Unofficial Election Results
In case you want to know, here the results. There was really only one contested position, the position for Water Commissioner which was decided in faovor of Kyle Merolla.
Please click on the image to download a larger image!
Jennifer Mott did not really stand a chance to get back to the town hall in an elected position after her “performance” as town clerk. As incumbent, she failed miserably and lost to Valerie Lundin, the individual which was her assistant at the time. Valerie beat her as a write in candidate in 2023.
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William Robertson, chairman of the Planning Board, “I have checked all the versions of the Bylaws that I have and I could not find any of the language there ... ”
The language Robertson refers to is the definition of “Special Conservancy.” This utterance by Robertson proves that he never consulted the version of the Zoning Bylaws the Board goes by; the version which is posted on the town’s website, the “BIBLE” for everything we do. According to Robertson, he was at the Planning Board office since 2 or 3 PM before the meeting and could not find anything!The meeting was slated to begin at 6 PM; by that time he was already at the town hall for three hours. What Robertson and the other three members present were unable to find was the definition of “Special Conservancy.” Eventually they called Andrew Harhay (at 30:50) who owned one of the properties zoned “Special Conservancy.”
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Notes to the Panning Board Meeting of January 24, 2024, and my New Role on the Planning Board.
I said it before, I’m not a member of the Planning Board to look for new friends or out of the need to “belong”; I serve on the Board to ensure that applicants who are entitled to a benefit will get it, and applicants with applications outside the law will not get their way, regardless whether they are popular in Town or not. If I make friends doing this, I would like that, but I will not compromise my integrity just to please others or to “belong.”My role or function on the Board will be from now on more that of an advocate for the applicant if his/her application is in conformance with MGL and the Town’s bylaws, or that of an adversary if an application is outside the laws.
Going forward, I will also focus on providing information to the public as minutes of the Board are only sparingly provided, and if provided, they are none descriptive.
William Robertson failed to produce minutes for his entire time he served as the secretary; there are no minutes for the entire year of 2022 and 2023. The only minutes posted for the year 2023, I wrote; the minutes to the meetings of May 23, 2022, and June 7, 2023. I did so because William Robertson was absent.
I just checked the website and there is still nothing posted with his signature for the entire year of 2022 and 2023; a clear violation of the Open Meeting Law.
I will also post the videos of every meeting so interested parties are able to see what is going on. The Board voted twice to request the password of the town’s website to clean up the Planning Board’s part of the website, and to be able to post agendas, minutes, videos, and provide other information without te help of Stacey.
Stacy Stout, the town administrator, refused to give the Board the password. I’m also done with that effort.
Back to making friends ... lately the climate got frosty and two of the other members of the Board are very angry and hostile towards me. What happened?
CannaMoumtain”s Special Permit application for Site Plan approval only, was to much for these two members to bear, William Robertson and Robert Perron. While Robertson is ignorant about the procedure involved and the laws, Perron feels that I “shoved the decision down his throat,”
and worse;
Comments - Edit - DeleteThe CannaMountain Project; is William Robertson, Chair of the Planning Board, up to the Task?
CannaMountain LLC applied for site plan approval on a project on the scale the town probably never faced before.
It is obvious that a multi million Dollar project presents different issues as an application for a Special Permit for a double garage on a private parcel as an accessory building to a private dwelling.
Not everybody knows everything all the time. Sometimes it is necessary to listen.
Robertson has a hard time with that reality and created a big mess; to a reporter he stated, “the bylaw process is not clear.”
The issue of approving CannaMountain’s application for a Special Permit for site plan approval involves reading up on the bylaw which he obviously failed to do. You can lead a horse to the water, but ...
To bring light and edification to Robertson, and others who like to know what is going on, please read this memo and comment;
Comments - Edit - DeleteKate 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
Comments - Edit - DeleteRegister 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.
Comments - Edit - DeleteOur 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.
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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