Letter: Gardner Saddened by Failure to Reach Waubeeka Compromise

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To the Editor:

I was saddened that the Williamstown Planning Board, of which I am a member, could not reach consensus on the language for a commercial overlay district at Waubeeka Golf Links at the May 4 meeting.

I am further saddened that Mr. Deep's attorney has indicated that he will not accept the amendment I drafted because it places a square-footage limit on the development. The amendment borrowed from multiple iterations from the last several weeks but it was met with hostility from two fellow board members and it was labeled as a crushing blow to economic development.

This is unfortunate because the Planning Board has worked for nine months to accommodate the development of a country inn and resort at Waubeeka, and I had hoped that we could reach a consensus that all of us could support on the floor of town meeting. After the meeting I was accused by one of our local reporters of having a secret agenda to kill development at Waubeeka. Nothing could be further from the truth. I had hoped we could arrive at a total square footage for the development that would satisfy both Mike Deep's development needs as well as the concerns of Williamstown citizens who oppose development of uncertain scale.

This has been a painful debate — I believe in careful planning — and I support an inn and resort at Waubeeka. But I want to know the scale.

Sarah Gardner
Gardner is a member of the
Williamstown, Mass., Planning Board

 

 

 


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Letter: Vote for Someone Other Than Trump

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

I urge my Republican friends to vote for someone other than Donald Trump in November. His rallies are getting embarrassingly sparse and his speeches more hostile and confused. He's looking desperately for money, now selling poor-quality gold sneakers for $399. While Trump's online fans embrace him more tightly, more and more of the people who actually worked with Trump have broken with him, often issuing statements denouncing his motives, intellect, and patriotism.

Mike Pence is the most recent, but the list now includes William Barr, former attorney general (who compared him to a 9-year-old); former NSC Chairs Bolton and McMaster; former Defense Secretaries Mattis and Esper; former Chiefs of Staff Kelly and Mulvaney; former Secretary of State Tillerson; former Homeland Security chief Bossert; and former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, who referred to Trump as a "wannabe dictator." This level of rejection by former colleagues is unprecedented in American politics.

Are these people just cozying up to the Establishment "Uniparty," as his fans would have it? No. Most of them are retired from politics. It's just that they see the danger most clearly. General Milley is right. Trump's most constant refrain is his desire to hurt his critics, including traditional conservatives. Although Liz Cheney lost her Wyoming seat in Congress, he now wants her jailed for investigating him.

This man should not be president of the USA.

Jim Mahon
Williamstown, Mass.

 

 

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