Blake called out on WGAW Hotline Radio for the illegal threats made by her supporters.
Two-time Blake Donor Caught Making Unfounded Attacks on Business in Gardner MA – Blake Supporters Threaten Downtown Businesses
Peter Sargent, who goes by Piper Tulloch on Social Media has been bashing Gardner for allowing properties to be sold to the Millennium Holding Group. Sargent posted, “As this administration works to get buildings back on line utilizing Millennium Holding Group rather than a more community-oriented organization it is impressive how they are pouring money into Gardner and how they are causing real estate prices to balloon.” He accuses them of getting wealthy off our “little city” when of course so far all they have been doing is mostly incurring expenses of building repairs and interest on construction loans. However, the irony is that this penalized Gardner attorney, (see Telegram article from 2014, CLICK HERE) actually sold a property this year to the very group he is criticizing. While criticizing others for benefiting monetarily from property sales to Millennium, Sargent himself sold his former law office building at 82-84 Main Street to a Millennium Group entity. Gardner Magazine spoke with Jon Bombaci on October 28, 2023 and he confirmed that Sargent knew exactly to whom he was selling.
Jon Bombaci responded, “…our focus was to buy the worst buildings we could find at numbers that made sense. In Gardner specifically, along with the other investors working in the city, we’re starting to see the tide in the downtown turn. But that said I honestly believe we haven’t had much impact on the local real estate market in terms of rent and pricing.” It should be noted that Jon Bombaci has made an effort to purchase locally. Windows at the Garbose Building were purchased from Maki which makes them in Gardner. Bombaci states, “about 75-80% of routine maintenance stuff for the management company is handled by local contractors…on the bigger stuff it’s probably more like 40-50% to local companies.” on 2-10 Parker the windows and just about all supplies / material to date has come from Maki’s (local), the windows were installed by a local company, and the painting was done by a local company.
Blake Attacks Developer Without Cause
Kimberly Blake verbally attacked Jon Bombaci on Facebook, pushing the narrative that a previous owner of one of the properties purchased was “pushed out to make way for you… This whole beautification of downtown Gardner is a great (sic), but it’s also been strategic and played out…” Another false statement was “Those who have donated to him have a leg up, those who haven’t, they don’t matter.” The statement is patently false on its face because the properties were purchased from private sellers. Just like any other properties, they were listed online via MLS and anyone could purchase them if an offer was accepted by the seller. The only role that City Hall such as the Development Office plays is encouraging business to come to Gardner and advertising the Chair City as a good place to invest. If a developer asks if there are properties for sale, they may be directed to the appropriate Realtor. Publisher’s Note: It is unknown whether Blake simply doesn’t understand the process or makes the statements as some sort of attack strategy. Update 10-29-23 3pm: Jon Bombaci messaged me stating, “have to be honest I did not feel attacked by Kim. I can see how comments could be read that way but I felt no more attacked by her than I did by anyone else on that page.” Publisher’s Note: It is true that some of her supporters attacked him as well, but in the view of Gardner Magazine, only Blake is running for office and we thought that was more significant.
Blake Supporters Threatening Businesses
Some Blake supporters have been overtly vicious to supporters of Gardner Mayor Michael Nicholson on Facebook, but the situation has taken a more serious turn which Gardner Police may investigate. Businesses are being threatened by Blake supporters simply for having signs out for her opponent. Neither Gardner Magazine nor radio station WGAW will identify those businesses for fear that they might be targeted with harm. This is what Hotline Radio host and WGAW Owner Steve Wendell said on his show this week, (Saturday `10-28-23) “And I ran into some of my accounts this past week, and I understand that some of the supporters of Kimberly Blake, who is running for mayor, some of their supporters for the Kimberly Blake campaign are calling up, threatening and harassing different businesses in the Gardner area who happen to have posters or signs up of the opposing candidate. And they’re threatening the business owners in Gardner to put them out of business. So this harassment is going on not only in text messages, email messages, but also on Facebook, too. And this is not right and this has to stop.”
Kimberly Blake herself has a history of making false statements and attacks on Social Media. See our article on this earlier in the campaign. Recently, the campaign was ordered to forfeit funds to the State of MA due to an illegal fundraiser. See article and documentation . We have no way of contacting the Blake Campaign for comment because she has us blocked as well as any Gardner voter who dares to ask her either too many questions or those she doesn’t know how to answer. Fortunately, Election Day is coming up very soon on November 7th.