The Select Board hired Kellie Hebert to be Town Administrator. She lasted about ten (10) months. She was jettisoned under murky circumstances after word leaked out that she had retained an answering service for the Recreation Department at a whopping $40/hour AND had hired a way-out-of-Town-buddy-‘Consultant,’ rather than a local roofing contractor, to troubleshoot Butterick Building/Municipal Building roof leak(s). In taking those actions we don’t know if Ms. Hebert violated Massachusetts municipal procurement and contracting legal requirements. SEEhttps://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2017/10/19/30bmanual.pdf
“Litigation,” huh? Who is suing whom? The Select Board hasn’t told us. SURPRISED? Yeah, the Select Board is all about honesty and transparency… and if you believe that I’ll sell you the Muddy Pond Road bridge. Don’t be surprised if Kellie Hebert is suing for breach of contract/wrongful termination. Any way you slice it, this is yet another Select Board ‘Charlie Foxtrot.’
UPDATE, 27 January 2022: Ya, ya, yet more Select Board ‘honesty and transparency’–
Karen Packard, Realtor, with new offices on Route 140 in Sterling’s existing “Performance Zone 1”–her husband operates “Sterling Greenery” across the road–appeared before the Sterling Planning Board pro-development hacks–two of its members, Corrinne and Pruneau, are developers!– in December 2021 to discuss that “Performance Zone.” She will appear before them on 27 January 2022 to discuss that “Performance Zone” again– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/agendas/pb_agenda_-_january_27_2022.pdf
The Planning Board has not yet posted on the Town’s website its December 2021 Meeting Minutes. Those Minutes will be approved for posting during the 27 January Meeting, presumably.
REMEMBER, last year Joe Curtin, “The Brilliant,” Vice-Chair of the Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals a/k/a The Developers’ Doormat, prevailed upon the the pro-development hacks on the Planning Board to sponsor 2021 Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article 46– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/uploads/2021_atm_final_warrant_june_7_2021_003_0.pdf — reducing in size the Wekepeke Aquifer Wellhead Protection Zone, in order to promote Light Industrial development over the Wekepeke Aquifer. The Select Board dopes recommended passage. It passed. NOW the Sterling D.P.W. plans to sink a much-needed Town Well off Crowley Road in the Wekepeke Aquifer. Yeah, so how’d that move work out for Sterling’s Townspeople???
In case you missed this major news development in the current U.S. regime’s mainstream media propaganda organs, England has recognized that the fraudulent so-called ‘COVID vaccines,’ which were never ‘vaccines’ at all but, rather, experimental mRNA gene therapies, are ineffective to halt the spread of the mild COVID/Wuhan Flu variant known as ‘Omicron.’ ‘Omicron’ is accomplishing what the fake ‘vaccines’ never did–‘herd immunity’ in all affected populations. The Wuhan Flu is now officially ‘endemic’ like ordinary colds and flu. England also recognized what MULTIPLE medical studies on masks have demonstrated–that ordinary masks (unlike fitted N95 respirators) are entirely ineffective at preventing sub-micron sized virus particles from spreading. THEREFORE, England is halting ‘Vax’ and mask mandates effective 27 January 2022– https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/boris-johnson-scraps-covid-mandates-england-will-trust-judgment-british-people/ In making the announcement, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the Government would henceforth “trust the judgment” of the British people. GEE, WHAT A NOVEL CONCEPT IN PURPORTED ‘DEMOCRACIES’ SUCH AS OURS AND THEIRS!
STILL NO SIGNS OF HONEST OR INTELLIGENT LIFE INSIDE CDC, NIH, FDA, HHS, BIG PHARMA.
MEANWHILE, Sterling’s municipal employees and officials, real ‘Profiles in Courage,’ continue to hide behind their ridiculous virtue-signaling ineffective masks and the municipal buildings mask mandate. Yeah, it’s the ScIenCe don’t ya know?! They are a laughingstock.
OH, HAS ANYONE SEEN FAUCI-THE-LYING-GNOME RECENTLY?
Since private property lines much of Main Street in Sterling Center on both sides, there is a limit to what these geniuses can accomplish without taking private property by “eminent domain” to reconfigure whatever it is that they may want to reconfigure. Taking private property by “eminent domain”–also known as “condemnation proceedings”– is expensive, not to mention arbitrary and unfair to the owner(s).
“Revitalizing” Sterling Center really comes down to three words–PARKING AND WALKING. The Town of Sterling owns the Memorial Park behind the Fire Station and more than 13 acres of open, ledgy land behind the Sterling Municipal Building. Let’s see if Sterling’s Townspeople are willing to put a parking lot or parking garage on either one of those parcels. Place your bets now!
In the meantime, watch YOUR tax dollars circle and then disappear down the drain on this “Downtown Revitalization” BOONDOGGLE.
Other than requiring the mitigation of legitimate public health hazards or code violations, Sterling officials can’t require downtown private property owners to spend a dime on cosmetic or structural building changes. I don’t think those geniuses understand that.
Joe Curtin, pro-development hack and Vice Chair of the Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals a/k/a The Developers’ Doormat, engineered 2021 Sterling Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article 46, submitted by the Planning Board dopes and recommended by the Select Board dopes– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/uploads/2021_atm_final_warrant_june_7_2021_003_0.pdf It passed, thereby reducing in size the Wekepeke Aquifer Wellhead Protection Zone in Sterling. Joe Curtin’s position was that since the wellhead(s) in question, just over the line in Leominster, belong to the City of Leominster, Sterling should not burden itself by having such a heretofore expansive wellhead protection zone–approved previously by Sterling voters–in Sterling, thereby paving the way for more industrial development over the Wekepeke Aquifer in areas zoned Light Industrial.
I warned about his move in multiple Blog posts before the 2021 Annual Town Meeting, and spoke against it during the 2021 Annual Town Meeting, to no avail.
NOW, the Sterling D.P.W. wants to sink a Town Well off Crowley Road in the very same Wekepeke Aquifer, and has sought Mass. DEP approval to do so. Open the Sterling D.P.W. Board 11 January 2002 Agenda, and scroll down– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/department-of-public-works/events/111011
WAY TO GO, JOE!!! I’ll be waiting for your 2022 Sterling Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article restoring the Wekepeke Aquifer Wellhead Protection Zone to its 2020 boundaries.
SIDEBAR: During the 2021 Annual Town Meeting Marion Larson, Sterling Land Trust president, spoke in favor of Article 46. Obviously she’s brilliant too.
When do the TOTALLY BENT Cranson and Kilcoyne, WHO ARE ENTIRELY UP THE A$$ OF STERLING’S BIGGEST SNAKE (more accurately–PUNK-SNAKE), SIMPSON, EVER schedule a 9:30 a.m. Monday morning Select Board meeting? ANSWER: WHEN THEY DON’T WANT THE WORKING, TAXPAYING PUBLIC THERE TO SCRUTINIZE THEM. SO, they did just that concerning their illegal 10 December 2021 actions involving Simpson’s illegal 68 Heywood Road Earth Removal Permit Application Scam. That meeting is Monday morning, 10 January 2022–
THEREFORE, I propose that ALL of Sterling’s Butterick Building/Municipal Building occupants and denizen go out and get infected by the ‘Omicron Variant,’ thereby contributing to national ‘herd immunity’ and actually minimizing the harm they do to Sterling’s taxpayers and citizens while that building is closed temporarily during their ‘Sick-Out.’
Just a few years ago Sterling’s Zoning Board of Appeals a/k/a The Developers’ Doormat granted Sterling’s Biggest Snake, Simpson, a “variance” from Sterling’s Protective (Zoning) By-Laws to build “Cider Hill Estates”– https://www.axisgis.com/Reporting/Reports/SterlingMA_91_53___6799be03-a704-4288-8980-8f3fd525262b.pdf –off Redstone Hill Road. The Zoning Board of Appeals did that despite the fact that there are THREE longstanding abutters’ driveways, not just one, within one hundred fifty (150) feet of the “Cider Hill Estates” access road. That access road violates Sterling’s Protective (Zoning) By-Law Article 4.2.3.(c)(3) BIG TIME. SEEhttps://ecode360.com/11816626 In other words, the Zoning Board of Appeals rolled over for Simpson.
The “Cider Hill Estates” property contains a large wetland with an outflow stream that is a Massachusetts-protected tributary to the protected Wekepeke Brook South Branch, a documented cold-water fishery. SEE 321 CMR 5:00 et seq.– https://www.mass.gov/regulations/321-CMR-500-coldwater-fish-resources
While constructing “Cider Hill Estates” Simpson, for many weeks, mechanically shattered ledge rock on the property, despite nearby abutters’ homes, violating the Massachusetts [Ambient] Noise Regulation– https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2018/01/31/noise-interpretation.pdf Unsurprisingly, Sterling’s lapdog officials failed to enforce those regulations.
Bear in mind that all Sterling Conservation Commission members, like all Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals members, are appointed by the Sterling Select Board, two of whose members, Cranson and Kilcoyne, are entirely up Simpson’s A$$. Stay tuned, therefore, and expect a whitewash.
UPDATE, 8 February 2022: On 7 February 2022 I received from a Cider Hill Estates neighbor or abutter, who remains anonymous, a letter about the current Conservation Commission proceedings. According to that individual, the Cider Hill Estates Condo Assoc. contracted with a tree service to fell about a dozen trees that Cider Hill Estates ‘townhouse’ owners considered potentially dangerous to some building units there. After several trees were cut neighbors told the tree service that those trees were in a ‘No Touch [Protective] Zone’ imposed by the Sterling ZBA as a condition for the ZBA’s approval to build that multi-family development. The Conservation Commission determined that those felled trees were not on abutting Town-owned land and, so, determined that it has no jurisdiction over the matter. The Cider Hill Estates Condo Assoc. now plans to seek tree-cutting relief, as to the ‘No Touch Zone,’ from the Sterling ZBA a/k/a The Developers’ Doormat. As noted, the Sterling ZBA a/k/a The Developers’ Doormat should never have granted Simpson a ‘Variance’ to build “Cider Hill Estates” in the first place. According to the Sterling Board of Assessors’ ‘property card’– https://www.axisgis.com/Reporting/Reports/SterlingMA_91_53___afcfb497-c04b-4786-8b6d-877209ffb6ad.pdf –Sterling Real Estate Development/Simpson still retains title to 20+ acres there. The Sterling ZBA a/k/a The Developers’ Doormat is entirely appointed by the Sterling Select Board, two of whose three members, Cranson and Kilcoyne, are entirely up Simpson’s A$$. So stay tuned and expect those ZBA lapdogs to roll over in exchange for little doggie treats.
NOTE: When mailing me items please put my P.O. Box Number on the envelope or the U.S. Postal Service may not deliver it.
The inimitable Catturd is onto Fauci-the-Lying-Gnome who, by the way, is listed as having blue eyes BUT IS SO FULL OF SH*T THAT THEY SHOULD BE BROWN. Catturd, alas, has summed up Fauci-the-Lying-Gnome’s Wuhan Flu ‘Omicron Variant’ BULLS*HT scare tactics thus:
Paul Alexander, Ph.D., of the Brownstone Institute, discusses the mild ‘Omicron Variant,’ and the abject failures of the messenger RNA fake ‘vaccines’ (they are gene therapies, NOT vaccines), masking, and lockdowns to halt the Wuhan Flu’s spread (the preceding more deadly versions still having a survival rate of 99.83% for those under age 70, the average fatality age being 82 in a nation where the LIFE EXPECTANCY is 78.3 years!)– https://brownstone.org/articles/are-we-overreacting-to-omicron/
So write a note to Fauci-the-Lying-Gnome and tell him to shove his ‘Covid Home Test Kits’ SIDEWAYS! INDEED, the ‘Omicron Variant’ is so mild that you should make a point of contracting it, thereby gaining lifetime ‘natural immunity’ and contributing to our society’s ‘herd immunity.’
AND, as you gather in church, and with family and friends, this Christmas weekend, REMEMBER to ditch those asinine face rags.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
UPDATE, 31 December 2021: Howie Carr’s New Year’s Eve ‘COVID’ Prediction–
On 15 December 2021 the lawless Simpson cronies constituting the Sterling Select Board/Earth Removal Board conducted an illegal hearing into Simpson’s illegal earth removal permit application and rendered an illegal decision. You can view the entire crony clown show streamed here:
Simpson walked into the hearing WITHOUT a building permit for 68 Heywood Road, so that fact rendered his ‘earth removal’ permit application an application to conduct illegal “Quarrying or Mining” there. The passage of 2021 Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article 48 now PROHIBITS “Quarrying or Mining” on that parcel zoned “Rural Residential & Farming.” My 14 December 2021 letter, emailed to each Select Board/Earth Removal Board member, set forth below, explained their lack of jurisdiction over Simpson’s illegal application–
P.O. Box 1149 Sterling, MA 01564-1149 14 December 2021
Select Board/Earth Removal Board Municipal Building 1 Park Street Sterling, MA 01564
RE: Sterling Select Board/Earth Removal Board Has No Jurisdiction Over Simpson’s 68 Heywood Road Earth Removal Permit Application Because The Passage Of 2021 Sterling Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article 48 REPEALED Subsection 6.2.2.2.a.4., The Earth Removal ‘Use Variance’ Exception/Loophole To The Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Law
Dear Select Board/Earth Removal Board Members,
Massachusetts General Laws Ch. 40A, Sec. 10 provides in pertinent part that:
“The permit granting authority [Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals] shall have the power after public hearing…to grant…with respect to particular land…a variance from the terms of the applicable zoning ordinance or by-law…where such permit granting authority specifically finds that owing to circumstances relating to soil conditions, shape, or topography of such land…a literal enforcement of the…by-law would involve substantial hardship…to the petitioner…Except where local…by-laws shall expressly permit variances for use, no variance may authorize a use or activity not otherwise permitted in the district in which the land is located…”(emphasis added).
Former Sterling Zoning By-Law subsection 6.2.2.2.a.4. was a use variance exception/ loophole to the Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Law that authorized the Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals, in certain circumstances, to grant earth removal (now “quarrying or mining”) use variances in Sterling areas zoned Rural Residential & Farming and Neighborhood Residential. That subsection 6.2.2.2.a.4. use variance exception/loophole was repealed by Warrant Article 48 which passed during the 2021 Sterling Annual Town Meeting. Article 48 now OUTRIGHT PROHIBITS “Quarrying or Mining” in ALL areas of Sterling zoned Rural Residential & Farming and Neighborhood Residential. That being so, the Sterling Select Board has NO JURISDICTION WHATSOEVER OVER SIMPSON’S 68 HEYWOOD ROAD EARTH REMOVAL PERMIT APPLICATION BECAUSE “QUARRYING OR MINING” AS A “USE” IS NOW OUTRIGHT PROHIBITED IN THE ZONE WHERE THE 68 HEYWOOD ROAD PROPERTY IS LOCATED. SIMPSON’S EARTH REMOVAL PERMIT APPLICATION MUST BE REJECTED AS A MATTER OF LAW.
Sincerely,
James F. Gettens, Esq.
The repealed Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Law subsection 6.2.2.2.a.4 read in pertinent part:
“in RR or NR Districts, no soil shall be removed from the premisesexcept to facilitate grading for a proposed building for which a variance or a building permit has been granted…Removal of less than 1000 cubic yards of soil from any premises does not require a variance…Removal of soil in an amount greater than or equal to 1000 cubic yards does require a variance…(emphasis added).
Sterling Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article 48, passed in June 2021, repealing that subsection 6.2.2.2.a.4. and amending the Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Law, PROVIDES:
“Quarrying or Mining shall mean earth removal for the purposes of extracting soil, loam, sand, gravel, clay, rocks, minerals, or other earth material, including establishments engaged in operating sand and gravel pits and in washing, screening, or preparing sand and gravel for construction or industrial uses, but excluding grading of a lot in preparation for the construction of a structure or associated appurtenances for which a building permit or other similar permit has been issued by the town” (emphasis original and added).
Warrant Article 48 defined “Quarrying or Mining” as a Principal Use and PROHIBITED it in all Sterling areas zoned Rural Residential & Farming and Neighborhood Residential.
NOTE: In passing Warrant Article 48 Sterling’s Townspeople DID NOT APPROVE in areas zoned Rural Residential & Farming and Neighborhood Residential “remov[al]” “of soil…fromthe premises…to facilitate grading for a proposed building” as they had previously when they approved now-repealed Zoning By-Law subsection 6.2.2.2.a.4.
THIS TIME, when it comes to lot grading, it is clear that THE TOWNSPEOPLE ONLY APPROVED “earth removal” WITHIN AND ON THE LOT ITSELF for “grading of a lot in preparation for the construction of a structure or associated appurtenances for which a building permit or other similar permit has been issued by the town.”
Warrant Article 48 DOES NOT provide for the removal of soil “from the premises…to facilitate grading for a proposed building.”
Since Simpson did not possess a building permit on 15 December 2021 the Select Board/Earth Removal Board had absolutely no jurisdiction or authority to entertain Simpson’s earth removal permit application. Further, given Article 48’s language in comparison with the language of now-repealed subsection 6.2.2.2.a.4., the Select Board/Earth Removal Board acted illegally in agreeing to issue Simpson an earth removal permit, with conditions, to remove sand or sand & gravel from the 68 Heywood Road lot itself.
In view of the foregoing, the 68 Heywood Road abutters should pool their resources, hire a good trial lawyer, AND SUE THE ROGUE SELECT BOARD’S/EARTH REMOVAL BOARD’S MEMBERS’ ASSES OFF IN THE WORCESTER SUPERIOR COURT. ESTABLISHING A “GO FUND ME” LITIGATION FUND FOR THAT PURPOSE WOULD BE A BOON. I WOULD DONATE TO SUCH A LITIGATION FUND IN A HEARTBEAT, AND OTHER STERLING CITIZENS WOULD DONATE TOO.
UPDATE, 17 DECEMBER 2021: The following is someone else’s view of what Simpson, STERLING’S BIGGEST SNAKE (MORE ACCURATELY–“PUNK-SNAKE”) will get away with, and what the long-term consequences of what his Select Board/Earth Removal Board cronies’ (Cranson and Kilcoyne are entirely up “PUNK-SNAKE” Simpson’s A$$) actions will be following their 15 December 2021 abominations. I decided to share this with you even though my my legal analysis, set forth above, does not parallel this writer’s and the writer left out some important distinctions and prerequisites, such as a developer needing to obtain a building permit–probably a sham in the end– in order to claim the need for massive ‘grading’ of a lot in an RR or NR zone. This was emailed to me and, so, I put it within quotation marks. I do not know the writer’s name but assuredly share his or her outrage–
“Last night, the select board granted tentative approval on an earth removal project under the new bylaw adopted at the 2021 ATM. Voters at the ATM also approved the elimination of a variance protection from the town’s protective bylaws. No longer does anyone need to go before the ZBA to remove more than 1000 yd.³ of soil from a site. It is solely under the purview of the select board. Based on the tentative decision, and according to a permit to be issued by the select board, 19,000 yd.³, including the first 1,000 yd.³ that have already been removed, can be removed from an excavation site of about 1.2 acres (according to the application). By way of example, 18,000 yd.³ is enough to cover a football field 10 feet deep, or all the way up to the crossbar of the field goal. The select board said that it does not set precedent, but it does. Imagine extrapolating this permit to a larger site. A 5 acre site could remove up to 100,000 yd.³. A 20 acre site could remove up to 400,000 yd.³. We are going to end up with a number of short term commercial mining operations throughout town as a result of these changes, because Sterling sits on a lot of sand and gravel that is valuable to developers, to be mined and sold in the open market. These operations can take place anywhere in residential zones. This decision eviscerates the zoning bylaw that says that mining operations cannot take place in residential zones. Whether a commercial mining operation is short term or long term doesn’t matter. Developers will have the ability to level large tracts of land all the way down to street level before building houses.”
STERLING, MASSACHUSETTS, OVERWATCH 