By Alec O’Meara
Union Leader Correspondent
Town Councilors will look at a resolution Monday to remove gambling from all future discussions regarding the marketing of in-town development opportunities, in part because of an email conversation between board members on the subject over the last week. The email thread, which was added to the minutes draft for the Dec. 8 Economic Development Task Force meeting, includes comments from Councilors Mike Brown, Sean O’Keefe, Kathy Wagner and Paul DiMarco. Two days after the meeting, councilors were asked by a blast email sent to all members if they wanted to add additional thoughts to an analysis on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats the town would deal with as part of its marketing push to bring new developments to Southern New Hampshire. The brainstorming session, which Community Planning and Development Director Andre Garron had planned to forward along to the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission at the end of this week, was considered benign by councilors save for a single line-item on gambling. The final page of the report listed gaming and casinos as one of 13 possible future opportunities for Londonderry development, and mentioned the potential of gaming taking root in Massachusetts as one of 12 threats against future development.
The inclusion of gambling was first questioned by Council Chairman Mike Brown. In the email thread, Brown said he never once been approached by a resident who wanted the town to pursue casino development, and that gaming would not create the kinds of jobs which were in line with the town’s master plan.
“I do not believe this type of development would be in the best interest in Londonderry,” Brown said. “More importantly, I do not believe it would be supported by the community.”
In the email, Brown asked for the lines including gambling to be removed from the report prior to its submission to the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission. In the thread, the request was echoed by Councilor Sean O’Keefe, who wrote he agreed “100% (sic)” with Brown.
O’Keefe’s comment was followed by Wagner, who wrote she did not have a problem with listing gambling as an option. “If and when it passes as a legislative bill, then we deal with it. This is a moot point until then,” Wagner wrote.
After Wagner’s comments, Economic Task Force Chair John Farrell, who was also included in the mailing list, wrote in and declared the thread a public document to be included in the minutes for the Dec. 8 meeting. Farrell also said he was opposed to “censoring” the minutes, and gambling was brought up as part of a brainstorming session by one member of the committee and reflected the discussion that occurred. After Farrell’s email, DiMarco wrote and said he was commenting “since this is now a public document.” DiMarco wrote he was also opposed to including gambling as an opportunity in the report.
Farrell confirmed he had submitted the emails and said his comments in the thread spoke for themselves. The email thread was included in the online minutes for the meeting on Thursday.
Likewise, Brown confirmed the words in the email thread were his own, but added he took offense to the idea he had asked for censorship. Brown said whether or not the town should consider gambling as a future opportunity was a policy decision the Council should make prior to its inclusion in a report sent to a regional organization.
“I don’t know if that’s correct as far as what is supposed to be done, but that’s how I feel as one councilor,” Brown said, adding he saw three of five councilors had opposed the inclusion of gambling in the email thread.
Monday’s proposed resolution would resolve Brown’s question, Town Manager Dave Caron said. The resolution, which would remove gambling from future marketing discussions regarding town development, would represent the policy decision Brown alluded to, Caron said. Should the council adopt the resolution, the report would be altered to reflect town policy, Caron said. Otherwise, the comments of Brown and other councilors would be included in the report as additional points of view.
Garron said the deadline for sending the report had been Friday, but he now planned to hold off until after Monday’s council meeting. The Council meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Monday in the Moose Hill Conference Room at Londonderry Town Hall, 268 B Mammoth Road, Londonderry.
Reprinted with the permission of the author. This was published in the Union Leader Friday Morning and was only available in the print version of the paper. This is the unedited version of the story and may differ slightly than the one in the paper. The original headline and tag line read, “‘Gambling’ is a dirty word in development debate; Londonderry:In an e-mail exchange, councilors discuss whether gaming should be listed among future development opportunities.”
Read more to view the PDF files referred to in this story.
Resolution 2009-24
A Resolution Relative to Economic Development
[gview file="http://parmenterfarm.org/londonderrynh/pdf_files/LD_res_2009_24.pdf"]
Economic Development Task Force
Meeting Minutes from December 8th 2009, Page 4 of this document has the SWOT Priority Results by the committee.
[gview file="http://parmenterfarm.org/londonderrynh/pdf_files/edtfmin_120809-draft.pdf"]
Southern New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission
Target Industry Analysis, November 2009 Draft
[gview file="http://parmenterfarm.org/londonderrynh/pdf_files/msb_snhrpc_report_oct_2009.pdf" force="1"]
Town Council Email Comments on SWOT
[gview file="http://parmenterfarm.org/londonderrynh/pdf_files/tc_staff_commentsre_edtf_swot_analysis.pdf"]
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I guess this explains why Trump’s airplane was in town last month.
For those that may not know we had a story “Visit Londonderry, Donald Trump?” with a survey just for fun after we saw his aircraft parked at MHT.
The survey now up on gambling was added when we took that down just before all this came out.
My wife and I just had this conversation 2 days ago about the pros and cons of building a Casino near the airport.
For the record…we’re both residents of Londonderry and we’re for it. Of course, we don’t gamble (yet).
What a COMPLETE and utter waste of the Town Council’s time.
This is something that isn’t even legal and probably will not be as Governor Lynch has appointed a commission that is made up of people almost universally opposed to the idea.
This would be a GREAT thing for Londonderry. How is this not “the type of jobs” we want? Foxwoods employs THOUSANDS of local Connecticut residents. No one is talking about building The Flamingo with strippers near the airport. But a megaresort with slots and table games and entertainment which could attract local acts that cant quite sell out the Verizon but could easily do well in a smaller venue. This is such a win win…
And it will never happen, especially in Londonderry…It isn’t even on anyone’s radar, especially not developers. So I say again…what a waste of the Town Council’s time.
“This would be A GREAT thing for Londonderry. . . . Foxwoods employs thousands of local Connecticut residents”.
Or rather Foxwoods did employ thousands. Foxwoods and Mohegan have had significant layoffs since October 2008. Mohegan suspended expansion plans about the same time due to diminishing revenues. Twin Rivers casino in Rhode Island has filed for bankruptcy, partly caused by high debt service for acquiring and building the casino while at the same time also dealing with declining revenue.
Las Vegas now has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the U.S.and also a higher than national average unemployment rate.
As for the “types” of jobs, do you know if they are mostly full-time with benefits or mostly part-time with none.
But was is clear about the gaming industry is that they are not recession proof, and when the economy takes a downward turn, this industry usually takes a bigger fall. As for the effect on the towns where Foxwood and Mohegan are located, check to see if those towns are having a harder time coping with the recession because of their dependency on casinos.
As to your comment that these emails were a complete waste of time by the Town Council, maybe they are just following the advice in the Town’s “Community Economic Development Plan”.
“Leadership: In order for this economic development plan to work, the stakeholders, staff and community leader must all work together. If we are not clear in our direction and are not communicating the same message, then, Londonderry will be hard-pressed to meet it.”
goals. Page 23.
Seems like having a vote on where the Town Council stands on casino’s would be just following the Economic Development Plan’s stated goal.
I didnt say the emails were a complete waste of time…I said the resolution was. (And others below seem to agree with me…) This is something that isn’t even remotely legal and the councilors are going to make a “Resolution” against it? And if it ever does come to town, and the council when that happens is more favorable, they can just reverse the resolution…so yes, a complete waste of time.
Look at the written resolution
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Council of the Town of Londonderry continues to support an active, vibrant and diverse economic development strategy, a strategy that does not envision Gaming as an appropriate land use in the Town; therefore expanded Gaming should not be encouraged or included in the Town’s economic development strategy, or marketing materials & public presentations.
Gambling may be illegal now, but laws change. Lobbyist and developers will push for legalization if they see a benefit. No doubt there will be preliminary plans and discussion long before the law is changed to confirm there is a benefit. Who benefits could will be debated as well, but the homework will be done by the side pushing for change.
The resolution takes the discussion off the table. It removes it from the “Town’s economic development strategy, or marketing materials & public presentations”.
Either way I think there should be a public input on the subject. I also think there are some people doing their homework on both sides.
Not that its scientific, but theres been some public input on this site…the poll on the homepage has 2/3 in favor of gambling in NH, and 13% opposed to having it in Londonderry…
Complete waste of time, Did the legislature make gambling legal last night?
I forgot to ask my question. If this passes on Monday night, and if you mention gambling and talk about coming to Londonderry, do you go to jail or get a ticket?
A link to the email thread:
http://www.londonderrynh.org/planning/tc%20%26%20staff%20comments%20re.%20edtf%20swot%20analysis.pdf
Also the December 12th meeting never made it to the town calendar or town buletin board.
One of the ‘threats’ listed in the report was “Lack of public interest”. Maybe if they post the meetings people would attend? Maybe not.
We have that in the read more part of the story.
The use of “&” “spaces” and dots “.” in the file name cause some browsers and Operating Systems problems.
It is labeled “Town Council Email Comments on SWOT” and is the last document.
They are on one of our servers because of this file name issue. Glenn’s link should be the same file.
Readers will find that they can view in the window, select the upper right icon to view in Google (lots of features there) or download the file.
Hey Glenn no comments about the secret meeting held by the town council on e-mail. A clear violation of 91A, nothing to say about your good friends on the town council who are wasting the taxpayers money.
Failure to post the Dec 8th meeting would appear to be a much clearer infringement of 91A. I don’t think the emails qualify for a secret meeting, but I could be wrong. No money spent so I don’t think anything was wasted, at least no yet.
I also disagree with the proposed Resolution. The Councilors are entiteled to their opinion, but I think public comment should be taken before a resolution is voted on.
Gambling is a good idea. Londonderry should bring in something that increases jobs and adds to the tax base. I am sick of the Londonderry ‘NIMBY’ attitude.
December 12th or December 8th even you can not seem to get the facts straight maybe you are a 91A. That’s right defend you buddies. Such a joke……..
BTW I am with Paula you go girl……
Once again….thank you to my Town Council for holding the line. A casino in Londonderry….bad idea! Most of the folks posting on this subject have not experienced “the element” that come with a casino. Let’s see…I will look out my window and see pawn shops, check cashing storefronts, party busses traveling around Londonderry with drunken bachelor parties on board, our police tied up stopping motor vehicles, with multiple occupants, on the middle of the night on our dark roads, the prostitutes, the drugs and the thieves that HAVE moved into Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun and Twin Rivers since they opened…no thank you. I live here in Londonderry to raise a family free from this nonsense…I drive to Boston nightly for work…..to DEAL with this nonsense…hold the line on this issue….and I LOVE the saying NIMBY!!!!!!!!
After after all the time the Econ Dev Committee has spent they come up with the bright idea of a casino? So much for keeping the character of the town. As soon as someone disagrees with their plans they run off to the local papers to brew up another local controversy. The town spent, what $35,000, for a new website to promote the town and all we got is a electric apple and more delays on that website that will save the town. So who is wasting time and money again?
YOU! For supporting the current town council and you’re hero kings Farmer and Brown. You are a product of town underground. The hero worship sight.