The news on last Friday that Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston will no longer be pushing his claim to be a host community status to the Wynn Development certainly comes as good news to Mayor Carlo DeMaria and the taxpayers of Everett.
For the last nine months, Menino has maintained that Boston should be granted a host community status for the Wynn project since part of the access road for the project lies on the Boston property. And in the same breath, Menino has made it clear that he favors the Suffolk Downs site for a casino over the Everett site and as a host community, he could have effectively killed the Wynn project.
Today, it seems that all Everett’s hurdles for this project are now over and completed. DeMaria and the 86% of Everett voters who came out to endorse this project now must await the decision of the State Gaming Commission.
Unlike in our community, other communities seem to be split about whether to host a casino. In Milford, the vote by the residents is scheduled for November, but the Board of Selectmen approved the proposal by a split 2-1 vote.
In Boston, the date for a vote by the residents still has to be set and with Mayor Menino not running for re-election, there is disagreement among the candidates who would be mayor whether the vote should be limited just to East Boston or all of Boston. One candidate is vowing to stop the proposal in its track. Boston and Milford certainly seem to be a houses divided on their pending casino developments.
As usual in Everett in an election year, there seems to be a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking about the financial agreements for the City of Everett that have been reached with Wynn Development. We urge those who argue about the agreement to hold their peace. Today, Everett is the leading contender for a casino. The last image that we want the Gaming Commission to have is that there is division over this project in Everett. We believe that the Everett site has the advantage over the other proposals simply because Steve Wynn is the developer. Let’s keep it this way.