Southbridge Town Council - A Year in Review

Ken O’Brien

The last year has been a tumultuous one in Southbridge politics ("So what else is new?").

The year was marked by a major power shift on the town council as a result of a special election in February to fill the unexpired term of Councilor Laurent E. McDonald who passed away in November of 2010.

The election resulted in the councilorship of Larry Spinelli, widely perceived as the candidate of the Future of Southbridge coalition.

The power shift was consolidated in the June election which returned councilor Nikolla for her third term (and re-ascension to the chair) and the election of Darlene Marcucci and David Langevin, both of whom had served on the council in previous years. All of these were similarly viewed as the candidates of the same coalition.

Now, as 2011 comes to a close, and before the inevitable emergence of a new campaign season, it seems appropriate to review and analyze what the result of this shift in power has been on Southbridge's town council.

The Shrinking Pie In The Sky

Kenneth M. O’Brien

It just keeps getting better!

In his interview in the Southbridge Evening News of June 24, Town Council candidate David Langevin remarked that he “… expects it to take around five years for the industrial park to start really showing development. Such a delay, however, can be a plus because it provides time for planning and getting financing in order…”

So, the prospect is that it will likely be another five years before the vaunted industrial park project might show something. What will that be, 35 years of chasing that rainbow?

Never mind that the “industrial park access road” doesn’t go to the proposed industrial park site. It only goes as far as the landfill.