It’s Time to Call in the Feds, Littleton

A few years back, the Boxborough Select Board asked the FBI to conduct an investigation into allegations of police corruption in town. At the time of the 2021 federal criminal probe, Littleton’s Assistant Town Administrator Ryan Ferrara had been serving as Boxborough’s Town Administrator—a small-world fact I thought worth pointing out. In Massachusetts, the FBI […]

The Problem that Won’t Go Away*

A year ago, I ran for a seat on the Select Board on a single issue. I focused my entire campaign around bringing attention to the 220 households in Littleton that fall under the poverty line and what the Select Board could do, as the town’s policy-maker, to end poverty in town. I didn’t expect […]

Littleton’s Corporate Freeloaders

In January 2021, the Littleton Select Board entered into a Host Community Agreement with a Delaware LLC that allowed for the construction of a 143,640-square-foot Amazon Distribution Center at 151-153 Taylor Street. In the last couple of years, a constant stream of Amazon-branded delivery vans either painted dark blue with pithy ad lines like “Warning: […]

The “Nothing to See for Now” LCC

On March 13, 2023, the Littleton Select Board’s agenda included “Cannabis Host Community Agreements.” When the agenda item came up at the Select Board meeting, the matter was postponed. To operate a cannabis business in Massachusetts, the cannabis business must hold a Host Community Agreement with the municipality where the business is conducted. In Littleton, […]

The Memorializing of a Rapist

In 1997, a woman filed a police report with Ayer Police Department. In it, she alleged that Matt King had raped her. At the time, King was a sergeant with the Littleton Police Department, and Tom O’Dea was Littleton’s chief of police. After placing King on paid administrative leave “for reasons of my own as […]

Open Letter to the Administrators of Facebook’s Constructive Conversations for Littleton

Dear Jan Huber OCallaghan, Erica Podgorni, Elieen Wedegartner, and Katie Carruth. Soon after I pulled nomination papers to run for a seat on our town’s Select Board, I reached out to one of the members of your Facebook group—Constructive Conversations for Littleton Women (CCLW)—and asked her to keep an eye out for anything that might […]

Why Reward Bad Behavior, Littleton?

If you plan to go to Special Town Meeting on Tuesday night, you’re going to hear from the Planning Board on Article Five, which, I predict, will be pitched as an administrative update to the current bylaw—a no-big-deal change. This is not true. If Littleton town meeting voters approve Article Five, Sanctuary Medicinals will be […]

Draft Statement of Facts

1. On June 14, 2024, Plaintiff made a public record request (hereinafter, “PRR”) to the Ayer Police Department. See Exhibit A. 2. The response from Ayer PD was due on or before June 28, 2024. 3. On June 21, 2024, Robert Mackie, Department Assistant, Ayer Police Department denied Plaintiff’s PRR, citing two statutes and explaining […]

Open Letter to Littleton’s Town Administrator James Duggan

Dear Jim, If you would, take four minutes and listen to this: CLICK HERE. I’ll warn you, Jim, the audio quality is poor, and I sound super nervous and, embarrassingly, a little frustrated, which, to be fair, was exactly how I was feeling in reaction to a bunch of educated, white, middle-aged women who were […]

Open Letter to Former Chief John M. Kelly (Part Three)

Hey, Chief, The last time you and I were in the same room was March 7, 2014, when I stopped by your enormous corner office at Littleton Police Department to hand you a copy of my letter of resignation from our town’s Board of Selectmen. Remember how I took a seat across from you with […]

Jenna Brownson

upmarket novelist obsessed with loyalty and its inevitable betrayal

Author: Jenna Brownson