In strongly worded, back-to-back letters, members of the commission that permits and regulates development at Devens and the committee that’s creating a process for determining its future both appealed to MassDevelopment’s leaders this week to reconsider the agency’s abrupt withdrawal from that discussion. Both were responding to the announcement three weeks ago by Executive Vice President for Devens Jessica Strunkin that MassDevelopment was dropping out.
“We are at a loss as to why MassDevelopment is not continuing to work with us,” wrote Devens Jurisdiction Framework Committee Co-chair Victor Normand in a letter addressed to Sec. Mike Kennealy, chair of MassDevelopment’s board of directors and the state’s secretary of housing and economic development. “We ask your assistance in bringing the agency back to the table.”
By writing directly to Kennealy, the committee has chosen to appeal to MassDevelopment’s top management, leapfrogging Strunkin and her staff and MassDevelopment president and CEO Dan Rivera, whom the letter characterized as “unresponsive to requests for assistance.”
The letter was approved unanimously last Thursday by 11 of the remaining 18 original framework committee members, including representatives of the towns of Ayer, Harvard, and Shirley and the Devens Enterprise Commission. John Katter of Devens, who represents the residents of that community, was unable to attend, nor were the committee’s two Devens business representatives in attendance. The letter was sent by registered mail to Sec. Kennealy on April 22, requesting a response before the committee’s next meeting May 11.
The DEC’s letter was drafted by Director Peter Lowitt, who wrote that the commission was shocked and disappointed at the agency’s withdrawal. MassDevelopment, he wrote, “is squandering the trust” built up among the various Devens stakeholders and MassDevelopment over the past two-and-a-half years. “As a major stakeholder, MassDevelopment has always been at the table and played a strong and necessary role,” the letter observes. “The disengagement with the jurisdiction process can be remedied by returning to the table, a course of action we encourage you to consider.”
Unlike the Devens framework committee, the DEC chose to send its letter to both Sec. Kennealy and Rivera, with copies to all 10 members of the MassDevelopment board. Its content was approved unanimously by the commission Tuesday night and was to have been mailed Wednesday morning. The letter sets no deadline for a response.
“It is unfortunate that the matter has risen to this level,” wrote Normand on behalf of the Devens Jurisdiction Framework Committee. “However, we feel strongly that our failure to act in this fashion would be contrary to the expectations of the communities we represent.”
As of Wednesday morning Sec. Kennealy had yet to respond publicly to the framework committee’s letter.
