Kate Landers for Select Board
Kate Landers has my full support. There is really no other choice.
Vote Kate Landers!
Please don't forget to vote!
Peter Frei
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Register Here For The MVP Workshop!
To register for the Municipality Vunerability Workshop at the Holland Community Center, at 40 Brimfield Road, Holland, MA 01511, on September 10, from 9:00Am till 5:00Pm, click here! click here!Breakfast and Lunch will be provided.
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Our community Has a Once In a Lifetime Opportunity To Fix The Problems The Causeway Presents Without Spending Any Taxpayer's Money.
What ever your interest may be, whether you live in one of the dwellings on the south-basin of Hamilton Reservoir which was flooded during the flood of 2005, whether you realize that both causeways could be flooded and impassable during another extrem weather situation again, or whether you simply would like to have an opportunity to cruse from one basin to the other side of the cause-way with your boat or canoe, all this could be accomplished if the community gets behind a proposal unanimously endorsed by the Planning Board.And again ... no funding by the town is necessary to achieve all this!
To read this extensive proposal explaining everything, click here!
As part of the MVP grant process, the community is mandated to hold a workshop in conformance to the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program Core Principles. Paragraph 5. provides:
Conducting robust community engagement:
All Action Grant projects are required to submit a Public Involvement and Community Engagement Plan as part of the application. More guidance on these requirements can be found here. Tips for conducting virtual and remote engagement can be found here. The Town already received a Planning Grant to work towards the Action Grant. This process requires a workshop with community involvement.
This workshop will be taking place on Saturday September 10, (*) at 9:00 AM at the Community Center at 40 Brimfield Rd, Holland MA.
PLEASE ATTEND !
PLEASE ATTEND !
*Originally the workshop was scheduled for August 13th but the date was changed and I was not informed by the town administrator Stacy Stout even so I´m one of the “core members” of this program. Stacy Stout was also suppose to get a “landing-website” up on the town´s website beginning of July as discussed during the last meeting on June 29th by the core members informing the people. As of now (August 5.) there is nothing up on the town´s website ... Serving on the Planning Board for more than two years by now, I do get insight of the horrendous disfunction at the town hall. The worst town official in recent history, Jennifer Mott, the former twon clerk, is gone, thank god! And with her Bettina Schmidt, one of the former member's of the Board of Selectmen, I thank good here too! I will write more about my experience being part of the town administration from now on ...
There will be individuals who do not see that having safe shelter without the constant fear of being flooded is an imperative. Compashion is running lower and lower in our society. I heard voices calling for more sand-traps/catch-basins around the reservoir; the once we already have just need to be emptied once they are filled up and more would not be needed. If there are locations where there are none, the town (Highway Department) should be able to take care of that need.
Fixing the causeway needs to be a priority.
Read also:
Shelter, a Basic Human Need; the Flood of 2005.Holland Homes and Business´s Taken and Flooded by the Government; the Flood of 1955.
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We do have a new Member of the Board of Selectmen
After the tie vote between the incumbent member of the Board of Selectmen Andrew Harhay and challenger Bettina Schmidt during the annual town election of June 13th, Bettina Schmidt requested timely a re-count.This re-count took place last night at the town hall and the re-count was in favor of Bettina Schmidt who won by one vote!
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Not so fast, says Andrew Harhay; the final vote count shows a TIE!
Tonight, June 14th, at 18:30 hours, the Board of Selectmen conducted an emergency meeting. The reason, we failed to elect a new member for the Board of Selectmen.Attending the emergency meeting was Larry Mandel, chairman of the Board of Selectmen (“BOS”), Andrew Harhay, incumbent member of the BOS, Bettina Schmidt, who was announced as the winner of the election for the seat on the BOS last night by two votes, and Sharon Ashleigh, the town clerk.
During the emergency meeting, Sharon Ashleigh explained how it came to be that there is now a tie where there was a winner last might. Sharon explained that five individuals voted on a provisional ballot. Provisional ballots are created by individuals who's name does not appear on the cross-off list (list of all the registered voters) but which insist that they are registered voters. Such provisional ballots are not run thorough the voting machine as their claim to be registered voter first needs to be verified by the town clerk. Hence, these votes were not included in the count published last night.
Sharon, “Paula wanted to set up tables and I needed to get out of there (the Community Center) last night,” and, “at eight o´clock I had other things on my mind and forgot about the provisional votes..”
Early today, Sharon checked the five individuals voting status and determined that one was not a registered voter, two had registered too late, and the last two were registered voters but had moved within the town. This the reason why the two names were missing on the list of registered voters. She apologized for this oversight to the two candidates.
The question was then what to do about the tie. There are not many options:
- Either candidate or both could ask for a recount;
- either one could withdraw their candidacy; or
- the town will have to organize another caucus followed by a special election.
Peter Frei.
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2016 Annual Town Election Results, Congratulations Mrs. Bettina Schmidt!
A total of 311 voters made the annual trip to the Holland Community Center to exercise their constitutional right to participate in forming the government of their community. (Last year the count was 465.)The annual town election took place at the Community Center for the second time, read more»
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2016 Annual Town Election Results
I was going to publish the results here as usual...Sharon Ashley, our town clerk, refused to give me a print-out and added, The results will be published on the town's website.
How about those people who do not have a computer? It seems to me that they don't want you, the reader of the Holland Blog to have it first. I tried, sorry! Ask your self the question, how much of an effort would it be to tape a print-out of the results at the door to the town hall as they always did?
So much I heard from an informed source, Bill Hardy will keep the job he had for years, moderator (thank god! Steven Anderstrom did not get his way.) Harhey did not make it either (he lost by two votes!) Bettina Schmidt is our new member of the Board of Selectmen, congratulations! Scotty defeated Richard Polverari.
Peter Frei
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Say Yes to Public Health Protection and NO to RECALL.
At the time I prepared my campaign signs in June of 2014, I had no idea that serving the community with integrity would lead to me being recalled based on lies by a small group of corrupt disgruntled town officials, read more»
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2015 Annual Town Election Results, Congratulations Mr. Gillen!
A total of 465 voters made the annual trip to the Holland Community Center to exercise their constitutional right to participate in forming the government of their community. (Last year the count was 437.)The annual town election took place at the Community Center for the first time, read more»
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Town elections this comming Monday, June 8
Please make the time to vote, for the first time the elections will take place at the Community Center by the cemetery.It is important that those who don't really care get out there because the selfserving individuals who profit from corruption for sure will make the effort.
A special message to Kristin LaPlante; your notion that informatative election fliers based on facts are hate mail is missconceived and shows an utter disrespect of the democratic process on your part. This is the reason why you and those close to you are a danger in any position you are holding in our community.
We go back a long time; not many remember town clerk Robert Ford which you replaced in 2004. I remember Kristin Grant, your maiden name, as an innocent single women with a strong need to belong. You do belong now and there is not much we still have in common.
As always, I make up my own mind about a newcomer. Sharon Ashleigh was a newcomer. However, lately I was forced to realize that she already belongs too... she belongs to the point where she is unable to do her job. If the town clerk refuses to comply with Public Information Requests and witholds the information for more than 40 days when the law mandates her to comply with such a request within 10 days, she becomes a danger to our community as well. The information I requested will be useless by then.. The right to file Public Information Requests is one of the strong pillars a free society is based on. Public Information Requests are enabeling and ensuring public involvement and participation by providing a mechanism for holding governmental actors accountable for their decisions and actions.
Kristin, you obviously are a strong leader and mentor and had a chance to intorduce Sharon into the many responsibilities a town clerk has. Unfortunatelly that strong lead was pointing in the wrong direction!
Experience in the hands of a person with a strong moral compass is a good thing; in the wrong hands, it will spell disaster (unnecessary costly lawsuits.) Sharon Ashleigh seems to have that experience already (pushing the limits to see with what she can get away with, and in this town it seems to be endless), at least that is what she is claiming on her campaign signs.
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Please attend the Annual Town Meeting next Tuesday, May 26, at 7:00 pm at the Holland Elementary School
It is a good idea to read the warrant before hand. For your convenience, I have it posted here. To read the warrant, click here!Comments - Edit - Delete