ANOTHER LAYER OF EXPENSIVE BUREAUCRATIC BULLSH*T ON THE WAY???–SELECT BOARD TO DISCUSS ESTABLISHING “LAND USE & PERMITTING DEPARTMENT”

The Sterling Select Board’s 23 June 2021 Agenda (amended twice) includes this item: “Discuss the establishment of a Land Use & Permitting Department”– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/agendas/2021_6_23_agenda3.pdf

Just what Sterling, a Town of 7800 people, needs!–another layer of bureaucrat payroll patriots inside the Municipal Building, at taxpayer expense, pretending to perform useful tasks while really scrounging make-work and re-arranging, languidly, items on their desks.

Of course, the Select Board members are looking for a place to stash, permanently, their favorite $79,000+/year ‘Gofer,’ Domenica Tatasciore, who was hired 32 months ago to produce a new Town Master Plan but has failed to do so, while other Massachusetts towns produced their new Master Plans in 12-15 months. I suppose the Select Board’s theory is that nothing succeeds like failure. So, care to guess who they plan to name as the new “Land Use & Permitting Department” head with a salary increase???

This move constitutes a back-handed acknowledgement that the numerous Town boards, committees, and employees already tasked with land use permitting and oversight responsibilities can’t find their own A$$E$ with either hand.

Stay tuned and watch your wallets.

J.G.

SELECT BOARD TO NAME ITS $79,559/YEAR ‘GOFER,’ DOMENICA TATASCIORE, AS “INTERIM DEPARTMENT HEAD FOR THE INSPECTIONAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT”

THE MAY 2018 STERLING ANNUAL TOWN MEETING AUTHORIZED THE HIRING OF A TOWN PLANNER, TO PREPARE A NEW TOWN MASTER PLAN, ONLY

In response to out-loud representations made by the Select Board during the May 2018 Sterling Annual Town Meeting the voters then present authorized the hiring of a Town Planner for the SOLE PURPOSE of preparing a new Town of Sterling Master Plan. They DID NOT authorize the hiring of a general purpose Select Board ‘Gofer’. In October 2018 Domenica Tatasciore was hired as Town Planner. Thirty-two (32) months later, Ms. Tatasciore has not yet furnished Sterling’s taxpayers with a new Town Master Plan while, during that time, other Massachusetts towns came up with their new Master Plans in 12-15 months. SEE very first post, THIS Blog. This year Ms. Tatasciore was paid $76,470 as purported ‘Town Planner.’ Starting 1 July 2021 her salary as purported ‘Town Planner’ will be $79,559.

SELECT BOARD MEMBER MAUREEN CRANSON, ‘OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL BULLSH*T’

To open a fairly recent Select Board meeting Ms. Maureen Cranson, disingenuously–as usual–announced that Ms. Tatasciore was worth what she is costing Sterling taxpayers because she had brought in more grant money to the Town than her cumulative salary and benefits payments. That’s nice, but it is also genuine bullsh*t because the Town can retain professional grant application writers, FOR A WHOLE LOT LESS MONEY, on a per-grant-application contractual basis, and Ms. Cranson knows it. The Town has contracted out for other services and can contract out grant application writing.

MS. TATASCIORE’S LATEST, UPCOMING, OFFICIAL ‘GOFER’ TITLE

According to the Select Board’s 23 June 2021 Agenda– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/agendas/2021_6_23_agenda2.pdf –Ms. Tatasciore’s newest official ‘Gofer’ title will be “Interim Department Head for the Inspectional Services Department” while she continues to run up her fake Town Planner-status salary and benefits meter. I believe that the Massachusetts Office of the Inspector General will be interested to learn about this ongoing fraud, waste, and abuse.

J.G.

AT THE 2021 STERLING ANNUAL TOWN MEETING 100-110 SHEEPLE SHOWED UP AND GAVE IT TO THEMSELVES AND EVERYONE ELSE IN TOWN “GOOD AND HARD”

Massachusetts citizenry, for the most part, have devolved from April 1775 Revolutionary spirit, the “shot heard ’round the world”, and Revolutionary War doggedness, to their current much-reduced status as government-official-following herd “sheeple,” an accurate term devised many years ago by, I believe, Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr.

The New England Town Meeting form of government is often described as “the purest form of democracy.” However, this is what the late H. L. Mencken said about democracy: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

Approximately 100-110 sheeple showed up on the evening of 14 June 2021 for Sterling’s Annual Town Meeting and gave it to themselves, and all 7700 other Sterling residents, “good and hard.” NOT ONE spending Warrant Article was defeated and BOTH pro-taxpayer Warrant Articles were defeated. Only about 150 voters showed up, total. Voter apathy and ignorance in Town are wide-spread and appalling, and those who fail to educate themselves and attend Sterling’s Annual Town Meetings have no one to blame but themselves for their ever-escalating property tax bills. SHAME ON THEM.

SIDEBAR ON THE “SECOND CONSENT AGENDA” APPARENT VOTE TALLY FRAUD

There were multiple witnesses to the so-called “SECOND CONSENT AGENDA” apparent vote tally fraud perpetrated during this year’s Annual Town Meeting. I was one. I have contacted the appropriate Massachusetts State officials about it and have prepared, signed, and submitted a detailed Affidavit, executed under the pains and penalties of perjury, recounting the pertinent statements and events. Stay tuned. That apparent vote tally fraud, and the fact that the reprobates on the Select Board, Planning Board, and Z.B.A. combined to pack the bogus and abusive so-called “SECOND CONSENT AGENDA” with complex and technical Protective (Zoning) By-Law Amendments, confirms what many of us had already figured out–Sterling Town Government is being run as a Mini-Banana Republic.

J.G.

TOWN MEETING COMMENTS BY MARION LARSON, PRESIDENT OF THE STERLING LAND TRUST, CONTRIBUTED TO THE NORTH STERLING/WEKEPEKE AQUIFER PROTECTION ZONE’S ARBITRARY SIZE REDUCTION

At the 14 June 2021 Sterling Annual Town Meeting, in a surprising move, Marion Larson, President of the Sterling Land Trust, a purported land conservation entity, took to the microphone and announced her support for reducing in size, arbitrarily, the North Sterling/Wekepeke Aquifer Protection Zone corresponding exactly with Massachusetts DEP’s current Wellhead Protection Zone II for that area. Ms. Larson said that reducing in size that protected area would not jeopardize Wekepeke Brook, a coldwater fishery, or its native brook trout population. Of course, she provided no scientific underpinnings for her bold assertion. A majority of Town Meeting voters, soon thereafter, voted to reduce in size, arbitrarily, the aquifer protection zone.

Ms. Larson failed to mention that humans drinking well water from that area may be jeopardized if new industries, now able to move into the Light Industrial-zoned portions of that aquifer now that the protected area has been reduced in size, spill industrial solvents or other industrial chemicals into the ground and, hence, into that aquifer. Such spilled chemicals would migrate and spread with the groundwater flow pattern. Ms. Larson, clearly, prioritizes trout over people.

Of course, Ms. Larson and the other Sterling Land Trust folks have their hands out each year for Sterling taxpayer-funded handouts, as in this year’s Town Meeting Warrant Article 5–https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/uploads/2021_atm_final_warrant_june_7_2021_003.pdf When you get taxpayer money, repeatedly, courtesy of the Sterling Municipal Building Crony Cabal, you become one with them in attitude. Ms. Larson, by the way, subsists off Massachusetts taxpayers as spokeswoman for MassWildlife– https://www.mass.gov/info-details/masswildlife-staff-directory#information-&-education—field-hq,-westborough-

Over the years I have made several not-insignificant monetary donations to the folks at Sterling Land Trust but NOT ONCE did I ever receive a “Thank You” note or even an acknowledgement. There is a word for people like that–ingrates. Sterling Land Trust has seen my last donation.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Never trust a Double-Taxpayer-Funded-Public-Mammary-Gland-Feeder.

J.G.

NORTH STERLING/WEKEPEKE AQUIFER–STERLING PLANNING BOARD, Z.B.A., AND SELECT BOARD ARE PRETENDING THAT “PISSING IN ONE PART OF THE POOL WON’T AFFECT THE REST OF IT”

The Sterling Planning Board, Select Board, and Z.B.A., courtesy of Z.B.A. member Joseph Curtin, are all behind reducing in size, arbitrarily, the North Sterling/Wekepeke Aquifer Protection Zone/Groundwater Protection District Zoning Overlay Map, by means of Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article 46, to promote industrial development in the Pratt Junction area at a time when Sterling’s existing Town wellfields, located elsewhere in Town, are inadequate to supply the Town’s needs. SEE three prior posts, this Blog, on this matter. Someday Sterling may want to sink some wells in that North Sterling area. If so, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection would act as an umpire and determine how much water the City of Leominster and the Town of Sterling could each pump out of that aquifer without degrading it. MassDEP has done that in cases of other competing municipalities tapping a single aquifer.

As Gary Menin, up for re-election to the Board of Health, noted recently, when it comes to the North Sterling/Wekepeke Aquifer area the Planning Board, Select Board, and Z.B.A. are all pretending that “pissing into one part of the pool won’t affect the rest of it.” His election opponent, Ms. Catalano, and the other two BOH members, Ms. Martin and Mr. Hoffman, have maintained radio silence on this issue, of course.

So, when it comes to the rest of the this year’s ATM Warrant, are you really buying what the Planning Board, Select Board, and Z.B.A. are selling???

J.G.

 

TOWN MEETING WARRANT ARTICLE 38–THE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS SPONSORS INCREASED POPULATION DENSITY ACROSS STERLING DESPITE THE TOWN’S PUBLIC WATER SUPPLY SHORTAGE

While the Town suffers from a public water supply shortage its Zoning Board of Appeals is busy promoting increased population density across Sterling by means of Town Meeting Warrant Article 38, “ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT USE,” that would replace the existing Sterling Protective (Zoning) By-Law provisions for “Accessory Apartment Use[s],” including the requirement that such an accessory apartment be within an existing single family dwelling or in the space above its attached garage, a “Special Permit” from the Z.B.A. now being required in ALL such cases.

Article 38, “ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT USE,” if adopted, would only require a Special Permit for an accessory dwelling unit as part of of newly built or existing detached structure. In essence, the Z.B.A. is now encouraging the construction of such detached structures on single family lots having more than 20,000 square feet. All of that will promote a hodge-podge of building eyesores and increased population densities on streets across Town, with increased motor vehicle density, traffic, and parking problems as a consequence. The Z.B.A., speciously, says that “ADUs also add tax revenue to the community based on the increase in square footage of living space.” THAT’S A CROCK. Any marginal increase in Town tax revenue from proliferating Accessory Dwelling Units will be eaten up by the increased need for Police, Fire, Ambulance, and other Town services required to accommodate the proliferating Accessory Dwelling Unit population.

It should be noted that this Article 38 was tucked into the bogus and abusive so-called “SECOND CONSENT AGENDA” beginning on page 13 of the Warrant– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/uploads/2021_atm_final_warrant_june_7_2021_003.pdf — a trick only reprobates can love.

VOTE DOWN ARTICLE 38 AND, INDEED, ALL OF THE ARTICLES–28 THROUGH 41–SET FORTH IN THAT BOGUS AND ABUSIVE SO-CALLED “SECOND CONSENT AGENDA.”

LATEST U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SURFICIAL MATERIALS (GEOLOGY) MAPS MORE THAN SUPPORT PRESENT NORTH STERLING/WEKEPEKE AQUIFER PROTECTION ZONE BOUNDARIES–VOTE DOWN WARRANT ARTICLE 46

The present North Sterling Aquifer Protection Zone Overlay Map– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/file/file/part15.pdf — corresponds exactly with the Massachusetts DEP Zone II Wellhead Protection Map for that area– http://maps.massgis.state.ma.us/images/dep/omv/wspviewer.htm Click on the ‘hand’ symbol, move that map on your screen, then ‘zoom’ into Pratt Junction to see the area cross-hatched in lavender/purple.

The latest U.S. Geological Survey Surficial Materials (Geology) Mapping for Massachusetts was published in 2018. It is available from the Massachusetts Geological Survey– http://mgs.geo.umass.edu/ Here is the “Index” Map with the “Legend”– https://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3402/sim3402_index_map.pdf The deposits color-coded light orange– “Coarse deposits” and “Stagnant-ice deposits” –are the types normally associated with aquifers. Here are the 2018 corresponding Sterling and Clinton Quadrangle Surficial Materials maps– https://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3402/sim3402_quadrangle/079_Sterling.pdf and
https://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3402/sim3402_quadrangle/085_Clinton.pdf Put them side-by-side and you can see that they more than support the North Sterling Aquifer Protection Zone areal extent protected presently.

NOW look at 2021 Sterling Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article 46 with proposed reduced-in-size North Sterling/Wekepeke Aquifer Protection Zone/Groundwater Protection Districts Overlay Map– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/uploads/2021_6_14_atm_sterling_warrant_0.pdf THAT map is based on the 44-year-old 1977 map drawn by Brackley and Hanson purporting to show only the areas “expected from properly constructed wells” [emphasis added] to produce 100-300 gallons per minute and 300+ gallons per minute, NOT the full extent of the North Sterling/Wekepeke Aquifer protected now.

AT THE ANNUAL TOWN MEETING VOTE DOWN ARTICLE 46.

J.G.

THE ROTTEN SMELL OF YET ANOTHER SELECT BOARD POWER GRAB–THE CITIZENS’ PETITION (WINK, WINK) WARRANT ARTICLE TO ELIMINATE THE D.P.W. BOARD

In case you hadn’t noticed, the dishonest hacks constituting the Sterling Select Board are completely out of control and running amok. They want to be the new “Permit Granting Authority” (PGA) under the thoroughly bent, crony crafted, developer promoted proposed new Earth Removal By-Law (Article 47, 2021 Annual Town Meeting Warrant– ( https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/uploads/2021_6_14_atm_sterling_warrant_0.pdf ) — SEE previous post, this Blog, entitled “BEDROCK CRONYISM-THE PROPOSED, REVISED EARTH REMOVAL BY-LAW,” and are now displaying their contemptible underhandedness by abusing the Town Meeting “Consent Calendar” process in an undisguised effort to ram through multiple Zoning By-Law changes set forth in Articles 28 through 41 of the Annual Town Meeting Warrant. SEE previous post, this Blog.
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So check out Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article 54, “CITIZENS PETITION [WINK, WINK]: ELIMINATE THE PUBLIC WORKS BOARD.” Eliminating the D.P.W. Board will vest all of its powers and authority in the dishonest Select Board hacks, the thought of which should make us all recoil.

SO SEND A MESSAGE TO THESE HACKS: VOTE DOWN WARRANT ARTICLES 28 THROUGH 41, ARTICLE 47, AND ARTICLE 54.

J.G.

STERLING SELECT BOARD, PLANNING BOARD, AND ZBA REPROBATES NOW ABUSING “CONSENT CALENDAR” PROCEDURE

Long-time Sterling resident Peter Monaghan kindly reminded me that the Town Meeting “Consent Calendar” procedure was intended and formerly used to speed through for approval only relatively minor and mundane Annual Town Meeting Warrant Articles. A tip of the hat to him. For a good example of such previously employed “Consent Calendar” methodology see the 2019 Annual Town Meeting Warrant– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/uploads/2019_atm_warrant-_final_4-5-19_0.pdf

The abusive and dishonest reprobates on the Select Board, Planning Board, and ZBA have now warped the “Consent Calendar” procedure in a transparent effort to ram through controversial, consequential, and far-reaching so-called “PROTECTIVE ZONING BYLAW UPDATES” by means of the “SECOND CONSENT AGENDA-ARTICLES 28 THROUGH 41.” SEE 2021 Annual Town Meeting Warrant beginning at page 13– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/uploads/2021_6_14_atm_sterling_warrant_0.pdf
This is a glaring abuse. Each one of those Articles should receive stand-alone consideration and a stand-alone up or down vote–AND THOSE REPROBATES KNOW IT.

SO, FOLKS, HERE’S THE SOLUTION–VOTE DOWN ALL ARTICLES 28 THROUGH 41.

J.G.

STERLING FINANCE COMMITTEE SAPS WANT ADDITIONAL FIREFIGHTER/EMT-PARAMEDIC HIRE–IS THAT TO COVER ALL THE STERLING AMBULANCE RUNS FOR CLINTON RESIDENTS???

The Sterling Finance Committee saps want to hire another Firefighter/EMT-Paramedic. SEE Article 27, Annual Town Meeting Warrant– https://www.sterling-ma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1266/f/uploads/2021_6_14_atm_sterling_warrant_0.pdf

Is that to cover all the Sterling ambulance runs to Clinton because the unionized Clinton Fire Department EMTs/Layabouts rendered the middle finger salute to the Clinton Select Board and refused to get certified as Paramedics, whereas Sterling has Paramedics???

SEE prior post, this Blog, on this subject. At least the Select Board says that it does not recommend passage of this boondoggle.

VOTE a BIG “NO” on this one, folks.

J.G.