How Could Tewksbury’s Elected Officials Be So Wrong?

Tewksbury, MA, a fine little town, is located about 45 minutes north of Milford on 495.

The five person Tewksbury Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to support a proposal from Penn National to build a $200 million slots parlor in their town featuring 1,250 slot machines.

The Tewksbury Finance Committee supported Penn National’s proposal.

The Tewksbury Planning Board supported Penn National’s proposal.

The Tewksbury Town Manager supported Penn National’s proposal.

The Tewksbury police union supported Penn National’s proposal.

The Tewksbury firefighters union supported Penn National’s proposal.

Local 103, an electrician’s union, had members holding signs in support of Penn National’s proposal.

Penn National was offering $4 million a year in tax revenue, about 1,000 jobs during construction and 500 permanent jobs.

The gambling company was also offering $900,000 in grants for public safety.

Penn National also offered Doug Flutie who gave a pitch in person to support Penn National. The slots complex planned to have a Flutie-themed sports bar. He was quoted as saying, “I’ve got the Heisman sitting in a box now . . . I'd like to bring it up here, maybe for a month at a time, or for special occasions..."

With all that support from Tewksbury's public officials plus tax revenue, plus public safety grants and the possibility of a Heisman Trophy taking up residence in in Tewksbury, how could Penn National possibly lose?

PN’s hopes of opening a slots parlor in Tewksbury were shattered when over 2600 Tewksbury residents showed up at a Special Town Meeting to consider changes to the zoning bylaws to allow gambling on the proposed site.

A reported 1,568 Tewksbury residents voted no to the proposed zoning bylaw changes and 995 voted in favor.  Needing a two-thirds vote of those present to approve the changes, or just over 1,700 votes, the array of local officials, town employees, tradesmen and an ex-football player supporting Penn National’s plan were crushed.

How did Tewksbury’s public officials so badly misread the very people who elected them?

How did Tewksbury’s public officials so badly misread their friends and neighbors?

Could it be that Tewksbury’s public officials were blinded by the money?

Could it be that the residents of Tewksbury place a higher value on things other than a number followed by a bunch of zeros?