Beach Officially Closed for the 2021 Season
The beach is officially closed for the 2021 season. Those who continue to use the beach, do so at your own risk. There is no lifeguard on duty, the buoys and raft have been removed from the water, and the facilities are closed. All rules continue to be in effect.
If you choose to use the beach after the official close, PLEASE be CAUTIOUS!
Keep a VERY close eye on children at all times, NEVER swim alone, and get out of the water at the very first sign of a storm.
Food Scraps Composting Initiative
The Keeping Sterling Action Committee is very concerned that the food scraps composting initiative has been put on DPW’s back burner. We object to it being anywhere but the front burner.
Of course residents are worried about having a stinky pile of garbage in the neighborhood. No one wants that. We have no intention of that happening. Nor will the police station be polluted, as so shamefully occurred in the past.
Initially, we imagined an operation much like my backyard or like Brattleboro – bury it in a pile. But it became clear to us that odor would be a problem using that approach. So we went back to work.
We are studying commercial methods that insure odor is not an issue, methods that are supported by Massachusetts DEP regulations. In modern commercial operations, odors from food scraps are controlled by mechanical and chemical means — with harsh fines for failure. Even so, this is a money-making business. It can be done.
With commercial methods, a pile of wood chips has a stronger odor than even the freshly processed food scraps. There is a giant pile of wood chips at the proposed composting site, and no complaints about odors.
We rely on DPW to continue its great leadership by considering the facts driving this citizen-led initiative. We have an opportunity to reduce our waste tonnage by 25%, with significant impact on costs. This opportunity addresses two of our scarce resources: space in regional landfills, and Sterling’s prime soil. Landfill costs are exploding, and recycling can’t take us far enough. This is also an opportunity to reduce Sterling’s contribution to greenhouse gases, by an order of magnitude.
Our committee will continue our exploration of the safest means of establishing and operating a food scraps composting facility. The Sterling Senior Center, which is already involved, is counting on the composting initiative. We look forward to presenting our findings at a future date.
-Keeping Sterling Action Committee
Fall Brush Dump Schedule
The Brush Dump is located on George Peeso Lane and will be open 8 a.m. to noon on the following Saturdays: October 2, 9,16, 23, 30 and November 6, 13, 20, 2021. You must be a Sterling resident and have either a town sticker or proof of residency. Residents can bring up to 2″ sticks/branches, leaves and grass clippings.
Garden Club Plant Sale
The Garden Club has been potting up plants and tending them all summer. With the disappointing cancellation of the Sterling Fair, we are thrilled to still have an opportunity to hold our plant sale. Come see all that we have to off….from our gardens to yours!
STERLING GARDEN CLUB PLANT SALE
Find Us at the Sterling Street Market in Town center
Sat. September 11, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
FALL IS THE PERFECT TIME TO PLANT, SEE YOU THERE!
An Opportunity to Outreach to the Community
Sterling Cultural Council announces that the MASSACHUSETTS CULTURAL COUNCIL opened its grant application process on September 1, 2021. The deadline for applying is October 15, 2021.
Monies provided through the MA Cultural Council pay for local music concerts in the park during summer months, field trips for school children, artists in residence, community events.
Sterling Community Theater, Sterling Senior Center, the Recreation Department, and the Town library have been some of the recipients in the past, but individuals may also come up with ideas and apply.
You can DREAM up your own project so long as it is open to the public and in the areas of art, humanities, science, music, social studies, or literature. Look on the website of the MA Cultural Council for details and to create your own log in.
The limits on religious organizations applying are so long as the programs are open to all in the community and are to the public benefit without promoting a particular religion. If you have questions about the grant proposal process, contact Judy Doherty at Doherty_bwp@yahoo.com.
Judy Doherty
Sterling Cultural Council
Letter Regarding Town Meeting
To The Editor, Sterling Meetinghouse News:
I wish to commend Patrick Fox for raising some fundamental questions about the Annual Town Meeting in his letter entitled “Opinion Regarding Town Meeting Participation” published in the July issue of Sterling Meetinghouse News.
The Government Study Report issued in April of 2012* also raised similar concerns. At that time the report said the following:
“The Committee discussed whether or not the Town should consider changing its form of government to a Representative rather than an Open Town Meeting. Concerned citizens have been frustrated for many years with the poor attendance at Town Meeting. There is a “core” of 50 to 100 people who regularly attend. Groups often attend to support or oppose a specific article, then disappear once that vote has been taken. As a result, often only 200 to 300 citizens are making all the decisions on behalf of the residents of the Town of Sterling, making it easier for a special interest of one kind or another to determine the direction of the whole community.
The Committee recommends that we maintain Open Town Meeting in the Town of Sterling, but address ways of attracting the electorate to Town meetings so that a greater representative body makes the decisions that impact us all, both in the short term and the long term. We have concluded that the low Town meeting turnout is the result of a number of related and unrelated factors, including:
(a) voter apathy,
(b) busy work schedules,
(c) the perception that decisions have already been made on a number of issues, and
(d) a general lack of understanding about the functioning of Town government and the role of Town meeting.
We recommend the following:
The moderator and other elected officials record a short video on how Town meeting works and the procedures that one should be familiar with when one attends Town meeting. The video could then be made available on the Town’s
website, YouTube, and on local access television.
The moderator allows for more in-depth presentations on articles at Town Meeting, as the push for a “quick” Town Meeting often comes at the expense of the sponsors of the articles. Although article sponsors may have spent countless hours researching and preparing for Town Meeting, they are given a very short period of time in which to present background and analysis on an article.
Thought should be given to having presenters prepare video presentations that can be posted on the Town’s website or YouTube and shown on local access television for viewing in advance of the Town Meeting. To assure consistency in presentation and the ability of citizens to comment on the presentation, the same presentation should be shown at Town Meeting.
Materials that are going to be handed out at Town meeting be made available in advance of the meeting (e.g. posted on the Town’s website, at Town hall, at the library) so that citizens who like to prepare for Town meeting will be able to read the materials in advance rather than have to read them during Town meeting when other articles are being discussed.
Mail the Warrant to all households in which at least one registered voter lives in the Town of Sterling.”
In the 10 years since our report was written Town Meeting attendance has averaged 285** citizens or 5% of the registered voters for the period.
A few of the recommendations made in the 2012 report listed above have been implemented over the 10 years but many have not. The attendance at the meetings has not changed appreciably. Perhaps It is time, as Pat Fox has said, for the town to have another conversation about generating greater citizen participation at the Town Meeting.
Bob Dumont, Great Pond Way
Chair of the 2009 Sterling Town Government Study Committee
*Published April 30, 2012
**Figures provided by the Town Clerk 7/30/21