Investigative Report
The Politics of the Bidwell Forest Part III
or
Connecting the Dots
copyright 2018 by david w runyan II
Other Reports by David W Runyan II
Introduction
***UPDATE 6/20/23*** The town's attempt to get a highway ramp on South Athol Road has failed so they have abandoned their industrial park dreams for the Bidwell Forest and are turning their attention to making it a housing subdivision, which still violates what we were told, "land bank for future municipal usage" . . . private homes don't constitute municipal usage.
In Part I of this series we learned how town officials used the trick, "It's For the Kids!" to facilitate the purchase of the Bidwell Forest.
In Part II we learned that town officials are preparing a bait & switch use for the Bidwell Forest and will likely use another trick, "This Will Bring Jobs to Town!" to make that happen.
Part III reveals what town hall actually has in mind for the Bidwell Forest and it has nothing to do with kids or jobs. It also delves into the possibility of corruption and collusion between town officials and private sector beneficiaries of the economic development plan.
The South Athol Ramp, Bidwell Part I and Bidwell Part II reports are necessary foundations for this report. You are encouraged to read them first if you haven't already done so. Otherwise parts of this report may be difficult to follow.
Disclaimer - Parts I and II were purely objective and factual. This report does provides additional evidence but is also an opinion piece reflecting my personal conclusions based upon the body of evidence.
Town officials told the people of Athol that the Bidwell Forest was "for the kids" to get voters to approve the purchase. But now they want to "economically develop" that land and will be telling the people "this will bring jobs to town" to get voters to approve the reuse, a zoning change and public debt for infrastructure. They're hinting at an industrial park for the Bidwell Forest.
Town officials are not stupid people. They're well aware of the job creation failures at North Quabbin Commons, Orange Industrial Park and Randall Pond Industrial Park. They understand how the GATT free trade agreement decimated the American manufacturing sector and they realize that manufacturing jobs coming to Athol are about as likely as a blizzard in August.
So why would they make yet another futile attempt to create jobs? They won't. It's a charade.
Our model for understanding the charade is North Quabbin Commons. It began life as a touted industrial park to bring living-wage full time jobs to the people of Athol but it was transformed into a shopping center after a decade of failure to attract even a single business.
In the end, no meaningful jobs were created but town hall is getting property tax and other revenue. A bust for Athol's unemployed but a bonanza for town hall. And that's the charade; they don't care about jobs . . . they only care about tax revenue.
In the case of the Bidwell Forest, we can expect town officials to once again fluff the people with the fairy tale of jobs and then after years of failure, their industrial park will become something else; something which doesn't create jobs . . . but does create tax revenue.
Why do town officials make these phony plans using lies and deception? Let's unravel that mystery.
We're all familiar with the phrase "follow the money" but in understanding the actions of town officials we need to modify that phrase to read: "follow the lack of money".
As long-time Athol residents are aware, property taxes have tripled over the past 35 years but the town's population has not tripled and town services haven't either. In fact, the population has remained essentially unchanged for the past 90 years. The reasons behind the spiraling budget are easy to understand and will be presented in full detail in the upcoming investigative report entitled "The Rising Cost of Zero Growth". But for the moment, a quick visual on the town's recent fiscal trend.
In the following communique, the town manager confirms my theory; stating in political jargon that there is a shift toward CIP taxpayers; which is a compound acronym for Commercial, Industrial, Professional. Town officials are pinning their hopes for new revenue upon these CIP taxpayers.
Almost certainly, as happened at North Quabbin Commons, the Bidwell Forest will be clear cut, it's hills will be mined flat for sand and gravel, it will sit ugly and idle for a number of years and when no jobs come, it will be transformed into multiple warehouses, a 100-acre solar power plant, a truck stop, a prison, a strip mall or a mixture of non-job-creating sources of tax revenue.
Are town officials capable of putting something ugly and useless on the Bidwell parcel? They certainly are. Their sole motive is tax revenue, not jobs. They couldn't care less whether it's a 200K square foot manufacturing plant employing 500 people or a 200K square foot trucking warehouse employing zero. Both pay the exact same amount in property taxes. They are equal in the eyes of the kleptocrats.
South Athol is not the end of senseless destruction of town beauty. It's the beginning. As operating costs continue to rise, town officials will set their CIP sights on other pretty parts of town.
The hunger for money at town hall will continue to grow because the root cause of the debt has not been dealt with. Our town officials can't be accurately described as leaders; they're best described as kleptocrats. Leaders would identify the sources of the red ink and would work toward long term solutions. We don't see that from town hall. We see the opposite.
South Athol Road is Quabbinesque; meaning a scenic transition from the crowded development of downtown Athol to the peaceful beauty of Quabbin Reservoir. This Quabbinesque transition is now threatened with being erased from the landscape forever in exchange for development which brings dollars to town hall but does not bring jobs to local people. It's a windfall for the kleptocrats and a sad tragedy for the landscape and for the people who love their town.
Barring a voter rebellion, the fate of the Bidwell Forest and South Athol will not be a source of local pride but rather one of local regret.
The town manager gives us some insight into what's in store for the Bidwell Forest.
Notice the wording and order of the potential uses: industrial - business - institutional - recreational.
Ultimately, the people of Athol, if they don't want useless development of the Bidwell Forest, if they don't want the beauty of South Athol destroyed for no good reason, if they don't want to be fleeced to provide infrastructure for CIP taxpayers that don't provide jobs, if they don't want to be robbed to feather the nests of the beneficiaries of the false economic plan . . . the people always have the simple but effective weapon of registering to vote and showing up at town meeting to shut down the plans of the kleptocrats.
Collusion, Corruption and Curiosities
We now come to my theories about possible collusion and corruption.
Before we begin, the customary disclaimer: The theories presented hereafter are not allegations against any person or party but merely reflect the possibility, not the certainty of corruption and collusion according to the observations and suspicions of this author.
Whenever there's a land deal involving public money there's always a chance for the kind of corruption where politically connected people enrich themselves at taxpayer expense. The circumstances surrounding the purchase of the Bidwell Forest are ripe with such implications.
It helps to understand the region and its history. South Athol Road, from end to end in geological terms, is a sand plain. This is why, over the decades, the two sand and gravel companies have been buying up all the land along South Athol Road as it became available.
In the map below we see that the Bidwell Forest is literally surrounded by active and exhausted sand and gravel strip mines.
Who benefits from the proposed highway ramp on South Athol Road, the proposed industrial park at the Bidwell Forest and the economic development of South Athol Road via a zoning change and infrastructure projects?
That's easy! Here are the beneficiaries: town hall and two sand and gravel companies with vast land holdings along South Athol Road including land abutting the proposed highway ramp. The interests of the local government and the land owners intersect and mesh, automatically creating a fertile environment for corruption and collusion
The property map below shows us that the town and the sand and gravel companies own almost all of the land along what they call the South Athol Corridor which is precisely where they plan to do all this economic development and they also own all four corners abutting the proposed highway ramp.
Highway Ramp Benefits
1 - When the Bidwell Forest became available the sand and gravel companies probably looked into buying it but the asking price was too high so the town and the sand and gravel companies may have worked together on the staged offer and withdrawal mentioned in Part I, "Various Other Suspicious Issues".
2 - If the Bidwell Forest is developed and either of these sand and gravel companies are contracted directly or indirectly to excavate and mine the gravel then together with town officials they may have arranged for the taxpayers of Athol to unknowingly buy the land for them and also to pay them to mine it.
3 - Once the Bidwell Forest becomes an ugly, open strip mine, that eyesore will soften voters to approve a change of zoning and industrial uses for the Bidwell Forest; paving the way for the CIP taxpayers.
1 - The zoning change will instantly increase the value of the nearby land.
2 - The zoning change will increase the development options of the land along the corridor. At present, South Athol Road is zoned Residential C which means that the only use for this land is single family homes on large lots or solar power plants. Under industrial zoning, anything and everything can be built on the land.
In Part I we learned that the Bidwell Forest became available at the height of the Great Recession when real estate and development had come to a screeching halt and the future was uncertain. But somehow, an unnamed developer made an offer at twice the appraised value for the Bidwell Forest for the purpose of harvesting gravel and building house lots. The land was under Chapter 61A so the town had right of first refusal. When the town made it's intent to purchase known, the unnamed developer suddenly withdrew his offer despite the fact that the town's offer was contingent upon sale of the old Middle School which was months away from closing.
It may be that one or both of the sand and gravel companies and possibly a third party accomplice, worked together with town officials to stage a phony offer and withdrawal to make the purchase appear urgent and credible.
After the unnamed developer withdrew his offer, the town did not withdraw its offer. Since there was no longer an existing offer on the property there was no longer any urgent need to exercise right of first refusal. Furthermore the town did not renegotiate its offer to be in line with the appraised price but went forward with the ridiculously high offer which had since been withdrawn.
There really is no way to explain this bizarre behavior of town officials. The only thing I can think of is that they desired to use the high price as a means of discounting any use of the land for ball fields, fire stations or recreation; leaving the CIP bait & switch as the only financially logical option.
This series is now complete. I have exposed the Bidwell purchase, the highway ramp project and the South Athol economic development plan to be deceptive and hostile acts perpetrated against the Town of Athol and its people by Athol town officials.
The conspirators of the South Athol economic development plan view voters as easy targets, floor mats, chumps whom they can manipulate with simple lies: "It's for the kids", This will bring jobs to town", Build it and they will come". I've done my part to educate voters so maybe they're not such easy targets any longer.
Time will tell.
If it was true that another manufacturing company like Starrett was going to take up residence in the Bidwell Forest and provide 500 - 1000 jobs for local people, we should all be cheerleaders for that to happen . . . but it ain't happenin' so how about we keep South Athol as it is and persuade town officials to keep that land in reserve for the schools, ball fields, fire station and recreational uses they promised us in the beginning.
Kindest Regards to My Fellow Atholians,
David W. Runyan II
In Part II we learned that town officials are preparing a bait & switch use for the Bidwell Forest and will likely use another trick, "This Will Bring Jobs to Town!" to make that happen.
Part III reveals what town hall actually has in mind for the Bidwell Forest and it has nothing to do with kids or jobs. It also delves into the possibility of corruption and collusion between town officials and private sector beneficiaries of the economic development plan.
The South Athol Ramp, Bidwell Part I and Bidwell Part II reports are necessary foundations for this report. You are encouraged to read them first if you haven't already done so. Otherwise parts of this report may be difficult to follow.
Disclaimer - Parts I and II were purely objective and factual. This report does provides additional evidence but is also an opinion piece reflecting my personal conclusions based upon the body of evidence.
The Wherefore and the Why
Town officials told the people of Athol that the Bidwell Forest was "for the kids" to get voters to approve the purchase. But now they want to "economically develop" that land and will be telling the people "this will bring jobs to town" to get voters to approve the reuse, a zoning change and public debt for infrastructure. They're hinting at an industrial park for the Bidwell Forest.
Town officials are not stupid people. They're well aware of the job creation failures at North Quabbin Commons, Orange Industrial Park and Randall Pond Industrial Park. They understand how the GATT free trade agreement decimated the American manufacturing sector and they realize that manufacturing jobs coming to Athol are about as likely as a blizzard in August.
So why would they make yet another futile attempt to create jobs? They won't. It's a charade.
Our model for understanding the charade is North Quabbin Commons. It began life as a touted industrial park to bring living-wage full time jobs to the people of Athol but it was transformed into a shopping center after a decade of failure to attract even a single business.
In the end, no meaningful jobs were created but town hall is getting property tax and other revenue. A bust for Athol's unemployed but a bonanza for town hall. And that's the charade; they don't care about jobs . . . they only care about tax revenue.
In the case of the Bidwell Forest, we can expect town officials to once again fluff the people with the fairy tale of jobs and then after years of failure, their industrial park will become something else; something which doesn't create jobs . . . but does create tax revenue.
Why do town officials make these phony plans using lies and deception? Let's unravel that mystery.
We're all familiar with the phrase "follow the money" but in understanding the actions of town officials we need to modify that phrase to read: "follow the lack of money".
As long-time Athol residents are aware, property taxes have tripled over the past 35 years but the town's population has not tripled and town services haven't either. In fact, the population has remained essentially unchanged for the past 90 years. The reasons behind the spiraling budget are easy to understand and will be presented in full detail in the upcoming investigative report entitled "The Rising Cost of Zero Growth". But for the moment, a quick visual on the town's recent fiscal trend.
source: town of athol website
The operating costs of Athol are on an upward spiral but population and home values are stagnant so town officials, rather than doing the right thing (getting costs under control and living within their means), are seeking new sources of revenue in order to avoid doing the right thing.In the following communique, the town manager confirms my theory; stating in political jargon that there is a shift toward CIP taxpayers; which is a compound acronym for Commercial, Industrial, Professional. Town officials are pinning their hopes for new revenue upon these CIP taxpayers.
In order to satisfy their appetite for dollars town officials are willing and content to destroy the town's natural beauty by ripping up forests to make way for CIP taxpayers and they're willing and content to lie about jobs in order to win voter approval for the zoning changes and public debt necessary to build infrastructure to attract those CIP taxpayers.
copyright Jay Ward Productions
Almost certainly, as happened at North Quabbin Commons, the Bidwell Forest will be clear cut, it's hills will be mined flat for sand and gravel, it will sit ugly and idle for a number of years and when no jobs come, it will be transformed into multiple warehouses, a 100-acre solar power plant, a truck stop, a prison, a strip mall or a mixture of non-job-creating sources of tax revenue.
Are town officials capable of putting something ugly and useless on the Bidwell parcel? They certainly are. Their sole motive is tax revenue, not jobs. They couldn't care less whether it's a 200K square foot manufacturing plant employing 500 people or a 200K square foot trucking warehouse employing zero. Both pay the exact same amount in property taxes. They are equal in the eyes of the kleptocrats.
South Athol is not the end of senseless destruction of town beauty. It's the beginning. As operating costs continue to rise, town officials will set their CIP sights on other pretty parts of town.
The hunger for money at town hall will continue to grow because the root cause of the debt has not been dealt with. Our town officials can't be accurately described as leaders; they're best described as kleptocrats. Leaders would identify the sources of the red ink and would work toward long term solutions. We don't see that from town hall. We see the opposite.
The End Does Not Justify the Means
South Athol Road is Quabbinesque; meaning a scenic transition from the crowded development of downtown Athol to the peaceful beauty of Quabbin Reservoir. This Quabbinesque transition is now threatened with being erased from the landscape forever in exchange for development which brings dollars to town hall but does not bring jobs to local people. It's a windfall for the kleptocrats and a sad tragedy for the landscape and for the people who love their town.
Barring a voter rebellion, the fate of the Bidwell Forest and South Athol will not be a source of local pride but rather one of local regret.
The town manager gives us some insight into what's in store for the Bidwell Forest.
The Grand Plan
Link: Sustainability Plan
More from the Town Manager
source: Town of Athol website
Notice the wording and order of the potential uses: industrial - business - institutional - recreational.
There is no mention of schools even though schools were always mentioned first and foremost back when they asked voters to approve the purchase of the Bidwell Forest. See Bidwell Part I.
Recreational use can be ruled out because recreational areas don't pay taxes and taxes are the central and singular preoccupation of town officials.
Industrial use can be ruled out because industrial parks will fail. No, Virginia, there is no Santa Jobs coming to town. See Bidwell Part II.
Business use is a broad term and can mean just about anything: retail, commercial, solar power plants, warehouse or storage space; none of which provide meaningful full time jobs.
The mention of institutional use should concern the people of Athol. This means some type of state or federal government use like a prison or community college. While a college might be a positive thing for the town, a prison is not.
Ultimately, the people of Athol, if they don't want useless development of the Bidwell Forest, if they don't want the beauty of South Athol destroyed for no good reason, if they don't want to be fleeced to provide infrastructure for CIP taxpayers that don't provide jobs, if they don't want to be robbed to feather the nests of the beneficiaries of the false economic plan . . . the people always have the simple but effective weapon of registering to vote and showing up at town meeting to shut down the plans of the kleptocrats.
Collusion, Corruption and Curiosities
We now come to my theories about possible collusion and corruption.
Before we begin, the customary disclaimer: The theories presented hereafter are not allegations against any person or party but merely reflect the possibility, not the certainty of corruption and collusion according to the observations and suspicions of this author.
Whenever there's a land deal involving public money there's always a chance for the kind of corruption where politically connected people enrich themselves at taxpayer expense. The circumstances surrounding the purchase of the Bidwell Forest are ripe with such implications.
source: starrfmonline.com
It helps to understand the region and its history. South Athol Road, from end to end in geological terms, is a sand plain. This is why, over the decades, the two sand and gravel companies have been buying up all the land along South Athol Road as it became available.
In the map below we see that the Bidwell Forest is literally surrounded by active and exhausted sand and gravel strip mines.
That's easy! Here are the beneficiaries: town hall and two sand and gravel companies with vast land holdings along South Athol Road including land abutting the proposed highway ramp. The interests of the local government and the land owners intersect and mesh, automatically creating a fertile environment for corruption and collusion
The property map below shows us that the town and the sand and gravel companies own almost all of the land along what they call the South Athol Corridor which is precisely where they plan to do all this economic development and they also own all four corners abutting the proposed highway ramp.
source: Axisgs
Highway Ramp Benefits
The Ramp Report proves that the ramp is not necessary or beneficial to the people of Athol. It is only beneficial to those who own nearby land.
1 - Taxpayers will pay $25-million to provide the sand and gravel companies with an easy-on, easy-off ramp for their construction trucks. How hospitable of the taxpayers!
1 - Taxpayers will pay $25-million to provide the sand and gravel companies with an easy-on, easy-off ramp for their construction trucks. How hospitable of the taxpayers!
2 - The ramp will instantly increase the value of the nearby land. Those taxpayers! Such darlings they are!
3 - The ramp will lend credibility to the economic development plan for South Athol Road and the Bidwell Forest.
Bidwell Forest Development Benefits
1 - When the Bidwell Forest became available the sand and gravel companies probably looked into buying it but the asking price was too high so the town and the sand and gravel companies may have worked together on the staged offer and withdrawal mentioned in Part I, "Various Other Suspicious Issues".
2 - If the Bidwell Forest is developed and either of these sand and gravel companies are contracted directly or indirectly to excavate and mine the gravel then together with town officials they may have arranged for the taxpayers of Athol to unknowingly buy the land for them and also to pay them to mine it.
3 - Once the Bidwell Forest becomes an ugly, open strip mine, that eyesore will soften voters to approve a change of zoning and industrial uses for the Bidwell Forest; paving the way for the CIP taxpayers.
Industrial Zoning Change Benefits
1 - The zoning change will instantly increase the value of the nearby land.
2 - The zoning change will increase the development options of the land along the corridor. At present, South Athol Road is zoned Residential C which means that the only use for this land is single family homes on large lots or solar power plants. Under industrial zoning, anything and everything can be built on the land.
Solving Mysteries
Mystery 1
In Part I we learned that the Bidwell Forest became available at the height of the Great Recession when real estate and development had come to a screeching halt and the future was uncertain. But somehow, an unnamed developer made an offer at twice the appraised value for the Bidwell Forest for the purpose of harvesting gravel and building house lots. The land was under Chapter 61A so the town had right of first refusal. When the town made it's intent to purchase known, the unnamed developer suddenly withdrew his offer despite the fact that the town's offer was contingent upon sale of the old Middle School which was months away from closing.
It may be that one or both of the sand and gravel companies and possibly a third party accomplice, worked together with town officials to stage a phony offer and withdrawal to make the purchase appear urgent and credible.
Mystery 2
After the unnamed developer withdrew his offer, the town did not withdraw its offer. Since there was no longer an existing offer on the property there was no longer any urgent need to exercise right of first refusal. Furthermore the town did not renegotiate its offer to be in line with the appraised price but went forward with the ridiculously high offer which had since been withdrawn.
There really is no way to explain this bizarre behavior of town officials. The only thing I can think of is that they desired to use the high price as a means of discounting any use of the land for ball fields, fire stations or recreation; leaving the CIP bait & switch as the only financially logical option.
Concluding Matters
This series is now complete. I have exposed the Bidwell purchase, the highway ramp project and the South Athol economic development plan to be deceptive and hostile acts perpetrated against the Town of Athol and its people by Athol town officials.
The conspirators of the South Athol economic development plan view voters as easy targets, floor mats, chumps whom they can manipulate with simple lies: "It's for the kids", This will bring jobs to town", Build it and they will come". I've done my part to educate voters so maybe they're not such easy targets any longer.
Time will tell.
If it was true that another manufacturing company like Starrett was going to take up residence in the Bidwell Forest and provide 500 - 1000 jobs for local people, we should all be cheerleaders for that to happen . . . but it ain't happenin' so how about we keep South Athol as it is and persuade town officials to keep that land in reserve for the schools, ball fields, fire station and recreational uses they promised us in the beginning.
Kindest Regards to My Fellow Atholians,
David W. Runyan II
Other Reports by David W Runyan II
