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Health & Fitness

The Beast is Dead

One person commenting on a Patch article assured us that Milford will do just fine without the ‘overlordship’ of Foxwoods. ”Overlordship’ seems like an apt description. (Saying ‘the beast is dead’ is just a scribbler giving in to literary hyperbole).

Through this whole debate and struggle in Milford, many residents had an opportunity to assess their relationship with these 16 square miles of hills, neighborhoods, waterways, woods, shopping centers, colorful cultural history and, of course, traffic. Were people here because their grandparents, great grandparents or great, great grandparents settled here and they simply forgot to go somewhere else? Were people here because they sought out a reasonable place to raise their families and chose to be here? Or were people indifferent and only wrapped up in their own lives, taking what they wanted of Milford’s offerings and leaving the rest?

It’s clear that people were not indifferent. They care deeply about what they have here — what they have built here — family and community.  That is not news, but never before has it been spoken so clearly, so loudly.  Never before has it been spoken so directly — neighbor to neighbor.

That the casino referendum was rejected in all precincts — across all cultural, social and economic lines — tells the folks of East Milford that the residents of their town were not about to let them take a bullet for the town. Hell, we just might like East Milford enough that we’ll build a sewer line down there.  

It is, however, interesting to note that just under 10,000 of Milford’s 17,400 registered voters took the initiative to cast a ballot in what may well have been the biggest issue the town has ever grappled with. Given that, only 36% of registered voters decided the issue by voting ‘No’.  One wonders why so many folks chose not to vote.

On the upside, Milford’s Town Meeting may be closer to having its full compliment of members than it has been in years.  Few vacancies remain.  A blog was started prior to last Spring’s town elections providing information about the number of vacancies that existed at that time in each precinct and encouraging people to stand for election as write-in candidates for town meeting seats.  The blog received well over a 1000 hits  and may have led a sizable number of people to become town meeting members. These newest members, most likely making their first venture into Milford’s governance, may prove to be something of a balance for a town meeting that counts a high number of public employees and members of various boards in its ranks.  It would be small-minded and cynical for anyone to question if the newest members will remain and participate.

Had the referendum passed, a Special Town Meeting to consider zoning changes for the proposed site would have become the firewall for those opposed the casino proposal. Had the referendum passed narrowly, the Town Meeting could have been very ugly and the divisiveness in town sharpened, deepened and prolonged — whichever way that vote might have gone.  There is relief that a Town Meeting was not needed.  

The strength of this victory will last for quite some time.  It will last through the lifetimes of those who challenged the findings of the consultants; of those who held the signs, knocked on the doors, made the phone calls and those who made the effort to vote.  It will last in the memories of the children whose parents and grandparents shouted ‘No’ to the obscene amount of money flashed in front of them.

The children of this town have been presented with a life lesson in what a few motivated people can accomplish. They have seen up close that people need not follow the direction set by some of their elected leaders. They have seen that they need not be swayed when public employee unions take sides with big money. They learned that newspaper endorsements need not define their decisions. The children of this town have seen the power of the ballot box, not rhapsodized in some middle school textbook on U.S. History, but right there on their street, in their hometown. The kids may be the biggest winners in all of this.
 
The Massachusetts Legislature — and the lobbyists for the casino industry — may have doomed the gambling industry in the Commonwealth from the start with their aggressive demand and brag that the winning applicant in each of the defined regions build grand casinos.  It is plausible to think that not a single town in MetroWest, given a similar set of circumstances that faced Milford, would have welcomed a ‘destination resort casino’ into their communities.

Would Milford or West Springfield or Palmer or East Boston have accepted a much smaller project? A slots parlor perhaps? Who’s to say? Tewksbury did not and Millbury couldn’t be bothered. But the legislation that created expanded gambling in Massachusetts all but prohibited smaller, far less ambitious casino projects. ‘Destination resort’ seems to have become almost synonymous with ‘No’ in Massachusetts. Might that legislation be re-written to allow for scaled backed projects?

And now, what becomes of the vacant land where a Milford casino might have been built? It is some 200 acres of rock and hills wedged between a major highway and a neighborhood. There may be another fight down the road over what gets built there. However, there was at least one suggestion for a use for that land that just might capture one’s imagination.

The self-titled “DoubtingThomas1780” blogging on Patch wrote several interesting pieces about the zoning changes required if the referendum had passed.  His blogs attracted few comments but it was from him that the first public mention of building a solar panel farm on that land off East Main St. seemed to appear.
 
He pointed out that there would be no storm water run-off issues, no water consumption issues, no sewer issues, no noise issues — and no traffic issues.

Quite an interesting idea a solar farm is; and it is an idea as bold as Fortune Blvd. was a few decades ago.  An idea that might raise as many eyebrows as the idea of a bike path initially did. With no smirk whatsoever, the suggestion can be made that perhaps Holliston or Hopkinton would be interested in joining Milford in a municipal solar farm venture.

How’s that for a brighter future?

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