Milford selectmen’s Brox gravel operation scam
The Board of Selectmen will be meeting on March 13, at which time there will be the long-awaited presentation by Fieldstone Land Consultants about the planned gravel operation on the Brox town lands.
The selectmen sold the idea of the gravel operation to the voters last year by exaggerating the potential income and promising big money, and fast. They advertised an operation of three to five years and nearly a million dollars in revenue. It was a get-rich-quick scheme pitched to the voters. They even handed out phony dollar bills, remember?
But as I predicted a year ago, it was really a bait-and-switch scam, because now the selectmen admit that there’s no end in sight for the massive excavation project.
I also pointed out that it is physically impossible to move that much sand in such a short time span. Greater than 20 years is a more realistic number. Now they are saying that the excavation is open ended. They say it is dependent on the market conditions, which the selectmen admitted they know nothing about, stating it’s now the problem of Northeast Sand & Gravel, which has a contract to buy the material.
We should not forget that last year the Budget Advisory Committee was promised by the selectmen that the money would flow into the town in three to five years, and that is a major reason that the BAC supported the gravel operation, hoping it would be a great revenue stream. Only now, it isn’t likely to be a stream at all, but a trickle over many, many years. Surprisingly this year during budget discussions, there were none about this phony revenue.
It was a bad decision to approve a gravel operation last year. Let’s not compound the problem this year by implementing a long, drawn-out, environmentally destructive and unnecessary gravel operation.
Anyone who cares about not having a misguided gravel operation should participate in the BOS discussion on Monday, March 13. BOS meetings begin at 5:30, with the agenda available online.
And secondly, voters might consider changing the atmosphere of the BOS by NOT voting for the incumbent, Mike Putnam, who is a knowing party to the bait-and-switch scam.
Tom Gardner