Neighbors,

My name is Frank Washabaugh, and I am the editor of Sherman CT News.

For a long time, my standard for local government in Sherman was comfortably, perhaps dangerously, low. Like many of you, I operated under a simple, unspoken civic bargain: as long as the property taxes remained reasonable and the snowplows showed up on time, I assumed the quiet machinery of Town Hall was humming along exactly as it should behind closed doors.

Eventually, I decided to look under the hood. I volunteered for a seat on the Inland Wetlands Commission, expecting routine zoning debates and land-use bureaucracy. What I found instead was a vantage point into a sprawling web of municipal control. The commission itself was not inherently corrupt; rather, it was being quietly weaponized as a political tool by the Selectman and their administration. Sitting at that table, I watched firsthand how the levers of local government were pulled by an administrative class that was simultaneously overzealous in its reach and astonishingly fragile in its temperament.

The realization was swift and jarring: a single dissenting board member has virtually no power to disrupt an entrenched system from the inside. I knew that if I was going to actually demand better for our community, I had to step out of the building. I had to leverage my twenty years of professional experience in publishing and technology to force the issue from the outside.

The true catalyst, however, arrived with the $50 million school referendum.

As the single largest expenditure in our town’s history began to take shape, I started asking the basic, necessary questions of municipal oversight: How did this happen? Who is holding the pen? Why won't this happen again? Instead of facts and transparency, I received fluffy, evasive, and indirect answers. It was elementary level bureaucratic deflection.

When the school's construction site preparation visibly began to fail, and the administration met that failure with a terrifying, blank apathy, the reality of our situation finally set in. We were watching a generational investment falter in real-time, managed by an administration unbothered by its own missteps. The town could no longer afford the luxury of looking the other way. If there ever was a time for absolute accountability in Sherman, it is right now.

That was the push I needed to launch Sherman CT News into the public eye. In just a few short months, this project has evolved far beyond anything I originally imagined, driven entirely by a community that is finally waking up. I want to sincerely thank you for joining me on this journey.

New this week:

• The staggering lack of oppositional friction from the chairman of the Republican Town Committee. Read "The Dog Without Discipline" here.
• The FOIA Repository: When we demand public records from the administration, we publish the raw source documents here so you can read the ledgers for yourself. Explore the repository.
• The Secure Tip Line:When you see something operating in the shadows there's now a confidential channel to bring it into the light. Submit a tip here.

I promise to treat your inbox with respect. Every week or two, I will send a brief, unvarnished dispatch with links to our latest articles, new digital tools, and notes straight from my desk.

Thank you for your readership, and thank you for caring about the future of our town.

Respectfully,

Frank Washabaugh
Editor, Sherman CT News