Gardner MA Conservation Commission Chair: “not be bullied, harassed, called, bamboozled, dumped on”
On August 9, 2022, the Gardner Conservation Commission took up the issue of the expansion of the Sludge landfill. While the City asked to continue the matter to August 22nd via an email from DPW Director Dane Arnold, Chairman Greg Dumas was not quick to dismiss the issue. He stated, “I’d like to read a few statements.” He then stated he was reading right out of the City’s Ordinance. “The purpose of Section 1 is to preserve and exercise jurisdiction over the protected resource areas as defined….” He then continued, listing all of the items and areas the Commission is charged to protect.”
“We’re Gonna Do the Right Thing”
With a passionate tone, the Chairman stated, “This Commission will not be bullied, harassed, called, bamboozled, dumped on with all kinds of information that’s needless to the commission. If we decide we want third party review, then we’re gonna get third party review. If the city’s doesn’t wanna pay for it, we’re authorized…to do so… We’re gonna do the right thing, no matter what., we always have, we always will.” The commission then voted to continue the matter to August 22nd.” In a July meeting, the Commission expressed its desire to get more information via a third party review.
Watch this meeting on YouTube – CLICK HERE – Or, Listen by clicking Play. (The portion which directly applies to this matter starts at 21:56 in, just use the slider to advance to the right if desired.)
Previous Articles and City of Gardner Position
View our complete article of July 12, 2022. CLICK HERE – View our initial article of May 25, 2022 – CLICK HERE. In an interview on August 3, 2022, –CLICK HERE – we asked Mayor Nicholson about this matter and he stated, “….everything’s had to be vetted as thoroughly as possible by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, the EPA. This is something that, we have to be remembering our fiduciary responsibility that we have for our rate payers. This is not a taxpayer project because not everyone is on our sewer system, but it has to be something that we take care of in the way that’s most effective, most environmentally friendly, and financially responsible for us. In that, we’ve looked at other proposals. We’ve looked at anaerobic digestion, we’ve looked at trucking the cost away, but it would result in a massive increase in our sewer rates, and we just can’t pass that on to the rate payers.”
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