In casino-related tension between Middleborough and its neighbors, the sparring that has proceeded from a distance may draw closer.
Middleborough selectmen have invited members of the 18-town Regional Task Force on Casino Impacts, some of whom have been critical of Middleborough, to an advisory committee meeting in Middleborough on Thursday. Steven Smith, the head of the regional planning agency, and Middleborough's state representatives are also invited to sit in.
The tone of the invitation, when it was suggested by Selectman Adam Bond during a Middleborough meeting last Monday, included a challenge. "This will show us if people are really serious about wanting to get involved," Bond said.
West Bridgewater selectmen chairman Matthew Albanese, a regional task force member, took issue.
"I think it would be a horrific error in judgment to question the resolve of the task force," Albanese said. "Our mission is to gather as much information as we can." He said he believed some task force members will attend the Middleborough session.
"We've been getting mixed messages from Middleborough," Albanese said. "There's Selectman Bond, who mocks the task force, and there is Selectman Patrick Rogers, who has attended our task force meetings and been the antithesis of that.
"It's like a 'good selectman, bad selectman' game, and we're not interested in playing."
Rogers has attended the last four meetings of the regional task force, asking that Middleborough be allowed membership. The panel turned him down at its Jan. 23 meeting, with only Raynham and Kingston supporting Middleborough's inclusion.
Task force members said Middleborough's interests differ from theirs: The town created its deal, and now the region would have to figure out how to handle the impacts.
Ever since the signing of its lucrative casino pact with the Wampanoag tribe in late July, Middleborough has been criticized by neighboring towns, which say Middleborough did not take impacts to their communities into consideration.
Smith, executive director of the Southeast Regional Planning and Development District, in a position paper posted on the agency's website, characterized Middleborough as "selling out" its community for the multimillion-dollar payment. He has complained there will be little opportunity for other towns to present their concerns over the Wampanoag casino proposal, beyond an environmental impact hearing hosted in Middleborough by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on March 4.
During a meeting with Smith last Monday, Middleborough selectmen argued that other communities have approved several substantial projects over the years, without asking for Middleborough's opinion.
Among the examples they cited: Rochester's SEMass waste processing facility, Bridgewater's state correctional center, and Plymouth's current proposal to host a huge film production facility.
"We're just trying to drive our own destiny with the economic engine that's been presented to us," Selectman Steven Spataro said of the town's $11 million-per-year casino deal with the Wampanoag.
The Middleborough Casino Resort Advisory Committee was established a few months ago to begin planning for a Mashpee Wampanoag-run casino on 500 acres on Precinct Street. It includes several department members, the five selectmen, and members at large - all from the town.
Regional task force chairwoman Nancy Yeatts, who also chairs the Lakeville selectmen, said that rather than accept the invitation to Thursday's Resort Advisory Committee meeting, she will ask that two task force members attend and bring information back to the full group.
Task force members, she said, were too busy to "all pile into the room" in Middleborough on Thursday.
"Right now, we're all trying to prepare for the March 4 meeting with the Bureau of Indian Affairs," Yeatts said. "We have to concentrate on our own wants and needs."
She called the coming meeting, as well as Middleborough's attempts to secure membership in the task force, "a diversion."
"Patrick Rogers is still welcome to come to our meetings and ask to be put on our agenda if he wants to speak, but this has taken up too much of our time already," Yeatts said.
John Bruno, a Halifax selectman and task force member, agreed, saying the debate over Middleborough's joining the task force has become a "distraction that's already taken up too much time."
As for the Thursday invitation, he said, "They're offering us nothing. It's a public meeting, so anyone can sit in."
When contacted Wednesday, selectman Bond acknowledged the "considerable jabbing back and forth," between Middleborough and its neighbors.
"Now it's important to get everyone sitting in the same room," Bond continued.
"If you don't want us to sit in your room, then come sit in our room."
The resort committee meetings aren't simply pro-casino sessions, he said. "We're trying to work through a large project," he said.
Christine Legere can be reached at ChristineLegere@yahoo.com.
