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Community Corner

Commercial growth other than a casino.

         Let's face it my fellow residents, we need commercial properties in town. The residents cannot continue to bear the burden of paying for everything the town needs. We need to strike the necessary balance of a commercial and residential tax base in order to keep Tewksbury a great place to live, and for the town to continue to improve. After all, the goal is to always improve whether it is good schools, roads, parks, excellent public safety, well maintained public buildings, while still trying our best to preserve as much of a smaller town feel as possible.
       Let's unite the yes and no casino groups and think about what other types of business would be a better fit for that location. The people who live in the vicinity hopefully are against the Casino, but not other options.
       A few things that come to mind are an Ikea, Wegmans, an outlet complex with a variety of high end stores like LLbean, Puma, Nike, Gap, etc. with a few nice restaurants. The outlet could also have a driving range for a little recreation. Outlets seem to work. People travel to locations where there is a congregation of quality stores and dining. I would much rather be looked at as the nice store outlet community, rather than the gambling one.
       We have to get creative here, and yes that type of plot needs to be utilized, but there are MUCH better alternatives to a slots parlor. Let's not let this land go to waste and put an irreversible potential problem in our community. I am not a doom and gloom type of person but it just seems crazy that Tewksbury could be the casino town. I never thought we would even entertain such a proposal.
       So as residents we cannot be anti development. We can be anti casino for obvious reasons, but we must find alternatives. Let's start thinking that way.

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