Leaders avoided needed debate on Voke site

NOTE TO NEW READERS: First, apologies if you’re reading this in an unsolicited email. It just means we were once on a Wakefield-related group email together or you’re in my contacts list. By all means feel free to unsubscribe now or at any time.

But I hope you might read on, or even pass the word to others who might be interested. I call this blog “Wakefield, USA” because Wakefield, Massachusetts, is where I live, and because in many ways it’s a typical American town and my Wakefield friends and neighbors both reflect and grapple with the issues so many Americans are facing across the country. We are all Americans and if we are going to remain one country, we need to try to understand and come to grips with what is dividing us, but also, ultimately, to understand and move towards what unites us. My humble aim is to make some progress on both of these fronts.

Looking forward… jk

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First published in the Wakefield Daily Item, March 31, 2023.

Why do people say what they say and do what they do? Whenever you’re in a conversation or debate where something significant is in dispute, it’s always interesting and sometimes useful to pause and ask yourself this question.

I asked the question when I read the recent Wakefield Daily Item article submitted by Northeast Metro Tech officials in response to opponents of the current hilltop site for the new vocational school (or "Voke"), which will require clearing of over 13 acres of old-growth forest and blasting away the top of the hill (“Northeast officials rebut opponents claims,” 3/16/23). The authors of the piece took an intemperate tone, calling opponents NIMBYs and grandstanders. As Bob Brooks, Janet Cohen and colleagues pointed out in their eviscerating response (“Northeast committee seeks to silence, vilify citizens,” 3/21/23), there was a note of desperation to the piece. Why?

Before speculating on that, let me first call out how the Northeast Metro Tech (NEMT) officials got it wrong in a few obvious ways:

They say the people opposed to the hilltop site are a “small group.” Actually, more than 6,000 residents have signed the petition to save the forest. That’s more people than have voted in recent Wakefield town elections on the high school logo or even the new high school.

They call opponents NIMBYs. But actually, we Wakefieldians love having the Voke in our town and no one is opposed to having it in our “back yard.” We are opposed to the nonsensical, impractical, destructive, and comparatively much more expensive site choice.

They assume opponents are “environmental activists” with an “agenda.” But the reality is that Wakefield citizens of all political stripes are upset at the prospect of losing this priceless natural gem in our town. As a conservative friend recently told me: of course we need new schools, but we also need open space – and in this case NEMT has other choices.

I understand why NEMT officials might be fearful and angry, perhaps even desperate. They fear losing state funding given how far along the project is (fences have gone up around the property and it appears they are nearly ready to start clearing and blasting). And they are angry at the rising voices of protest as people become aware of the planned forest destruction, causing a ruckus and threatening to derail the project.

Think about it, though – how did we get here? NEMT officials accuse opponents of asserting “egregious falsehoods and misrepresentations” and of making “false, misleading and deceptive claims about the…project.” But the letter from Bob Brooks et al, as well as an excellent, extensive letter in the Item from Wakefield resident Sherri Carlson (“Northeast officials are tone deaf to request,” 3/24/23) specifically and concretely refute every accusation made by NEMT officials.

The concerns we Wakefield residents have with the hilltop site – destruction of the forest, blasting the hill, safety and accessibility of the new school design, greater expense of this site over others – are not part of some last-minute NIMBY or treehugger scheme to kill the project. These concerns are real and they are fact-based, and – crucially – they would have been raised in any open, transparent discussion of the site selection that the public knew about. As Brooks et al succinctly put it: “If the project process had been transparent about the location and truly engaged the public in that decision, we wouldn’t be here today.”

So that raises the question: why didn’t that open, transparent discussion happen? I consider myself a pretty well-informed citizen. I read the Wakefield Daily Item every day. I talk to Wakefield friends and neighbors, and I try to pay attention to what’s going on. NEMT officials assert that “this has been a long, deliberative and inclusive process,” that it was “public, and [they] have conducted and attended over 100 meetings, presentations, and hearings and have participated in board and commission meetings in all 12 cities and towns.” But how inclusive could the process have been when so many Wakefield residents voted yes for the new Voke but had no idea that this would entail the destruction of a precious natural feature in our town?

It certainly does lead one to wonder how this could have come about, or even to suspect that that crucial discussion was avoided. Now, it’s easy to understand why a proponent of the hilltop site might want to avoid such a conversation – it would be contentious, messy, very likely heated, difficult to navigate and moderate. Such a tough conversation might very well slow down the process and the timeline. None of that is appealing to an official trying to get stuff done.

But this conversation absolutely needed to take place, before last January’s vote to approve funding. And this is not just some random, bureaucratic process error. It was the responsibility of leaders of the project – and also, I should say, our town leaders in Wakefield – to make sure that this conversation happened before the vote, in order to prevent the precise predicament we find ourselves in today.

(I should also say that, as I write this, I’ve seen that the “Save the Forest and Build the Voke” Facebook page has posted an Open Meeting Law Complaint, submitted to the MA Attorney General’s Office, detailing how spotty and inconsistent the NEMT School Building Committee was about posting meeting notices and agendas for meetings from 2018-2022. How are residents supposed to know about a meeting if it’s not posted? How are residents supposed to know if there will be deliberations or votes on certain issues if no agenda is posted?)

This is not a developer-versus-NIMBY issue. This is not a state-versus-environmentalists issue. And it’s not a liberal-versus-conservative issue. This is a Wakefield issue. This beautiful, irreplaceable forest is located in our town. I sympathize when the NEMT officials warn about the implications of delay for future Voke students. But what about the implications of careening ahead for generations of Wakefield residents – and of course for residents and families from neighboring towns – when they are deprived of this amazing natural resource? It’s also a leadership issue. NEMT officials did not do their due diligence with the people of Wakefield. Now they are feeling the heat.

Let’s keep turning up the heat. Let’s stop this senseless destruction and save the forest. Go to NEMTforest.org. Sign the petition. Contact our Town Councilors and our Town Administrator Steve Maio, as well as our MA Statehouse leaders Jason Lewis, Kate Lipper-Garabedian, and Donald Wong, and tell them what you think and how you feel about this issue.

Remember, if we allow this rare and beautiful forest in Wakefield to be destroyed, it will be gone forever.

© Jeff Kehoe