5th District candidates touch on interchange

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October 4, 2007

Brian Messenger

Fresh off their debate at the Collins Center last week, 5th District congressional candidates this week talked about a project close to home: the proposed Interstate 93 interchange in Lowell Junction.

With the plan to build a new interchange making recent progress on the state and federal levels, the candidates talked to the Townsman this week about how they would balance the impact of new development opportunities with the small-town characteristics of many 5th District communities.

Ensuring traffic relief on the streets of Ballardvale has been a major concern for Andover residents and officials throughout the planning stages of the interchange project. A recent proposal that included retail space here and in Tewksbury prompted Andover Selectman Alex Vispoli last week to say the town’s downtown business district must also be protected when considering development in areas surrounding an interchange.

Democrat Niki Tsongas, who noted the importance of the interchange proposal during the debate, said concerned residents must be given the opportunity to share their thoughts with officials on any major development project.

“Balancing has to be a very important part of the process,” Tsongas said this week. “The new interchange is an important opportunity for the district. The concerns are always very real. You just have to be sure that all of the necessary parties are in place to hear their concerns and try to address them in a reasonable fashion.”

During the debate Tsongas said that a strengthened education policy, including expanded engineering and math programs, would help promote the local work force — and as a result promote economic development in the 5th District.

Republican Jim Ogonowski said in a written statement that as a farmer and small businessman, he “knows the biggest cost in a bale of hay is taxes.

“We need to keep the tax cuts permanent ... those are worth $4,000 to the working people in the 5th District.”

He added that this area should be a leader in the research and development of alternative energy sources like solar power and wind power.

“The jobs created by this new industry will help with economic development, while the installation of solar panels and windmills will keep the ‘small-town’ feel of many communities while providing clean energy to our homes.”

Independent candidate Kurt Hayes, who works for IBM and lives in Boxborough, said this week that he understood the pressures facing already-established small businesses when new development is under discussion.

“This situation is common in towns across the 5th District,” said Hayes. “I’ve visited with voters in many communities where there is much fear that new businesses will cause further harm to struggling downtown centers.”

But Hayes said those businesses must survive on their own merits and not receive “artificial ‘protection’ from new economic development and new businesses that create more jobs, convenience, and revenue for the local communities.”

“If the town zoning laws allow it, and the town has carefully planned to minimize the impact on neighborhoods and roads in the community, I am in favor of projects such as this moving forward,” Hayes wrote in a e-mail about the proposed I-93 interchange. My commitment as congressman for the 5th district is to make sure that appropriate federal funds are made available for projects such as this.”

As a member of the Constitution party, Kevin Thompson said the issue of balancing the effects of new development on a town would be out of his jurisdiction as an elected member of the federal government.

“This is a state and city issue. I don’t believe it’s a federal issue, so I wouldn’t really be dealing with that in Congress,” said Thompson. “That’s not the answer a lot of people like to hear, but that’s what the law says. That’s what I have to abide by. I believe our states and our local authorities would have a lot more money if we’d stop shipping everything off to Washington. We only get about a 60-cent return on every dollar we send out there. I’m for letting the citizens keep their money and using it as they wish. We wouldn’t need federal funding.”

Murphy, of Lowell, said legislators and local officials should be more concerned with the kind of development they bring into their communities. Rather than luring large corporations, he suggested fostering local small business through enhancing education, housing and public transportation in the district, as well as adopting a universal single-payer health-care system.

“That’s a more sustainable kind of growth, because it’s coming from within the community itself,” said Murphy. “Economics really is local. The federal government does have a role to play in creating that environment.”

Murphy, also running independently of any party, said the expense of health care today is a significant hindrance to aspiring local entrepreneurs, who fear they wouldn’t be able to afford quality coverage through their own means. Such a concern also keeps people from seeking better or more enjoyable employment opportunities, he said. Adopting universal health care would help change that, he said.

“I think when you start locally and you have those conditions in place, when the people in the community can stay there and contribute to their community, you will see those small-town characteristics preserved,” he said.