DeSalvatore Pushes, Hay Looks for Closure

Two for today:

Councilor Ted DeSalvatore continues his crime clean up effort with the idea of condemning multi-family homes that are problems. DeSalvatore offers that a way to elminate the problem is to elminate the housing criminals use.

There appears to be some legal issues regarding tenants in these buildings (protection for the troublemakers? Huh) and some heavy court time involved in this process. At least DeSalvatore is thinking -- and still driving this issue hard.

Our totally insane idea: Take the land over via eminent domain. Say you're taking it and turning it into a single-family home. It's costly, and we're not even sure we would stand by this idea in the long run, but it might be worth checking out.

The other issue today is Councilor Stephan Hay's proposal to shut down the airport. This one also doesn't look to have much support from other councilors or the mayor.

Hay's argument is that the city could do better by turning the airport into development space. Others argue the airport is part of the city's future and will be a viable part of the city's rebirth, and that there might be a big payment to the FAA for past funding that would be due.

We lean hard toward keeping the airport open, but it would seem both sides should do some planning and studying to convince the other.

For those who want the airport: What are the plans to expand the airport's services and what are the future projections for usage? Paint a picture of the airport five years from now, 10 years from now. What are the national trends for small airport usage, and how does Fitchburg fit that trend?

For those who don't want the airport: What would the residential/commercial/retail/whatever mix be? Would there be a big project attached (the story today mentions minor-league baseball)? What's the sense of the development community? Would that space be quickly worked on, or would it be difficult to attract interest? Finally, are there any environmental issues that would hold things up?

Hay's suggestion is thought-provoking, but a whole lot of research needs to be done before a decision is made.