Copy of Letter Sent to
the Georgetown SelectBoard
by Ida Wye
To the Editor:
I am writing this to the BOS to express my disappointment with your inability to shepherd this town through many decades of challenges. It is obvious that the election process has been a junior high popularity contest and increasing the board from 3 to 5 has only exacerbated this. I am incredulous as I consistently witness this televised display, absent of any proactive leadership or critical thinking.
Your board needs to insist that each volunteer commission, committee and board appear in an open forum and answer cogent questions.
The CPC is in a quandary. I recommend you begin by scheduling those members to come before you immediately. The chair of the CPC is also a member of the Fin Com, and when she met with the ConCom, she curiously was unable to answer any questions regarding the “Wreck” (sic) Path. This meeting was televised. It is unacceptable for any member of any volunteer group, appointed or elected, to be unprepared and uninformed. You are responsible for your appointed volunteers.
My understanding is that the CPA covers 3 categories: open space-recreation, historic, and affordable housing. Exactly how much money has been spent on each category and on what projects-past-present-languishing in limbo?
Let’s focus on the “Wreck” (sic) Path. I found information on a Facebook page. The earliest date mentioned was 2004. Monies were disbursed in 2008 and 2010. Exactly how much money was disbursed and for what? What has been accomplished and how much money has been spent as of Aug. 2025? Given the first entry was 2004, why has this process been inexcusably lengthy 2004-2025? CPA should go away…that has a nice ring to it. It is a boondoggle “managed” by a club of volunteers who find ways to justify spending these tax dollars for their pet projects. Are they unaware of GoFundMe?
The ConCom has been mysteriously targeted by your board and your town administrator, who has been especially hostile. Both you and your town administrator work for the residents of Georgetown.
“Every tyrant fears a thinker more than an army.” Voltaire
Clearly, this is why your TA and the BOS harassed the former con com agent and chair and rejected me when I initially applied to be appointed to the con com.
(I am currently a member of the Con Com). Given your TA cannot vote, it was grossly inappropriate that he commented on my resume and queried me. He intimated he knew much of what I knew because he had a roommate who attended Stockbridge. This was bizarre especially because I graduated with a B.S. from the U. Mass. College of Food and Natural Resources. I did not waste 2 years of my life learning how to cut grass…
We do not have a DPW. We have a highway department. Clearly, your expectations for the highway department are unreasonable. The department is overextended and has too much road, sidewalk and plowing work to be additionally burdened with lawn and tree management and care. The con com is uniquely suited to advising and assisting the highway department.
There ought to be collaboration with the highway department, the con com and the schools. The goal should be sustainability. Currently, lawn management is performed by Clark Lawn Care 978 306 LAWN. How much is Clark paid and what chemicals are applied? Why is the grass cut so frequently and so short by the highway dept.? Who hired Clark and why?
A collection of invasives, deliberately planted as ornamentals, can be seen from your town hall “designer” windows; Red Barberry, Pink Spirea and Bradford Pear. The con com should provide oversight and management of public green spaces and trees. These invasives should be removed and native plants should be planted. The con com agent should be the tree warden. Trees should be properly pruned and cared for. Georgetown should adopt the Tree City
USA program and the con com has the time and the expertise to assist the town in this process. Lawn management should be done organically. The con com should collaborate with the schools and transition some of these lifeless lawns to native plants and pollinator meadows. This would provide both a learning opportunity and a valuable service to the community.
The shabby downtown business district is defined by filling stations, package stores, pizza and sub shops, a couple of entropy houses and an odoriferous, formerly rat infested and extremely noisy chicken coop. This is a direct reflection on your lack of vision, leadership and accountability. If that weren’t enough to define Georgetown as a mess, we can now add an enormous transfer station to this disastrous cocktail.
“No taxation without representation”
Georgetown is either reactive or inactive, but never proactive. How can you expect anyone to be forced to pay additional property tax! Your impertinence would be comical,
if it were not so pathetic. What do property owners owe you, your volunteers, your loitering town hall employees or your town administrator? At the very least, you ought to create a tax relief program to assist people who struggle financially -and not only seniors. Your tiresome solution of throwing more money at problems through raising property taxes postpones inevitable failures and solves absolutely nothing.
Taxed resident, Ida Wye
Georgetown, Mass.
