorial board, about 15 years late, admitted that “Obamacare Was Never Affordable.” The Washington Post is paywalled, but you can read about it here:
The real aim of [N]Obamacare was to expand the dependent class–those dependent on taxpayer-funded benefits–or, in other words, the DemocRAT Party voter plantation. Well, that gravy train is winding down, and none too soon.
C. ‘LGBTQIA NEIGHBORS’ ARE BEING DEHUMANIZED, VILIFIED, AND SCAPEGOATED??? QUITE THE CONRARY— LGBTQIA WACKJOBS HAVE BEEN MURDERING REAL CHRISTIANS
The First Church Governance Board did not cite a single example of ‘LGBTQIA neighbors’ being dehumanized, vilified, or scapegoated, UNLESS they are referring to the murderous LGBTQIA wackjobs who have been condemned by all moral, ethical, rational beings. I didn’t see or hear a peep out of the outright hypocritical First Church Governance Board when REAL CHRISTIANS were murdered by LGBTQIA wackjobs. Perhaps the following will refresh their memories:
D. ‘PEOPLE OF COLOR’ ARE BEING MARGINALIZED??? WELL, MAYBE THE SOMALI FRAUDSTERS.
The First Church Governance Board did not cite a single example of ‘people of color’ being marginalized, but perhaps they are referring the Somalis being revealed as endemic, pervasive fraudsters:
So Sterling First Church Governance Board, spare us your selective, hypocritical, sniveling, faux empathy and faux moral outrage. For all practical purposes you’ve demonstrated that Sterling First Church is not really a church—it is merely another DemocRAT Party organ.
On 18 December 2025 the absolutely clueless, delusional Sterling Finance Committee met and discussed the 15 December 2025 Sterling D.P.W. Facilities Committee’s so-called ‘Charette’ ( https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/charette )—the 2 hour and 15 minute discussion during which commission-hungry Weston & Sampson Engineering parasites presented various plans for a somewhat less expensive Sterling D.P.W. ‘Garage Mahal’ after their absolutely outrageous $33 Million, 37,000 square foot ‘Garage Mahal’ proposal was shellacked by Sterling Special Town Meeting voters on 13 November 2025, 373 to 183. You can watch and listen to that Finance Committee clownfest here between 1:09:41 and about 1:21:00—
Representatives of Vertex, the commission-hungry parasites selected to be project managers for the Sterling D.P.W. ‘Garage Mahal,’ were also present at the “Charette.”
Mark Gauthier, Finance Committee cipher-liaison to the Sterling D.P.W./D.P.W. Facilities Committee, was also present.
That ‘Charette’ was not filmed or recorded and no ‘minutes’ of it were made or kept so there is nothing of it for Sterling taxpayers to review. Yeah, another Sterling Town Government exercise in hiding the ball.
It is interesting to note that a Vertex parasite, Steve Therrien (sp?), present at the ‘Charette,’ appears to have been the only rational and realistic being present. After witnessing the 13 November 2025 Special Town Meeting ‘Garage Mahal’ shellacking he opined that the new Sterling D.P.W. facility must be MUCH SMALLER. He’s ABSOLUTELY correct.
Other than Therrien, apparently everyone else present at the ‘Charette’ was delusional, thinking that Sterling voters/taxpayers may vote for a $25 Million ‘Garage Mahal Lite.’ THEY’RE ABSOLUTELY WRONG.
The Finance Committee’s Gauthier reported that the Weston & Sampson commission-hungry parasites were focused on reducing ‘office space’ costs because the office spaces had the highest per-square-foot costs. WELL, THAT’S A START, ASSHOLES, BUT THE STERLING D.P.W. DOESN’T NEED 20,000 SQUARE FEET –JUST UNDER HALF AN ACRE– OF ‘TUBE RADIANT HEATED’ GARAGE SPACE TO KEEP ITS PAMPERED VEHICLES OUT OF THE WEATHER. THOSE VEHICLES ARE MADE TO BE PARKED OUTDOORS, JUST LIKE ALL THE OIL COMPANY DELIVERY TRUCKS AND CONSTRUCTION COMPANY TRUCKS THROUGHOUT THIS ENTIRE REGION.
Gauthier also let slip that at the ‘Charette’ he mentioned that an unnamed Finance Committee member thought that Sterling taxpayers/voters would swallow a $16 Million ‘Garage Mahal Lite’. I’D LIKE TO KNOW THE IDENTITY OF THAT MISGUIDED FINANCE COMMITTEE ASSHOLEATTEMPTING TO SUBVERT THE INTERESTS OF STERLING’S TAXPAYERS.
NO, STERLING TAXPAYERS WILL NOT VOTE FOR A $16 MILLION ‘GARAGE MAHAL LITE’ EITHER BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT THE TOWN OF BERLIN GOT A NEW 13,000 TO 14,000 SQUARE FOOT D.P.W. FACILITY FOR $4.1 MILLION IN 2018. APPARENTLY THE TOWN OF BERLIN ACCOMPLISHED THAT FEAT WITHOUT WESTON & SAMPSON OR VERTEX COMMISSION-HUNGRY PARASITES BEING IN THE PICTURE.QUELLE SURPRISE!
When you watch the 18 December 2025 Sterling Finance Committee meeting you can see that Gauthier is a go-along blob exhibiting all the signs of what’s called “Regulatory Capture.” “Regulatory Capture” happens when a government regulatory body is captured by an entity that it is supposed to regulate.
The following is from the Sterling Finance Committee’s webpage:
Sterling Finance Committee Guiding Principles
Minimize year over year tax levy changes.
Treat all departments, committees and individuals consistently and respectfully.
As a guideline, maintain the Capital Fund at a level equal to the total annual capital asset depreciation or greater.
As a guideline, items considered for the Capital Fund should have a useful life of greater than 5 years and a cost of $25K or more.
As a guideline, items considered for bonding should have a useful life greater than 10 years and a cost of $100K or more.
Maintain a 3-year planning horizon.
Focus on the fiscal aspects of all Town issues and remain neutral to the “politics” of issues.
Maintain a strong fiscal discipline and continue to emphasize the importance of healthy reserves.
Make decisions that will serve to maintain and increase the taxpayers’ and voters’ trust and respect, paving the way for confidence in future Finance Committee decisions.
(Vision and Mission Statement Adopted December 1, 2022)
When it comes to the proposed new D.P.W. Facility it is clear that Gauthier, and the entire Finance Committee for that matter, has/have disregarded Finance Committee ‘Guiding Principles’ numbered 7 through 9, especially 9. He and they obviously don’t give a rat’s ass about the taxpayer outrage exhibited at the 13 November 2025 Special Town Meeting.
Since the EXORBITANT UTTER ASSHOLES constituting Sterling Town Government don’t have the mental acuity to spell out what the Sterling D.P.W. NEEDS in a new facility, I will:
a. Two (2) repair bays with truck lifts;
b. A truck wash bay;
c. Waiting room for visitors/taxpayers;
d. Kitchenette for D.P.W. employees;
e. Break room for D.P.W. employees;
f. Conference room;
g. Office space;
h. Bathrooms;
i. Oil-fired furnace with ducts to heat all spaces.
NOTE TO THE STERLING D.P.W.: YOU CAN PARK YOUR F#CKING VEHICLES OUTDOORS UNDER OPEN-SIDED ROOFED CARPORTS/TRUCKPORTS JUST LIKE THE ASHBURNHAM AND WEST BOYLSTON POLICE DEPARTMENTS DO.
We Sterling voters/taxpayers will be happy with a new D.P.W. building like the one the Town of Berlin got for $4.1 Million in 2018.
And yes, we’ll take Pezzuco Construction–https://pezzcon.com/ –in place of those commission-hungry parasites Weston & Sampson and Vertex every day of the week.
It should be noted that during the 18 December 2025 Sterling Finance Committee Meeting, Chair Joe King said that the D.P.W. Facility proposal was one “pebble on the beach” competing with other “pebbles on the beach” for funding. WELL, NOT EXACTLY, JOE: THE D.P.W. Facility is a HUGE F#CKING BOULDER ON THE BEACH TO STERLING PROPERTY TAXPAYERS, SO GET THAT POINT THROUGH YOUR SKULL.
There will be another D.P.W. Facilities Committee meeting on 12 January 2026.
If The Wizard of Oz were re-written today then Sterling’s Finance Committee and Capital Budget Committee members would be the new characters singing “If I Only Had A Spine.”
It is readily apparent that the Sterling Town Government payroll is seriously bloated, with consequent skyrocketing health insurance costs, and that layoffs, hiring freezes, and salary freezes should be implemented to avoid reaching Sterling’s across-the-board Proposition 2 ½ ‘Debt Ceiling.’ But the Finance Committee and the Capital Budget Committee don’t have the cojones to call for such measures. INSTEAD, their solution is to avoid what is now a NECESSARY, GENERAL 2026 Annual Town Meeting Proposition 2 ½ Override Vote–that would be defeated, thereby forcing much-needed Town Government layoffs, hiring freezes, and salary freezes–and instead SCREW Sterling property taxpayers, INCREMENTALLY, by recommending “Mini Debt Exclusions” for capital purchases/projects. “DEBT EXCLUSIONS” ARE PROPOSITION 2 ½ OVERRIDES FOR PARTICULAR PROJECTS. THEY PILE UP.
As it stands now, these Finance Committee and Capital Budget Committee utter wimps are endorsing “Mini Debt Exclusions” for a new D.P.W. dump truck and two (2) new Police Department cruisers for the 2026 Annual Town Meeting, BECAUSE THE TOWN’S CAPITAL INVESTMENT FUND IS TAPPED OUT. WAY TO GO FINANCE COMMITTEE AND CAPITAL BUDGET COMMITTEE!!! THAT’S REALLY SOUND FISCAL PLANNING!!!YOU ALL KICKED THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD UNTIL THE ROAD RAN OUT.
You can watch and listen to these invertebrate clowns when Sterling-Lancaster Community TV posts their 18 December 2025 Joint Meeting on its website.
SO, why do these coopted Finance Committee and Capital Budget Committee exorbitant spending enablers believe that “Mini Debt Exclusions” are the way to go???
BECAUSE, in their gullible stupidity, Sterling 2025 Annual Town Meeting Voters APPROVED the $800,000 BOGUS D.P.W. Swett Hill Road Drainage Project debt exclusion, and the D.P.W. BOGUS ‘Garage Mahal’ ‘planning’ $500,000 debt exclusion. BY THE WAY, THE D.P.W. CLOWNS TOTALLY SCREWED THE POOCH AND STERLING TAXPAYERS WITH THEIR BOGUS SWETT HILL ROAD DRAINAGE PROJECT. THEY GOT NO BIDS BEFORE GETTING THE $800,000 AND THE PROJECT IS STILL HUNG UP IN CONSERVATION COMMISSION REVIEW. The D.P.W. CLOWNS ALSO TOTALLY SCREWED THE POOCH AND STERLING TAXPAYERS WITH THEIR $500,000 BOGUS ‘GARAGE MAHAL’ ‘PLANNING’ DEBT EXCLUSION SINCE STERLING VOTERS, 373 TO 183, SHOT DOWN THE PROPOSED $33 MILLION ‘GARAGE MAHAL’ AT THE 13 NOVEMBER 2025 SPECIAL TOWN MEETING. Ya, Ya, Sterling D.P.W. competence and fiscal responsibility on parade!
SEE 2025 Annual Town Meeting Warrant Articles 25 and 26—
My next Blog post will be about Mark Gauthier, the bloviating blob Finance Committee taxpayer-sellout-invertebrate-liaison to the D.P.W./D.P.W. Facilities Committee who is a prime exemplar of ‘Stockholm Syndrome.’
WELL FOLKS, from 4 December 2025 until tonight, 15 December 2025, I’ve been frozen out of the WordPress login and unable to get access to this Blogsite. Turns out the culprit was VPN software on my computer that somehow froze the WordPress login function even when the VPN was disconnected. The VPN was just updated to a new ‘version’ and, VOILA!, I’m back in.
So here is a quick and dirty overview of the 8 December 2025 Sterling Zoning Forum, held at the 1835 Town Hall, that I sent out to a few folks on 9 December via email:
Stephen Wallace had to write down a lot of points made by attendees at last night’s Sterling Zoning Forum. I’m thankful that quite a few mature, sharp, long-term Sterling residents showed up to make their valid points and concerns known.
1. People absolutely DO NOT WANT THE PLANNING BOARD TO CONTROL MULTI-FAMILY AND SENIOR HOUSING DEVELOPMENT DECISIONS. THE PLANNING BOARD, RIGHTLY, IS VIEWED WITH DISTRUST AS A COLLECTION OF PRO-DEVELOPMENT HACKS. THE PEOPLE WANT SUCH DEVELOPMENTS TO BE SUBJECT TO SPECIAL PERMIT OVERSIGHT AND RULINGS BY THE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS (ZBA).
2. SO, Wallace/Planning Board backed off and it was pretty much agreed that Multi-Family Developments will remain separate and distinct and subject to Special Permit rulings by the ZBA as always.
3. ALSO, the people want Senior Housing developments to be subject to their own dedicated, NEW Zoning By-Law provisions, to be built in their own dedicated developments. Given practical difficulties with ‘Over-Age-55’ developments experienced by Littleton and other towns, Wallace/Planning Board will draft new proposed Zoning By-Laws governing dedicated Senior Housing with required smaller housing units. Town Counsel said that the number of bedrooms cannot be limited legally BUT THAT IT IS LEGAL TO LIMIT THE SIZE OF EACH SUCH HOUSING UNIT IN TERMS OF SQUARE FOOTAGE.
4. As indicated, Wallace/Planning Board also backed off on Senior Housing so it looks like such developments will be separate and distinct and SUBJECT TO ZBA SPECIAL PERMIT RULINGS.
5. Wallace essentially acknowledged that he blew the drafting of the ‘Compact Development Overlay District’ for 181 acres near the Sterling Airport. He/Planning Board will draft new proposed Zoning By-Laws for that area limiting the sizes (square footage) of the so-called ‘affordable’ homes/housing units that can be built there.
6. The arrogance of the Select Board, Planning Board, and Wallace were on display. They insist on sticking with their new proposed “Inclusionary Zoning” By-Law even though it is probably unconstitutional under the 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Sheetz vs. County of Eldorado. A developer, just last week, filed a lawsuit challenging the Cambridge, MA, “Inclusionary Zoning” ordinance citing the Sheetz decision. SEE https://pioneerlegal.org/pioneer-new-england-legal-foundation-files-lawsuit-challenging-cambridge-inclusionary-zoning-ordinance/ So these clowns are putting Sterling at risk of a lawsuit.
SO, the Sterling Town Government virtue-signaling DEI Commies—I’M LOOKING AT YOU, KIRSTEN NEWMAN— in conjunction with their hired out-of-town blow-in payroll patriot tool ‘Town Planner’—I’M LOOKING AT YOU, STEPHEN WALLACE—have drafted an absolutely GAG-INDUCING “Inclusionary Zoning” By-Law that, henceforth, would force developers in Sterling to incorporate into their developments housing units–15%– for low-income folks. It’s a puke-worthy cookie-cutter product taken from other municipalities in this dysfunctional Commie Commonwealth–in the best Lemming Libtard virtue-signaling tradition. Here it is (try not to toss your cookies while reading it)—
EXCEPT THAT THERE IS ONE REALLY BIG PROBLEM WITH IT—MOST LIKELY IT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL, AS A VIOLATION OF PROTECTED PROPERTY RIGHTS, IN VIEW OF THE 2024 U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISION IN SHEETZ vs. COUNTY OF ELDORADO—
Here is an article explaining the Scheetz decision implications for Massachusetts so-called “Inclusionary Zoning” provisions (that don’t work except in Libtard fantasyland anyway)—
AND WOULDN’T YA’ KNOW, A DEVELOPER JUST CHALLENGED COMMIE CAMBRIDGE’S “INCLUSIONARY ZONING” ORDINANCE IN MASSACHUSETTS LAND COURT, CITING THE SCHEETZ DECISION—
YEP, LEAVE IT TO THE STERLING MUNICIPAL BUILDING’S BLOVIATING, POSTURING, VIRTUE-SIGNALING INCOMPETENTS TO PUT FORTH THIS LEGALLY SUSPECT PIECE OF SH*T.
See you at the 8 December 2025 Sterling ‘Zoning Changes Forum.’
Sterling’s out-of-town blow-in payroll patriot ‘Town Planner,’ together with the Sterling Planning Board Chaired by self-serving, self-dealing developer weasel Carl Corrinne, among other proposed zoning changes to be discussed during the Sterling 8 December 2025 ‘Zoning Forum,’ propose a “Compact Development Overlay District” comprised of two parcels, totaling 181 acres, near the Sterling Airport. Both are owned by “Fields at Greenmeadow, LLC” of Westford, Massachusetts. The purported rationale for that proposed “Compact Development Overlay District” is the supposed need of cheaper housing for “young families just starting out and for senior citizens looking to downsize and stay in town.” Under that proposal minimum lot sizes would be reduced to 30,000 square feet; minimum street frontage for a buildable lot would be reduced to 60 feet; and front, rear, and side yard setbacks would be reduced to 20 feet. Those parcels are now zoned “Rural Residential and Farming.” HOWEVER, “[a]ll of the uses permitted in the underlying zoning district (Rural-Residence) would still be allowed in [this] overlay district with the addition of multi-family development as a By-Right use” (emphasis original and added).
NOTE THAT THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO AFFORDABILITY REQUIREMENT SUCH AS LIMITING THE UNITS TO ONE OR TWO BEDROOMS OR LIMITING THE SQUARE-FOOT-SIZE OF ANY HOMES THAT COULD BE BUILT IN THAT “OVERLAY DISTRICT.”
THAT MEANS THAT DEVELOPERS COULD HAVE A FIELD DAY CRAMMING IN 100% ‘McMANSIONS’ ON 30,000 SQUARE FOOT LOTS WITH 60 FEET OF STREET FRONTAGE INSTEAD OF ON 2 ACRE LOTS WITH 225 FEET OF STREET FRONTAGE NOW REQUIRED IN ‘RURAL RESIDENTIAL AND FARMING’-ZONED AREAS OF TOWN.
Have you been wondering about the actors intent on overrunning Sterling with new housing developments?
Well, look no further than the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission. The Montachusett Regional Planning Commission, headquartered in Leominster, is CHOCK FULL OF ASSLICKS WHO SUPPORTED SO-CALLED ‘MBTA MULTI-FAMILY HIGH DENSITY ZONING DISTRICTS’ EVEN IN PLACES SUCH AS STERLING WAAAAY OUTSIDE THE ½ MILE LIMIT FROM MBTA FACILITIES SET FORTH IN MASS.GEN.LAWS CH. 40A, SECTION 3A, AND FURTHER AFFIRMED ON PAGES 5, 11, AND 12 IN THE MASSACHUSETTS SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT’S 8 JANUARY 2025 RULING IN ATTORNEY GENERAL vs. TOWN OF MILTON, FOR SUCH ‘MBTA ZONING DISTRICTS.’
AND WHO, YOU MAY ASK, ARE THE TWO PRO-‘MBTA ZONING DISTRICTS’ ASSLICKS REPRESENTING STERLING ON THE MONTACHUSETT REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION???
ANSWER: NONE OTHER THAN STERLING SELECT BOARD CHAIR KIRSTEN NEWMAN AND HER HUSBAND, ERIC NEWMAN, WHO SITS ON THE STERLING PLANNING BOARD CHAIRED BY SELF-SERVING, SELF-DEALING DEVELOPER WEASEL CARL CORRINNE.
SO, IT SHOULD COME AS ABSOLUTELY NO SURPRISE WHATSOEVER THAT OUT-OF-TOWN BLOW-IN STEPHEN WALLACE, APPOINTED BY THE STERLING SELECT BOARD AS PURPORTED ‘STERLING TOWN PLANNER,’ IS UP THE COLLECTIVE ASSES OF THE MONTACHUSETT REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION ASSLICKS IN THEIR MULTI-PAGE PLAN TO OVERRUN OUR TOWN OF STERLING WITH ADDITIONAL HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS.
IT IS NOW ABUNDANTLY CLEAR THAT THE STERLING SELECT BOARD, THE STERLING PLANNING BOARD, AND BLOVIATING NITWIT ‘PAYROLL PATRIOT’ STEPHEN WALLACE ARE INTENT ON WRECKING STERLING’S SEMI-RURAL CHARACTER, THE VERY CHARACTER THAT ATTRACTED MOST OF US TO THIS TOWN.
ARE THEY STUPID, ARROGANT, DESTRUCTIVE, ROBOTIC ASSLICKS?
ANSWER: HELL YES!
In coming days I’ll be commenting on at least some of the various destructive proposed zoning changes to be discussed at the Town of Sterling 8 December 2025 ‘Zoning Forum’—
Paul Brodmerkle is the co-owner of land off Metropolitan Road, Sterling, very near Wachusett Reservoir, the drinking water supply for 3 million people in eastern Massachusetts, upon which he proposes to build a fire hazard Solar Farm and Lithium-Ion Battery Backup Bank. He is also the manager of South Meadow Solar LCC, the proponent. He is also the Massachusetts Registered Professional Engineer who just happened to sign and seal the plans for that fire hazard that were filed with the Town of Sterling. As such, he is in a total self-serving, self-dealing conflict of interest in violation of 250 CMR 5.02(4).
250 CMR 5.00 et seq. sets forth standards for registered engineers and land surveyors in Massachusetts. Here are key provisions:
5.02: Professional Conduct. Each Professional Engineer and Professional Land Surveyor has an ethical duty to the public, the profession, and his or her clients. In order to protect the health, property, and welfare of the public and to establish and maintain a high standard of integrity and practice in the professions of engineering and land surveying, the following Rules of Professional Conduct and all other applicable provisions of 250 CMR shall be binding on every Professional Engineer and Professional Land Surveyor. Failure to comply with 250 CMR, including the rules of professional responsibility in 250 CMR 5.02(1) through (5), or M.G.L. c. 112, §§ 61 to 65E and §§ 81D to 81T may constitute grounds for disciplinary action against the Registrant.
(1) Responsibility. A Registrant shall hold paramount the health, property and welfare of the public in the performance of the Registrant’s professional duties.
(a) If the professional judgment of any Registrant is overruled under circumstances where the health, property or welfare of the public may be endangered, that Registrant shall notify the Registrant’s employer, client or such other authority as may be appropriate.
(b) A Registrant shall provide professional services that are truthful, based upon independent professional judgment, founded upon adequate knowledge of the issues, and based upon competence in the subject matter.
(c) A Registrant shall approve, sign or seal only those Instruments of Service that conform to 250 CMR and generally accepted engineering and land surveying standards.
(d) A Registrant shall not reveal facts, data or information obtained in a professional capacity, without the prior consent of the Registrant’s employer except as authorized or required by law or regulation.
(e) A Registrant shall not permit the use of the Registrant’s name or firm name nor associate in business ventures with any person or firm which the Registrant may have reason to believe is engaging in fraudulent or dishonest business or professional practices.
(f) A Registrant shall provide the Board with any information and assistance the Board may deem necessary for the investigation/prosecution of complaints filed with the Board… (emphasis added).
(4) Conflicts of Interest. A Registrant shall act professionally for each employer or client as a faithful agent and shall avoid conflicts of interest, or the appearance of conflicts of interests.
(a) A Registrant shall make full prior disclosures to the Registrant’s employers or clients of potential conflicts of interest or other circumstances which could influence or appear to influence the Registrant’s judgment or the quality of their services. The Registrant bears responsibility for maintaining documentation of compliance with this requirement.
(b) A Registrant shall not accept compensation, financial or otherwise, from more than one party for concurrent services on the same project unless the circumstances are fully disclosed in writing to all interested parties.
(c) A Registrant shall not solicit or accept compensation, financial or otherwise, directly or indirectly, from contractors, vendors or other parties in connection with work for employers or clients for which the Registrant is responsible (emphasis added).
If this project were built and the lithium-ion battery storage banks burned, toxic heavy metals particles would pollute the Wachusett Reservoir.
SO, PAUL BRODMERKLE IS A WALKING CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST SCUMBAG POTENTIALLY ENDANGERING THE DRINKING WATER SUPPLY FOR 3 MILLION EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS.
WHO MISSED SPOTTING BRODMERKLE’S SEAL AND SIGNATURE ON THE PLANS HE FILED WITH THE TOWN OF STERLING???
a). Our vaunted out-of-town blow-in Town Planner;
b). The ENTIRE Planning Board;
c). Our vaunted out-of-town blow-in Town Administrator;
d). The ENTIRE Select Board; and
e). The ENTIRE Finance Committee.
ADDING INSULT TO INJURY, AT THE 13 NOVEMBER 2025 STERLING SPECIAL TOWN MEETING ARTICLE 4, PERMITTING THE STERLING SELECT BOARD MORONS TO GRANT THIS HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROJECT A PROPERTY TAX DODGE, PASSED.
SIX (6) MORONS ON THE FINANCE COMMITTEE ENDORSED THAT PROPERT TAX DODGE FOR THIS PROPOSED HAZARDOUS MATERIALS SITE.
YA,YA,YOUR ‘TOWN GOVERNMENT,’ SUCH AS IT IS, AT WORK AGAIN!!!
I have reported Mr. Brodmerkle to the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors and filed with it a formal Application for Complaint against Brodmerkle.
CONGRATULATIONS INTELLIGENT AND SANE STERLING TAXPAYERS, YOU SAVED YOURSELVES A BUNDLE OVER 30 YEARS BY VOTING DOWN THE STERLING D.P.W. GARAGE MAHAL BOONDOGGLE, AN ABOMINATION AND OUTRIGHT INSULT AT $33 MILLION FOR 37,000 SQUARE FEET, OR $892 PER SQUARE FOOT.
This shameful episode demonstrated for all that the Sterling D.P.W. Superintendent, the D.P.W. Board, the Finance Committee, and the Select Board won’t hesitate to screw Sterling property taxpayers to the max unless stopped by US, the taxpayers. They are lazy, stupid, posing, posturing, dishonest, self-promoting, self-important, propagandizing, unrestrained tax-and-spend incompetents.
FISCAL RESTRAINT IS UP TO US AND THAT MEANS CONTINUING VERY LARGE TAXPAYER TURNOUTS AT ALL FUTURE TOWN MEETINGS.
LET’S KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING AND VOTE DOWN BOGUS ‘MBTA ZONING’ AT TONIGHT’S (13 NOVEMBER 2025) STERLING SPECIAL TOWN MEETING AND THEREBY JOIN OUR NEIGHBORS IN THE TOWN OF HOLDEN WHO VOTED DOWN BOGUS ‘MBTA ZONING’ ON 20 MAY 2025.
STERLING, MASSACHUSETTS, OVERWATCH 