Casino impact to be talk of towns

The impact posed by the proposed casino in Middleboro will be the red-hot topic when town officials host representatives from 15 area communities at the Lakeville Public Library in a special Selectmen’s meeting on Wednesday, July 25, beginning at 7 p.m.

Events have moved rapidly since the meeting was announced in the middle of last week. The Enterprise of Brockton reported a multi-million-dollar deal struck between Middleboro officials and the Mashpee Wampanoag to develop the casino on Friday.

That announcement and Wednesday night’s community meeting in Lakeville set the stage for a Middleboro Town Meeting scheduled for Saturday, July 28 in which town residents will be asked to vote the agreement up or down.

Lakeville Town Administrator Rita Garbitt said representatives from the communities of Bridgewater, Easton, W. Bridgewater, Freetown, Berkley, Acushnet, Rochester, Taunton, Raynham, Carver, Halifax, Plympton, Plymouth, Kingston and Wareham had been invited to attend.

She said late last Friday that plans for the meeting had not been altered by announcement of the agreement reached by Middleboro and Wampanoag officials. It was that much more important to hold the meeting, she said, adding that the traffic impact posed to area communities seemed to top the concerns of some of the town’s neighbors.

And that’s certainly no less a concern in Lakeville, she said, where the train station and Routes 140, 18, 105 and 79 can all serve as casino conduits through town.

Raynham Selectmen Chairman John Donahue underlined the concern with a massive increase in traffic.

“It’s not like we’re airlifting tens of thousands of people into Middleboro every night. They have to come from somewhere.”

While roads are in the public domain, he said, local communities should expect help with the massive impact that can be anticipated to public safety and maintenance.

“We’re at the breaking point managing our own growth,” Donahue said. “We’re stretched out as it is.”

He added of the community meeting, “I’m really glad that Lakeville is taking this step. This is a regional development,” requiring regional mitigation.

“All the surrounding towns have to deal with the regional impact of a development this large,” Donahue said.

Taunton Mayor Charles Crowley said he would attend the Lakeville meeting. He said a large proportion of traffic to the casino coming from the west could be expected to travel through Taunton, much of it down Route 44.

Crowley said it was vital to see what other communities were planning to do to meet the challenges posed by the casino’s development and formulate a policy for Taunton.