Bringing an important story to light is often a difficult and uncomfortable process, and it doesn’t get much more difficult and uncomfortable than what we saw at the most recent Montague special town meeting on March 2.
For those who missed it, Town Meeting member David Detmold seized the microphone and attempted, in increasingly heated tones, to direct a series of very pointed questions in the direction of Montague Police Chief Chip Dodge.
The crux of Detmold’s outburst focused on a question that has been floating in the background for some time in Montague — the removal of the prescription drug drop-off box from the police station, and department’s apparent removal from the Northwestern DA’s Hampshire-Franklin Drug Task Force.
Despite repeatedly being ruled out of order by Town Moderator Ray Godin, Detmold continued to push Dodge to explain why he was put on paid administrative leave and eventually reinstated by the Montague Selectboard, votes which occurred in private, not open, session.
Needless to say, Detmold didn’t get any answers to his questions, and voluntarily left the meeting before he had to be escorted out. And while his actions were largely panned by his fellow town meeting members and on social media in the days following, his questions are relevant, and deserve to be answered in a context that has heretofore been largely missing.
Here’s what we do know — the drop-off box has been taken down and Dodge was temporarily relieved of duty and reinstated, pending an investigation, we were told at the time, by the Attorney General’s office.
It has never been fully made clear whether that investigation is ongoing or has been closed, and the exact reason for Dodge’s removal. It’s not known if the DA’s office ever plans to return the drug box, the intent of which is to give the town’s residents a safe place to dispose of those drugs rather than dumping them down the drain and into the town’s water supply.
In my conversations with Dodge — who, I maintain, deserves the benefit of the doubt until it is proven otherwise — he has assured me that, though he can’t discuss details, he is not guilty of any wrongdoing, a position Montague Selectboard Chairman Rich Kuklewicz reiterated to me in a chance meeting that occurred just hours after Detmold’s outburst.
“We did look into it, and we did vote to reinstate him,” Kuklewicz said. “You’ve been doing this a long time, Chris — do you really think if there were any sort of illegal behavior, we wouldn’t have acted on it?”
As a Montague taxpayer, I want to believe so, but absent real information, it’s hard to know for certain. The lack of such details creates a vacuum that winds up getting filled by rumors and innuendo, leading to a false narrative that serves no one, least of all a police chief who has infinitely more important issues on his plate.
I’m not defending Detmold’s actions, which appeared to have been way out of line for the venue in question. But his motives may not be as sinister as they may have appeared that night. In fact, he may have actually taken the first step toward getting to a story a lot of people are talking about, but no one in an official position to do so seems willing to clarify.
The first seeds have been planted for a planned post-Trump Democratic takeover of Greenfield town government.
The newly refocused Greenfield Democratic Town Committee has elected new leadership, which contains a “who’s-who” of the town’s younger, more progressive movers and shakers.
Former Town Councilor Danielle Letourneau-Therrien is the new chair, while her long-time “wing-woman” Liz Fisk has been elected vice-chair. Pete Brown is the committee’s new secretary, while Donovan Eastman has been re-elected treasurer.
The committee’s PR operation will also be well tended, with Nicole Letourneau-Cavanaugh serving as the body’s “affirmative action and outreach coordinator,” who reports that the group picked up nine new members last month alone.
The committee’s long-term goal, as stated previously, is to elect as many Democrats to office as possible, especially in town government — which includes the now decidedly right-leaning town council.
There are number of likely targets on the Dems radar, a list which will become more apparent the closer we get to the November elections. In the more immediate future is this weekend’s town caucus, which takes place Saturday morning to elect 11 delegates and four alternates to the 2017 Massachusetts State Democratic Convention June 3 in Lowell.
The caucus begins at 10 at the Elm Terrace meeting room, and is open to all registered and pre-registered Democrats in Greenfield. Be sure and stop by and see what all the fuss is about.
Chris Collins is the Franklin County News Bureau Chief for WHAI, WPVQ and WHMP Radio. He is a former staff reporter for The Recorder, and is a Greenfield native.