Developer: Milford Casino Site Safer Than Boston-Area Proposals
While Boston-area mayors go back and forth on two neighboring casino proposals, another prospective developer is glad to be outside the urban area as he seeks approval of a casino in Milford.
“I’ve never looked at the competition,” prospective developer David Nunes said. “I’m more focused on what we’re doing than what others are doing.”
City officials in Everett don’t have that luxury as Boston Mayor Tom Menino, a vocal advocate for a casino proposal in East Boston, is seeking a say in a proposed casino in Everett as well.
The joint venture between Caesars Entertainment and Suffolk Downs, straddling East Boston and Revere, is a short hop down Route 16 from the former Monsanto site in Everett where Steve Wynn wants to build a resort casino. Both are a far cry and a long drive down Route 16 from about 177 acres of forestland along Interstate 495 in Milford where Nunes is hoping to build a resort casino.
Nunes said his suburban site would be safer than the other proposals.
Asked if he was glad Menino could not claim to be a neighbor to Milford, Nunes said, “I think Mayor Menino does a wonderful job and is a superb mayor, and has served Boston well. I’d put him up there with Kevin White in my own viewpoint. I’m a native of Massachusetts. I went to school in Boston at Northeastern University. I’m a big fan of the city, but this doesn’t belong in the city. This belongs out in a location that is more relaxed, that people are not afraid when they go into a parking garage during the dark hours, in a location where it’s kind of an oasis onto itself.”
Nunes clarified that he thinks both the Everett and the East Boston locations would make people afraid.
“I think they will. I know I would be,” Nunes said.
Proximity has given Menino license to complain about Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria and Wynn not consulting him, which in turn caused DeMaria to delve into the not always neighborly history of the two communities who share a border along the Mystic River.
“Unfortunately when Boston Water and Sewage built their treatment facility, people of Everett were never really contacted about it and asked how we felt about it. We had our own public meetings about that,” DeMaria said earlier this month. Both cities use the riverfront as an industrial area. Across the street from the treatment plant, Everett houses a large natural gas power plant.
Menino has intimated that he might have more of a say in what happens to the land because Chemical Lane, a road leading into the Everett site, passes through Boston land. DeMaria said he’s unsure whether Chemical Lane would be needed.
“We’re not sure yet where the entrances and exits are of that facility,” DeMaria said after a state transportation presentation at UMass Boston. City officials in neighboring Somerville and Medford have raised concerns about the casino.
Nunes doesn’t have a Menino in Milford putting political capital behind his proposal. Asked what backing he has among town officials, Nunes said, “I think even more than that, I have a community that backs my proposal.”
Nunes does have internal dissension within Milford’s government. William Buckley, a member of the three-person Board of Selectmen, is opposed to Nunes’s plans and doubted the support for them in town.
“The people that I’ve heard from are not really in favor of it,” said Buckley, who said the local water company wouldn’t be able to supply Nunes with the necessary water. Buckley said, “I think it’s the wrong place, and too much of a drain on services.”
Nunes hinted at some potential disagreement about who would vote on the Suffolk Downs proposal.
“I think that there’s a lot still to play out in this whole thing. I think that there are some questions the secretary of state may have on who gets to vote, and I think that all that has to run its course before anybody can have a crystal ball to make predictions,” Nunes said.
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