A message from Holly:
“Did you know…
Somerset lost out on a waterfront restaurant/brewery project
In 2017, our board started lengthy discussions with each other and with the community about the need for a full-time town planner. We were applying for more grants, and acutally missing opportunities to apply because we didn’t have a planner. After a long year of great roundtable discussions with staff, community members, stakeholders, SRPEDD and others, Town of Somerset hired our very first full-time town planner.
Timing was critical, especially with the closing of Brayton Point power plant. We were down to the wire, and we were extremely lucky to have found a planner that both grew up in Somerset, and had decades of experience working with The Commonwealth and other state entities. We were also very lucky that she was also willing to take a pay cut to work here in the town she loved so much.
Our planner hit the ground running in 2018 the week she was hired. She secured a $1.2MILLION Mass Works grant that was crucial for the construction of the Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites. It would not exist today without that grant. I know this because I organized the meeting between the developer, the TA and our new planner.
One of Allen Smith’s first orders of business after he was elected was to get rid of the town planner. Allen Smith being the founder of SOBBP led the charge to end her contract. But that is another discussion for another time.
For all intents and purposes, this post will discuss one of the many ways that my opponent Allen Smith prevented the town from getting a significant amount of revenue (and a really cool restaurant/brewery!)
One of the many projects our planner led was a very lengthy deep-dive into the economic development and revitalization of Slades Ferry District. She formed a sub-committee comprosed of business owners, real estate agents, lawyers, community members, to name a few, and this sub-committee solely focused on brainstorming the redevelopment of Slades Ferry and how to acheive it.
You will probably see these slides being shared — these are slides that started with our town planner and SRPEDD, with which she worked very closely as well. One of the pieces of land in Slades Ferry they all agreed would be a perfect place for waterfront access, walking paths, boat access, and a restaurant/brewery type business. The sub-committee had asked some businesses that they thought might be interested some day, and to their surprise, they found some interest.
This idea of course had to be brought to the Town Meeting floor in order to put the land up for sale. The land itself was appraised at $1 Million in 2019. The tax revenue would have been substantial as well. Of course at the time we did not know who would purchase the land (you don’t know who is going to buy your property until you put it up for sale), but we knew how we would frame the RFP (Request for Proposals) to be sure we got the type of business we wanted (restaurant/brewery, boat access, waterfront walking paths, shared parking, etc.).
The RFP process is a very lengthy process that is also very public. It is a transparent process and all applicants for purchase would have been evaluated publicly. Unfortunately, Allen Smith, his daughter and SOBBP, attending their very first Town Meeting, did not understand how this process works (and did not understand that they would have been included throughout the very lengthy RFP process, that sometimes can take years). They accused me and the town of “back door deals”, they claimed they were “afraid the town would allow a steel shredder there” (which is actually illegal and not allowed in Somerset) because they thought this brewery/restaurant was a way for us to “trick them” into bringing in something industrial. Which we couldn’t do there even if we wanted to…but they were convinced.
The majority of people at Special Town Meeting in 2019 voted in favor of putting this land up for sale, but unfortunately the article required a 2/3 majority and it failed.
Bottom line:
— interested parties walked away, restaurants, breweries, etc.
— we lost out on the sale of $1 Million lot
— we lost out on annual commercial tax revenue
— we lost an opportunity to utilize the waterfront
All of which we can accredit to my opponent, Allen Smith, his daughter, and SOBBP.
If elected, I will continue to find ways to bring great businesses to Somerset and I will also find ways in which we can utilize our waterfront (that is completely under-utilized). It is all part of the Master Plan. We just need a planner (like a football team needs a quarterback), which thankfully we are back on track to hire one soon.
Let’s get back on track, Somerset! I need your help to make this a reality. Thank you for reading. I respectfully ask for your vote on Monday April 8th for Selectman. Thank you.”