Work as one and make Woonsocket grow again

The City of Woonsocket has seen much progress over the past four years. We have exited a budget commission, avoided five years of tax increases, lowered tax rates for three years, invested in our roads/schools/parks, increased our bond ratings seven times, grown our tax base with increased property values, expanded events in the city for residents and visitors and improved the quality of life and reputation of Woonsocket. As the City does continue to have challenges like the pension fund, school funding and loss of tax revenue from Prime; the City faces one big question... how do we keep the progress we have made and how does it continue?

I believe strongly that what we need to do is to continue to work together by focusing on supporting and advocating responsible budgets as well as economic development opportunities that will help the City.

It is unfortunate that these situations cause discussions and meetings on how to "cut" as a way to grow our economy. It is not possible to cut your way to economic prosperity, it has never happened and never will happen for any community. The administration and City Council should be working as one City to support and encourage more economic development opportunities including mixed use projects, advocating for new and expanding businesses, and develop incentive programs to grow our tax base/revenue and create jobs for our local economy. That is the best way to keep building on our success for many years to come.

The City has a long tradition of celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., where the community rallies and comes together. This is the year to actually continue that spirit through the whole year and not just one weekend. We can't let the petty political gamesmanship and nonsense of any election year stop the progress Woonsocket can achieve.

Too often in this City we allow a negative letter to the editor or email, a nasty phone call to a talk show with personal attacks or accusations, or an afternoon talk show filled with lies, rumors and propaganda dictate who we are or what we want to become.

We are better than people who have nothing better to do than to tear us down.

This is our time to work as one; that maybe does not agree on every single point and issue, but agrees to work and find the solutions to our problems. The only way to solve our problems is to communicate and respect one another.

Let us remember the words of Dr. King when he said this, “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”