Brimfield: Working with others to protect communities

This is how we will protect our communities from this degradation and REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL!

These are some wonderful neighbors that define what makes Massachusetts truly great by working to protect other communities that are threatened with this blight!

BRIMFIELD — Now that MGM Resorts International has abandoned its plan to site a casino here, members of the "Preserve Brimfield" group are focusing their efforts on helping other communities being targeted by casino operators, such as Palmer and Foxborough, as well as ensuring that their town maintains its rural character.

Paul D. Adams, a member of Preserve Brimfield, formed in response to MGM's short-lived plan, said the group has no intention of disbanding.



Preserve Brimfield sets sights on helping other Massachusetts communities targeted by casino operators
Published: Friday, March 30, 2012
By Lori Stabile, The Republican

BRIMFIELD — Now that MGM Resorts International has abandoned its plan to site a casino here, members of the "Preserve Brimfield" group are focusing their efforts on helping other communities being targeted by casino operators, such as Palmer and Foxborough, as well as ensuring that their town maintains its rural character.

Paul D. Adams, a member of Preserve Brimfield, formed in response to MGM's short-lived plan, said the group has no intention of disbanding.

Many of the members also were involved in No Brimfield Wind, a group that fought against a proposal by Boston-based First Wind that wanted to place wind turbines on West Mountain. In the face of strong opposition, First Wind scrapped the plan, saying that wind conditions were not suitable on the mountain.

Adams said Preserve Brimfield has met a number of times with the anti-casino group in Palmer, Quaboag Valley Against Casinos, and may assist them in the future, as Connecticut-based Mohegan Sun has long eyed the hillside across from the Massachusetts Turnpike exit 8 on Route 32 for a resort casino development.

Adams said casinos have "an enormous effect" on communities and that the property tax revenue they throw off is insufficient to cover the costs they create, from the added school population to the increased demands on police and fire departments. He added that this is a regional issue.

"If we can help other communities in any way . . . We would like to be able to do that," Adams said.

He said his group expressed both relief and satisfaction when it learned Las Vegas-based MGM would not be pursuing a casino project in the northwest corner of town.

MGM said Tuesday that it would be pursuing an alternate Western Massachusetts location, and blamed infrastructure issues as one of the reasons why it was leaving Brimfield just two months after it announced its intentions to build a "New England" style resort on land owned by Rolling Hills Realty Trust.

“It’s hard to know exactly why MGM has decided to look elsewhere,” said Adams, “but it’s likely that a combination of things, higher than anticipated development costs, the complications of constructing a dedicated exit ramp off the Mass Pike, and the results of a second telephone poll taken just last weekend, convinced MGM that the Brimfield site would be too costly to develop and that Brimfield residents weren’t in favor of a development that would impose enormous new financial burdens on the town.”

David J. Callahan, a principal with Rolling Hills Realty Trust, said in a statement that he will continue to work to develop the 150-acre property, which is off of Washington and Old Millbrook roads.

Adams said he wonders what is next for the land, and said his group plans to work with town committees, such as the Board of Selectmen, to fund and create a master plan, and revise and tighten zoning bylaws, so they can prepare for the next "threat to the town’s rural environment."

"We don’t want to put a ‘No development wanted’ sign up at the Brimfield border, but we do want potential developers to know that future growth will be on the community’s terms, not on terms imposed on the town by developers," Adams said.

Iris L. Cardin, co-president of Quaboag Valley Against Casinos, said she felt like "jumping for joy" when she heard MGM was leaving, but is concerned about what that now means for Palmer. Only one Western Massachusetts casino license will be awarded.

Charlotte S. Burns, co-president of Quaboag Valley Against Casinos, said she is hoping the gaming legislation gets repealed.

"It's just not good economic development," Burns said, adding there should be a push to bring back manufacturing, and support small- and medium-sized businesses.

Burns said she thinks the Palmer site has just as many problems with infrastructure as the one in Brimfield. She expressed concern about the roads and water demands that a resort casino would create.