Town Administrator Kate Hodges had a "threatening letter" placed on her car last week, police investigating, no other info available yet.

 

Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash

Town Administrator Kate Hodges had a "threatening message" placed on her car last week, and the police are investigating -- no other info is available yet.

Select Board member Jason Allison's wife, Lesley, shared a message on one of the resident-hosted Lancaster Facebook pages ("Lancaster MA Mass Massachusetts") last night:

"This is my letter to the Select Board. When did the people of Lancaster become so hateful? This behavior is completely unacceptable. Something has to change. I encourage everyone to participate in respectful discourse. Write to the Select Board and ask them to do the same. The next Select Board meeting is tomorrow evening. 

 

Dear Select Board Members Kerrigan, Turner, and Allison; 

 

I have heard some disturbing news this weekend about a threatening letter that was placed on Town Administrator Kate Hodges vehicle last week while at work. It is completely unacceptable for any of our public servants or town employees to be threatened in this manner. It is ok to have differing opinions and express them. It is NOT ok to threaten. 

 

As the prominent leaders of our town, I’m asking each of you to make timely individual public statements condemning these actions. You need to stand up to these threats and lead by example. In my opinion, any lack of comment on these actions, condones their occurrence. As a resident of Lancaster and a voter who helped put all three of you in office, I will be extremely disappointed if you do not intervene in this case. 

 

Sincerely ,
Lesley Reittinger Allison"

I requested a copy of the threatening letter through the town records access officers and was told (by Kate Hodges) that it was currently publicly withheld as part of the investigation.  I asked what info had been made available to the Select Board; according to Select Board Chair Steve Kerrigan, at this point they're just aware of it's existence.

"The existence of the letter was shared with me, Russ. I never saw an image because one wasn’t taken, at least not while in Kate’s hands. I was speaking with Kate as she waited for the police to arrive. "