| 1 comment
STODDARD — Zoning business is temporarily on hold in this town of a little more than 2,000 residents.
Applications for variances and exceptions to the zoning code, for now at least, can only stack up.
The problem? Three of the five members of Stoddard’s zoning board have resigned, along with all three alternates, according to Patricia Putnam, who resigned as both an alternate board member and the board secretary and still serves as the selectmen’s administrative assistant.
Without a quorum of board members, no application can be approved.
The zoning board has been busy lately, particularly while considering a controversial application from AT&T for permission to build a cellphone tower on Melville Hill.
The board was under considerable pressure from residents of Stoddard and neighboring Nelson to reject the application, and held hearings and deliberations on the matter for several months.
The board voted on May 25 to allow a 130-foot monopole tower, but on Thursday of last week board members decided to reconsider the application.
Resignation letters followed, delivered to town hall the next day.
Fred and Ruth Ward, the two board members who voted against the AT&T tower, are the only people associated with the board who have not resigned.
Beverly Power, the board’s chairwoman, resigned, as did Richard Betz, Maureen Meyer and alternates Nancy Robinson and Richard Briere.
