Let's think about this:

An assisted living company approached  Wakefield in December of 2012 seeking to build a ninety unit facility with forty five parking spaces beneath the structure on Crescent Street. We, the Town, asked for a parking garage to be built on Main Street to house one hundred ninety cars. Between the Town and the Company a great deal was struck to have the facility build our Town a garage thus allowing them to expand their project another fifty units to one hundred and forty in total. From my estimate Brightview, in essence, will increase their revenue by $1.8 million dollars/ give or take. They also get seventy five spaces in the new garage, an increase of thirty spaces for them and increased revenue as the tenants who have vehicles will, most likely, be charged for these premium spaces. Considering all of this, I believe when Mr Turco, Mr McGrail and Mr Falvey  informed Town Meeting this company would walk away if the meeting didn't go their way, it was nothing  more than a scare tactic, tantamount to bullying. We, the townsfolk supposedly had plenty of time to acquaint ourselves with this proposition and should have come well prepared to unanimously embrace its conception. I, for one, knew very little about it and would have appreciated more time to soak in all the ramifications of such a large undertaking in our small center of town. One hundred and ninety more cars coming and going and coming and going seems to be a place to be avoided. Increased traffic on Crescent Street, including ambulances, visitors, increased senior citizens, seems like another place to be avoided. This garage will help our downtown in what way? The idea that shop owners and their employees will park in there is speculative at best.  Who will want to use the garage to walk through the square in the rain, snow and ice?
   Let Brightview build their original ninety unit, forty five parking space building. We could improve the parking lot where the proposed garage was to go. I can think of many areas downtown, or on it's fringes where a large parking garage would be more beneficial, cause less congestion and accommodate shop owners far better.

Valerie Nesbitt