NEXT YEAR’S STERLING PROPOSITION 2 ½ PROPERTY TAX OVERRIDE WATCH—THE STERLING SELECT BOARD IS ON TRACK TO BE AS STUPID AS THE PAXTON SELECT BOARD WAS THIS YEAR

Not many years ago, when the then-sitting Select Boards of Paxton and Rutland, collectively, had some cojones a couple of brain cells to rub together, and those two Wachusett School District towns ran into Proposition 2 ½ Property Tax Override Territory, those Select Boards would see to it, in their Annual Town Meeting Warrants, that the WRSD appropriations requests above the State-required net minimum contributions, NOT their municipal budgets, were contingent upon passage of such an override.

Look for budget cuts, departments told (telegram.com)

Proposed budget would restore cuts in Paxton (telegram.com)

Paxton voters to decide budget, school override. – Free Online Library (thefreelibrary.com)

Paxton voters defeat override for Wachusett school budget (telegram.com)

Override request fails at polls in Rutland (telegram.com)

THE WRSD ALWAYS LOST those Proposition 2 ½ override votes, AND WHEN BOTH PAXTON AND RUTLAND VOTERS SHOT DOWN WRSD OVERRIDES IN THE SAME YEAR THE WRSD WAS FORCED TO COME BACK WITH AN OVERALL SMALLER BUDGET PROPOSAL, THEREBY SAVING ALL WACHUSETT SCHOOL DISTRICT PROPERTY TAXPAYERS SOME MONEY.

SEE General Law – Part I, Title XII, Chapter 71, Section 16B (malegislature.gov)

Well, like Sterling’s current Select Board, more recent Paxton and Rutland Select Boards lack, collectively, cojones and two brain cells to rub together and, therefore, have made THEIR TOWNS’ MUNICIPAL BUDGETS, NOT WRSD ASSESSMENTS, SUBJECT TO PROPOSITION 2 ½ OVERRIDES.

Example– Ron San Angelo Town Administrator… – Town of Rutland, MA | Facebook

WHEN SUCH OVERRIDES FAIL MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENTS/SERVICES ARE CUT. THAT’S JUST FRIGGIN’ BRILLIANT! THIS YEAR PAXTON’S PROPOSITION 2 ½ OVERRIDE WAS REJECTED BY THAT TOWN’S VOTERS, FORCING CUTS IN THE PAXTON FY 2025 MUNICIPAL BUDGET—

override_-_an_informational_guide.pdf (townofpaxton.net)

official_results_special_town_election_06.24.2024_0.pdf (townofpaxton.net)

During the 2025 Wachusett District Annual Town Meeting Cycle it now appears that the Towns of Paxton, Princeton, Rutland, and Sterling will be pushed toward Proposition 2 ½ Override votes due to gross, out-of-control, WRSD spending. If the Select Boards in those towns have any cojones and brains—AND THAT’S A BIG IF—they’ll see to it that, in their respective 2025 Annual Town Meeting Warrants, the WRSD requested assessments above their respective State-required net minimum contributions, NOT THEIR MUNICIPAL BUDGETS, are contingent upon passage of Proposition 2 ½ override votes. There is NO WAY that the WRSD will prevail if that is done and, so, the WRSD will be forced to come back to the District Towns with a smaller FY 2026 budget, thereby saving all District property taxpayers some money and teaching the WRSD Superintendent and WRSD Committee a much needed, waaaay overdue lesson.

Watch Sterling’s and the other District’s Select Board cretins confront this easy choice over the next 10 months.

J.G.

HOW CAN WE SAY GOODBYE TO JOHN KILCOYNE WHEN HE WON’T GO AWAY?

John Kilcoyne served two 3-year terms on the Sterling Select Board and, as a perennial boot-lick, voted to keep on as Chair of the Select Board one Maureen “Our Lady of Perpetual Bullshit” Cranson. You see, the egomaniacal, power-hungry, media hound, “Our Lady of Perpetual Bullshit,” intent on violating the Sterling Select Board’s unwritten rule and historical practice of rotating the Chairmanship each year, needed one vote each year, in addition to her own, to retain the Chair. John Kilcoyne, her useful tool, provided that vote.

Last year John Kilcoyne decided not to seek re-election to the Select Board. Being a boot-lick to an incompetent, dishonest, smoke-blowing, dissembling, poseur HACK like Cranson must be a strain. But Kilcoyne, like a bad penny, keeps turning up. The Select Board, during its 26 June 2024 meeting–

https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/agendas/2024_06_26_agenda.pdf  —

appointed Kilcoyne to the Wachusett Regional School District Audit Committee. Kilcoyne won’t have to do any work while on that Audit Committee. I doubt that he’ll even read the WRSD’s outside-audit report required by law to be filed nine (9) months after 30 June 2024, the close of that Fiscal Year. In fact, the three OUTRIGHT HACKS constituting the Sterling Select Board, all up the A$$E$ of the out-of-control spenders constituting the WRSD Committee and of the WRSD Superintendent, expect Kilcoyne to provide cover for them as enablers promoting the WRSD’s aim to gouge District property taxpayers into oblivion. After all, Kilcoyne, when on the Sterling Select Board, remained absolutely silent when the WRSD was caught having overspent its FY 2022 budget by $1.6 million–http://web.archive.org/web/20220901001540/https://www.thelandmark.com/story/news/education/2022/08/30/no-room-mistakes-wrsd-next-budget-season/7930488001/  — and when the WRSD’s outside auditors blasted the WRSD for having 65 bank accounts, a recipe for embezzlement– FY22ManagementLetter.pdf (wrsdonline.net) 

By the way, Linda Woodland, the Sterling HACK on the WRSD Committee who blows more smoke for the WRSD at Sterling Annual Town Meetings than a U.S. Navy destroyer smokescreen generator, ALSO remained silent about those WRSD financial irregularities. If there is one thing that HACKS such as Sterling’s Select Board members, John Kilcoyne, and Linda Woodland agree upon when it comes to WRSD misfeasance and malfeasance, and their own perennial incompetence, it is the importance of the Mafia code of silence—Omerta. In our case just substitute Sterling’s Hack-O-Rama for the Mafia.

Even if John Kilcoyne doesn’t read about and report on the WRSD’s out-of-control spending and financial irregularities, you can by going here– Budget and Finance – Wachusett Regional School District (wrsd.net)  NOTE that the WRSD has not yet posted online its FY 2023 outside Audit Report required to be completed by the end of March 2024. You know—Omerta again.

J.G.

NEWLY-ELECTED STERLING TOWN MODERATOR AND FORMER SELECT BOARD HACK, RICHARD LANE, TEAMS UP WITH THE CURRENT GUTLESS SELECT BOARD ASSCLOWNS TO SHAFT STERLING PROPERTY TAXPAYERS BY REJECTING GEORGE HANDY’S RE-APPOINTMENT TO THE STERLING FINANCE COMMITTEE

As any Sterling property taxpayer possessing at least half a brain knows, the  Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a one-party DemocRAT HACK-O-RAMA, and Sterling Town Government, but for a few notable exceptions, is a microcosm Massachusetts DemocRAT HACK-O-RAMA. That fact was reaffirmed on 26 June 2024 when the fiscally out-of-control Wachusett Regional School District’s OUTRIGHT ASS-KISSING GUTLESS ASSCLOWNS constituting the current Sterling Select Board, in conjunction with new Town Moderator and former Sterling Select Board HACK, Richard Lane, teamed up to SHAFT all Sterling property taxpayers by rejecting the re-appointment of highly talented, honest, insightful, direct, blunt, no-nonsense, fiscally responsible George Handy to the Sterling Finance Committee. Pay close attention to all three Sterling Select Board Outright Gutless Incompetent Assclowns between minute 12:00 and minute 32:00–

https://townhallstreams.com/stream.php?location_id=80&id=61056

YEAH, YEAH, I’m SURE that those POSTURING BUFFOONS did get a bunch of letters complaining about George Handy– all from WRSD School Committee members, WRSD administrators, WRSD employees, and parents of schoolkids with their hands out. Such letters are now “public records” and can be obtained by sending in a “public records request” in accordance with Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Sec. 10 if you want to find out who sent them and what they say.

It was George Handy, as Chair of the Sterling Finance Committee in FY 2024, who stood up for ALL Sterling property taxpayers by leading the charge to confront the WRSD’s OUTRAGEOUS FY 2025 $121.9 million budget request–up by $40 million since FY 2015 despite the 817 drop in total student enrollment since FY 2010, that enrollment drop being equivalent to 54.5 empty classrooms given the WRSD’s stated student-teacher ratio– opposing the WRSD’s requested appropriation above the Town of Sterling’s required net minimum contribution. Mr. Handy was instrumental in getting TWO (2) distinct WRSD appropriation Articles, in accordance with Sterling Annual Town Meeting Warrant historical practices through 2018, on the DRAFT 2024 Sterling Annual Town Meeting Warrant—one Article for Sterling’s required WRSD net minimum contribution and the other for the WRSD request above Sterling’s required net minimum contribution—only to have the WRSD’s Outright Gutless Assclown Panderers constituting the Sterling Select Board attempt to screw all Sterling property taxpayers by ignoring Sterling’s historical practices and consolidating the WRSD’s FY 2025 OUTRAGEOUS appropriations requests into ONE (1) Article on the FINAL 2024 Sterling Annual Town Meeting Warrant. That cowardly act backfired spectacularly– to the Select Board’s intense public embarrassment– during the 2024 Sterling Annual Town Meeting. F#CK THEM!!!

During FY 2024 Mr. Handy and the Finance Committee warned us that the out-of-control WRSD is pushing the Town of Sterling toward a Proposition 2 ½ property tax override vote. That warning was ignored by the Outright Stupid, Gutless, WRSD-Ass-Kissing Panderers constituting the Sterling Select Board. The danger of a Proposition 2 ½ property tax override vote will be enhanced greatly next year due to Sterling Select Board stupidity and gross incompetence

You get the Gutless, Dishonest, Self-Promoting, Preening, Smoke-Blowing, DUMBF#CK Town Government actors for whom you vote.

J.G.

HERE ARE A FEW WRSD STATS PRINCETON TOWN MEETING VOTERS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

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 WRSD employs approximately 1000 ‘payroll patriots’– WRSD Staff Directory (google.com) — or 1 for every 6.6 to 6.7 students.

Despite statutory authorization to cut its workforce corresponding with the VERY PRONOUNCED drop in total student enrollment– General Law – Part I, Title XII, Chapter 71, Section 42 (malegislature.gov)— the WRSD HAS NOT IMPLEMENTED ANY REDUCTIONS IN FORCE IN AT LEAST TEN (10) YEARS.

IN FACT, THE WRSD ADDED EIGHT (8) EMPLOYEES IN FY 2024.

The WRSD is out of control. It is now a JOBS PROGRAM, at TAXPAYER EXPENSE, for many unable to hack it in ‘the dreaded private sector.’

J.G.

MORE WRSD DISHONEST SELECT BOARD SHILLS–THIS TIME IN PRINCETON

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)–

Princeton $932,016 $948,577 $1,045,013 $1,157,524 $1,116,533 $1,116,533 $1,147,884 $1,135,988 $1,420,261 $284,273 25.02% —

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.

J.G.

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED. THE TOWN OF STERLING FAILED IN ITS ATTEMPT TO STEAL MARYANNE MACLEOD’S DRIVEWAY, BUT SHE DIDN’T LIVE TO ENJOY VINDICATION.

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.

May Maryanne MacLeod REST IN PEACE.

J.G.

ON 13 MAY 2024 PLEASE WRITE IN MIKE PADULA FOR STERLING PLANNING BOARD. PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR ERIC NEWMAN

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.

J.G.

IT’S CRUCIAL—DURING STERLING’S 13 MAY 2024 ANNUAL TOWN ELECTION MAKE SURE YOU VOTE FOR BALLOT QUESTION 1 TO EXPAND THE SELECT BOARD TO 5 MEMBERS

The Sterling Annual Town Election will be held on 13 May 2024, between 12:00 Noon and 7:00 p.m., at the Houghton Elementary School.

SEE 2024_atm_and_ate_website_press_release.pdf (sterling-ma.gov)

PLEASE BE SURE TO COME OUT AND VOTE! AND WHEN YOU DO, PLEASE BE SURE TO VOTE FOR BALLOT QUESTION 1 TO EXPAND THE SELECT BOARD TO 5 MEMBERS.

HERE IS LINK TO SAMPLE BALLOT: Dominion Voting Systems Ballot (sterling-ma.gov)

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 TO TAKE 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.

J.G.

TOWN OF WAKEFIELD VOTES DOWN BOGUS SO-CALLED ‘MBTA COMMUNITIES ZONING DISTRICTS,’ JOINS TOWNS OF HOLDEN, LITTLETON, MARSHFIELD, MIDDLEBOROUGH, AND MILTON IN TELLING GASBAG GOV. HEALEY AND GASBAG AG CAMPBELL TO SHOVE MBTA ZONING SIDEWAYS

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.

SEE  Wakefield joins growing resistance to MBTA Communities Law (msn.com)

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).

SEE  Middleboro to support legal fight against MBTA housing mandate | Nemasket (theweektoday.com)

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.

Check it out! — Winthrop says NO to 3A | Facebook

Stay tuned!

J.G.

AT STERLING’S 6 MAY 2024 ANNUAL TOWN MEETING VOTERS WILL GET “TWO BITES AT THE APPLE,” IF NEEDED, TO CUT DOWN THE WRSD’S OUTRAGEOUS FY 2025 DISCRETIONARY BUDGET REQUEST, SO PLEASE ATTEND AND VOTE TO PROTECT YOUR WALLET

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—

Stream Video – Town Hall Streams

SO, Sterling Annual Town Meeting voters will have two (2) bites at the apple, if needed, to cut down the WRSD’s outrageous FY 2025 budget request.

COME ON OUT TO THE 6 MAY 2024 STERLING ANNUAL TOWN MEETING AND VOTE TO PROTECT YOUR WALLET.

J.G.