![]() ![]() How are we going to solve it?”Īnsin said he believes Fitchburg has “great potential,” with its hardworking populace, physical location, affordable housing and excellent schools, and a lot of people are counting on city civic and business leaders to help the city “move the needle in a positive direction from an economic-development standpoint.” “What it comes down to is we have a problem. “It isn’t about who’s right or who’s wrong, it’s about what’s best for the city,” Antonucci said. “But political infighting certainly doesn’t help us move in that direction.” “I don’t think it’s pie in the sky that Fitchburg can get there,” Ansin said. It’s easy to look at the city and say that its best years are behind it, Ansin said, but one need only look at a city like Lowell to see that it’s possible to reimagine what Fitchburg can be in the future. “I think it’s really important that the city look for new and innovative ways to move forward because we’ve got pretty strong evidence that the ‘same old-same old’ doesn’t work,” Williamson said.Īnsin said he and Antonucci formed the Fitchburg Plan about two years ago and modeled it after similar initiatives in other older, industrial mill towns like Lowell and Salem that were successful in bringing revitalization by bringing together various stakeholders from the public, private and nonprofit sectors. owner Gregg Lisciotti, Simonds International President and CEO Ray Martino and Moduform President William L. Executive Director Marc Dohan, Lisciotti Development Corp. Connors, Twin Cities Community Development Corp. Antonucci, Fitchburg Art Museum Director Nick Capasso, Rollstone Bank & Trust President and CEO Martin F. Williamson, Enterprise Bank Senior Vice President and Community Banking Director Kenneth Ansin, Fitchburg State President Robert V. “Toxic tension undermines the efforts of all.”Īpplewild School Headmaster Christopher B. “Creative tension can be a positive thing,” the letter continues. “These efforts need direction, focused attention and a coherent approach so that the city all of us care deeply about can best be served. “We urge City Council members and the mayor to find common ground as soon as possible about a position that has clear, obvious and immediate benefit to all of the positive efforts that are being put forth currently on many fronts,” the letter reads. Without the economic-development position, they say, “Fitchburg will remain at a competitive disadvantage to its peer cities throughout the commonwealth, many of whom have invested far more resources into economic development than this one position.” Members of the Fitchburg Plan, a group of public, private and nonprofit organization stakeholders working to further economic development and revitalization efforts in the city, have signed on to a letter asking the City Council and Mayor Lisa Wong to put their differences aside over the embattled position and work together to find a solution. FITCHBURG - A group of business, nonprofit and educational leaders have banded together to show their support for returning funding to the economic-development director position, which they say is “critically important” to the future success of the city. ![]()
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