Her on-the-record response:

>Someone should sue that rag for libel

As someone who grew up going to Rocky Pond, fuck these people

Huh, that was a nice spot and I remember being pretty bummed when it closed.

[deleted]

Dude… that article lol. That is a rag. I mean, I’m all for accountability so if she did it she needs to go down for it but that article isn’t news.

Seriously. Real tough to take the author seriously.

Why is Granite Grok allowed to be posted here? Complete trash.

As they should, the Grok is a disgrace.

Well the rest of her comment was she wasn't going to.

[deleted]

Libertarians run this sub with the diligence and honesty they bring to every other endeavor.

The author doesn’t even use his real name...

Edit: that said if she actually used public funds to privatize a water body that’s shitty. If she abused her position or broke laws to make that happen she should be impeached.

🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️

The commissioner of education regularly writes Op-Ed’s to the granite grok. You can find his letters in between the racism, and sexism.

Damn you for reminding me that Frank Edelblut exists

I'd love to hear the other side. Is there an other side?

[deleted]

Well, when Granite Grok is one side, the other side is usually the truth, so I think this is safe to ignore.

Stopped reading after the “remember how good we had it two years ago?” Comment 😂. Anyone who can say that with a straight face likely isn’t a serious human.

> (click to embiggen)

This got me

I mean this is the Granite Grok where the writers have a cumulative IQ under 100.

Ahh the Granite Grok. Written for those who have only attained a Proud Boy level of reading comprehension.

So... a Democrat and her HOA bought some property?

Hey, are you impugning the journalistic integrity of…checks notes…California Refugee? Mr. Refugee clearly did a lot of research on this article including taking a screenshot of the Conservation Commission members from the town website.

It’s a sad state of affairs when this is my train of thought reading this:

-someone did something sketchy and selfish, probably a Republican. -reads the first paragraph: wow, that’s a lot of bias. -sees it’s a democrat -ahh, republican propaganda

Now, the problem with stuff like this is that republicans will look at that and say, “see? You went in with a bias, you’re just as susceptible to propaganda,” and completely ignore the fact that we think that way because time and time again it’s been revealed that republicans lie, ignore laws, traffic children, sexually assault children, cover up all manner of abuse.

It’s the equivalent of watching someone slap someone else in the face over and over and over and the next time you see them you suspect they might slap someone and they clutch their pearls and gasp and say, “that’s offensive! You’re just as likely to slap someone as I am, you’re discriminating against me.”

Ugh…

The same reason why all these other leftist crazy political blogs are allowed to post here.

It's interesting to see how all of the classic political partisans here like you are quick to be skeptics of claims against their own while they certainly do not don the sword of apology for their political opponents.

Oh, like NHPR?

Nothing to apologize for. Sounds like her community bought a pond. Kinda sucks for the locals, but that’s all that happened. The language in this hit piece was laughably dramatic.

So know, I dare not yet draw the blade of apology from the scabbard of… I don’t know… not-wanting-MAGA-morons running anything? It’s your metaphor.

>The language in this hit piece was laughably

The language in this hit piece was just laughable. And an attack on literature.

lmao I can't even finish reading after that. Are they serious?

[deleted]

And they complain about “anonymous sources” and this “journalist” won’t even use their real name haha

Oh man! You need to go read my comment from earlier where I predict this EXACT response from republicans lol. Give it up, we’ve wised up to your rhetorical tricks and we’re not falling for them any more. Both sides are NOT the same.

A new phrase I came across recently was “he’s got 2 brain cells and they’re tied for 3rd place,” and I feel like that’s applicable to this “journalist.”

i think if anyone should be ridiculed about this, it should be the Hollis Conservation Commission. I wonder if they can just give away money like that? Seems sketchy. Perhaps there needs to be changes in how money is doled out.

I plan to give it a few days and see what happens. I don't necessarily believe this story is accurate. But I think time will tell you know.

If she's guilty don't worry she won't last she's Democrat.

She wrote a detailed response on a local, Hollis Facebook group. My wife is a part of the group (we're on Rocky Pond Road, but not connected to the pond at all) and I've asked her to share the link with me to post here; I'll update the post when she does, although not 100% sure that non-group members would be able to see it.

The response was well written, detailed, and seemed credible to me, for what that's worth. Essentially she alleged that the issue stemmed from someone affiliated with the pond trying to sell the land to the town so they could keep it open, as they were done handling it after 20-30 years, and they included acreage that belonged to a HOA in their proposal ("open spaces"), which was only discovered later and tanked the deal for some reason. She also alleges that the writer is a former political opponent and that this amounts to an "October Surprise" that is politically motivated.

She does a better job defending herself than I did, but that's what I remember of the letter.

I love how the story starts out by saying what a not so bad year 2020 was, conveniently forgetting hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions across the world didn't die from Covid-19. But hey, at least gas was 30% lower.

I didn’t learn much about the Rep. but I feel like I know enough about the author after a few paragraphs.

How dare moderators allow content you dislike to be posted?

Yes, only Republicans break the law. You are absolutely correct. Democrats good, Republicans bad.

I'm not a republican lol. There aren't even two sides.

Keep believing this bs. Sad to see it.

That’s a great choice of words.

If proven true the citizens of Hollis should be outraged. $155000 for a handful of residents to have a private pond? And don’t underestimate owners of lakeside property. The vast majority want the public off “their” water.

Kat’s reply copied from town page:

Since Dave Werner’s hit piece on me at Granite Grok has drawn so much attention, I wanted to post a response to Fred Hubert’s query where people would see it.

I wrote a note of explanation below, but I fear this effort is designed to tie me in knots, so I’m going to let the good people of Hollis sort it out from here. You know who you are! ——-

There is still a public boat launch at Rocky Pond . The town has a licensing agreement with the HOA to cross the open space we jointly own to allow for that public access. The HOA receives no money from anyone for the access. When Joe Rogers and Freddi Olsen decided to stop running the long standing private beach club, they tried to work out a sale of the land with the town.

The presentation at town meeting passed easily, but the warrant was flawed, it included acreage not for sale (open space owned by the HOA) that made the math on the price per acre look closer to the other properties also being voted on at that meeting. There were Town covenants that went with the land that would have prohibited the proposed new use and the HOA wanted to sit down with the town to discuss this before the meeting. In fact, one of my neighbors got up at that town meeting and asked about the covenants and she was told the Town was not aware of them. So it was a weird property rights thing that we fell into as brand new people over here. (We moved into our new house in December 2015. The town meeting was March of 2016. If anyone wants more info, feel free to reach out).

It turns out the seller’s agent explained to us that the town was told repeatedly not to include the open space in the acreage figure. But they did it anyway and in the end, the warrant could not be signed legally because it was ‘flawed’. That was the advice of town counsel.

We never said anything to embarrass the town. But we had every right to ask them to talk to us and to protect our property rights by asking them to talk to us. Nothing we did created the flaw in the warrant. A letter was sent to the town by an attorney our neighbors hired and we signed onto as members in the HOA.

At the time, we had just moved in, a rumor started that ‘the people on the pond’ stopped the sale. We didn’t stop the sale. But we made a convenient excuse. The BOS appeared ok with us taking the heat. The true failing in the warrant was never admitted to the public. And now it is being stirred up to create controversy against a State Rep by a former opponent, Dave Werner, right before an election. Coincidence?

I don’t want to keep having to explain that the effort is political. I’m still who I’ve always been. I’m not an elitist because I have a nice house. We earned our success the honest way.

As for the hit job on me personally, that appears to be the famous October surprise effort. Not a word of truth.

We own one house lot and joint open spaces from the original subdivisions, just like many in Hollis. We pay HOA fees, but we do not receive money from private sales by individual land owners.

There was a land deal involving Beaver Brook and Joe Rogers land. He wanted to make sure the land would not go to development and he donated other acreage to the deal. I don’t know if the Conservation Commission helped make that happen. But that is how much of the conserved land in Hollis happens. Trying to tie me in and showing a check that I’m no part of is probably grounds for a libel suit.

We bought our lot before we could afford to put a house here. We planned to build someday. We lived in a small center-entrance colonial on Silver Lake Road for 10 years before someday arrived. We’re still friends with our former neighbors and the people who bought our former house.

My husband made a success of his company and sold it. So we built the house we’d always wanted. Many people in Hollis have done the same.

We care about where we live. We do not try to prevent people from accessing the pond. When the access license came up for renewal with the town, the BOS suggested a gate and key to help prevent milfoil and other invasive species. We were all concerned about keeping this wonderful place safe.

People miss the beach club. So do we. But we own a house lot. We do not own the pond and we are not doing anything to prevent public boating and fishing.

Rumor mills are ruining this country. Let’s not let that sickness infect our town.

[removed]

>We do not try to prevent people from accessing the pond. When the access license came up for renewal with the town, the BOS suggested a gate and key to help prevent milfoil and other invasive species.

How is it public if there's a locked gate?

I suppose everyone will have a key except the milfoil.

There are keys that can be picked up at the police station.

Another sham essay masquerading as news
First clue: People"accused" of misusing public funds have their lawyers release statements. Second clue: This "story" doesn't show up anywhere else in a cursory search.

As always a non-answer is a non-answer. Please at least try.

Thanks for acknowledging the situation! 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂

Gee, it's almost like the author did his own homework and raked up some muck, instead of just copypasting whatever official narrative floats to the top of his Twitter feed?

That seems like a fake version of public to me

Go to communist China if you want censorship

Careful, granitegrok or whatever the fuck you call it is a bunch of crazies...

Seriously, mods need to take this hot garbage down.

Right? Her statement is like "yeah, we kind of made an oopsie and now it's basically our private boat launch but it's technically public, because if you want to go to a ton of extra hassle that didn't exist before our kind-of-oopsie, you can still get to it. We're not going back to it just being open though, still gated like the community I live in"

Someone posted her statement explaining the situation, and the claim is basically true. They spent $155k to buy up some land that they then put under lock and key, to keep out an invasive species of plant that obviously respects lock and key.

Technically the public can still get to it if they go get the key (possibly from the local police station), but if you don't already have a key like the people in the HOA do.... It's a hassle.

Her community used $155k of public funds to take what was previously an open boat launch and put it under control of an HOA, with a gate and key that's apparently publicly accessible somehow.

That's according to her statement on the thing. It just so happens that a real estate agent made a "mistake" in a listing that just so happened to give her HOA control over this boat launch, and it was "recommended" to put it behind a gate.

Nothing to apologize for though, not like the HOA severely limited public access to a lake, using public funds to do it.

Likely a gate to limit boating access which pedestrians can walk around. If boaters want a key, they’d have to make sure their boat is clean so as not to infect the pond with invasive species.

Someone shared her response here. It's basically "whoops someone screwed up on this deal so we used $155k of public funds to take what was previously an unrestricted boat launch, put it under control of the HOA, and put a gate and key on it"

Yeah, nothing wrong with that at all.

Mic check 1-2 😂

If a Libertarian rep used PUBLIC funds to buy property for their HOA, these crybabies would fill their diapers in a second 😂

Yeah. I know this pond and it's ridiculous that it's now closed to the public but the guys at GraniteGrok are unhinged. Biggest red flag is that the author of this article is using a pseudonym and won't write it under his real name.

The author isn't even using his real name. This should be completely ignored until someone is willing to put their real name on it.

Not only is it locked, the entire street is posted no parking. So, even if you wanted to walk around the gate, you'd have to park in the next town. It's closed to the public. Hard stop.

She’s addressed this utter bullshit. Also the pond is open seasonally to fishing. Also it’s an HOA, not the McGhees that own the access to the pond.

This author doesn't believe in Covid, and this is his backhanded way of making fun of people he looks down on.

Ian Underwood

Do not trust Granite Grock. Coming from a Croydon Resident

If true, that’s not developed in the article. Notice that the article never actually approaches an accusation of wrong doing. Just lots of insinuation of “who knows where” and such.

Just to add more to this "story"

Beaver Brook Association is a non profit organization in Hollis that does conservation work. The land has a bunch of well maintained trails that is open to the public.

To be fair, this is a blogging site. I don't think this guy claims to be a journalist.

Oh no, the article is complete trash, as is most things put out by that website.

But the real story isn't far off of the article, unfortunately.