Kat’s reply copied from town page:

Since Dave Werner’s hit piece on me at Granite Grok has drawn so much attention, I wanted to post a response to Fred Hubert’s query where people would see it.

I wrote a note of explanation below, but I fear this effort is designed to tie me in knots, so I’m going to let the good people of Hollis sort it out from here. You know who you are! ——-

There is still a public boat launch at Rocky Pond . The town has a licensing agreement with the HOA to cross the open space we jointly own to allow for that public access. The HOA receives no money from anyone for the access. When Joe Rogers and Freddi Olsen decided to stop running the long standing private beach club, they tried to work out a sale of the land with the town.

The presentation at town meeting passed easily, but the warrant was flawed, it included acreage not for sale (open space owned by the HOA) that made the math on the price per acre look closer to the other properties also being voted on at that meeting. There were Town covenants that went with the land that would have prohibited the proposed new use and the HOA wanted to sit down with the town to discuss this before the meeting. In fact, one of my neighbors got up at that town meeting and asked about the covenants and she was told the Town was not aware of them. So it was a weird property rights thing that we fell into as brand new people over here. (We moved into our new house in December 2015. The town meeting was March of 2016. If anyone wants more info, feel free to reach out).

It turns out the seller’s agent explained to us that the town was told repeatedly not to include the open space in the acreage figure. But they did it anyway and in the end, the warrant could not be signed legally because it was ‘flawed’. That was the advice of town counsel.

We never said anything to embarrass the town. But we had every right to ask them to talk to us and to protect our property rights by asking them to talk to us. Nothing we did created the flaw in the warrant. A letter was sent to the town by an attorney our neighbors hired and we signed onto as members in the HOA.

At the time, we had just moved in, a rumor started that ‘the people on the pond’ stopped the sale. We didn’t stop the sale. But we made a convenient excuse. The BOS appeared ok with us taking the heat. The true failing in the warrant was never admitted to the public. And now it is being stirred up to create controversy against a State Rep by a former opponent, Dave Werner, right before an election. Coincidence?

I don’t want to keep having to explain that the effort is political. I’m still who I’ve always been. I’m not an elitist because I have a nice house. We earned our success the honest way.

As for the hit job on me personally, that appears to be the famous October surprise effort. Not a word of truth.

We own one house lot and joint open spaces from the original subdivisions, just like many in Hollis. We pay HOA fees, but we do not receive money from private sales by individual land owners.

There was a land deal involving Beaver Brook and Joe Rogers land. He wanted to make sure the land would not go to development and he donated other acreage to the deal. I don’t know if the Conservation Commission helped make that happen. But that is how much of the conserved land in Hollis happens. Trying to tie me in and showing a check that I’m no part of is probably grounds for a libel suit.

We bought our lot before we could afford to put a house here. We planned to build someday. We lived in a small center-entrance colonial on Silver Lake Road for 10 years before someday arrived. We’re still friends with our former neighbors and the people who bought our former house.

My husband made a success of his company and sold it. So we built the house we’d always wanted. Many people in Hollis have done the same.

We care about where we live. We do not try to prevent people from accessing the pond. When the access license came up for renewal with the town, the BOS suggested a gate and key to help prevent milfoil and other invasive species. We were all concerned about keeping this wonderful place safe.

People miss the beach club. So do we. But we own a house lot. We do not own the pond and we are not doing anything to prevent public boating and fishing.

Rumor mills are ruining this country. Let’s not let that sickness infect our town.