Maple Grove Civic Club Will Reactivate Taxpayers Association

The Maple Grove Civic Club decided the president of the club can appoint a chairman to revive the Adams Taxpayers Association.

ADAMS, Mass. — The moribound Adams Taxpayers Association will be revived by the Maple Grove Civic Club despite objections by some members that it doesn't comply with the bylaws.

The membership voted 15-6 at Sunday's meeting against a full club vote on the issue, leaving the details for the group's resurrection in the hands of the board of directors.

Vice President Jeffrey Lefebvre said the club's bylaws allow for the appointment of a chairman of a special committee who then can create his own board. He said this board will be separate from the club and can be deactivated or asked to leave at any time.

"I have had people from North Adams and quite a few people from Adams ask us to hurry up and get it going because … how many of you are happy that your taxes keep going up?" Lefebvre said. "We can step in and turn around and say 'you are no longer affiliated with the Maple Grove Civic Club' and they would have to go out on their own."

Lefebvre said the members of the association do not have to be members, although he suspects the proposed directors, Alfred Diesz and John Cowie, will join. By the association not being members, he said, they have a less of a say if the club decides to disband it. He said the club will provide no money and the association will hold separate meetings.

Lefebvre quoted the bylaw as "it allows for special committee for outside activity such as a clam bake" or a "fundraiser."

Club member Janet Rogge said she did not feel that the bylaw allows a political action group to attach its name to the club.

"Too attach the Maple Grove Civic Club's name to it is an issue for me because not everybody in the club would be in agreement," Rogge said. "If it was a clam bake, I like clams you don't like clams, and that is no big deal … I think what is being proposed here has a lot of meaning."

Club member and Selectman Joseph Nowak agreed with Rogge and said he questioned the bylaw interpretation.  

"I think the bylaws are open for interpretation, and I think you are interpreting them in a way that makes what you want to happen happen," Nowak said.  

Lefebvre said the tax association can get up and running quicker by using the club because it will not have to register as a political action committee on its own. The association had worked on its own, separate from the club, in past reactivations.

Nowak said he felt if some people are so passionate about this association they should start it on their own.  

"If it's hard, they should work hard to start it," he said. "I don't see why we have to be the ones that start it for them."

Rogge said there should be a full-member vote of the club on reviving the association, and it should not be left to the president or just the members present on Sunday. Her motion to bring it to the full membership failed 15-6; Nowak abstained.

Lefebvre said the Adams Taxpayers Association started in the early 1960s, returning in the '70s because of problems with the Housing Authority and more recently when a Proposition 2 1/2 override was proposed.   

Although he understands why people do not want higher taxes, Nowak said he does not think the club implementing the association is the proper way to handle it.

"I'm not for taxes, and I know they are high. I am a selectman and I heard it a million times, but I don't know if this is the right instrument to do this," Nowak said. "If you think this is the way it should go, then I'm amenable, but I wouldn't vote for it personally."

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