WBJ poll: Broad business support for courthouse deal
Business leaders overwhelmingly support the city’s agreement to sell the former Worcester County Courthouse to a New Hampshire developer for $1.2 million, according to early results from this week’s WBJ Flash Poll.
The poll, posted Monday on the WBJ website, found 79-percent support for the deal without conditions being pushed by the Worcester Community-Labor Coalition. Those conditions include ensuring that at least half of the construction jobs for the site’s redevelopment go to Worcester residents.
By 11 a.m. Tuesday, the poll found that 19 percent believe the city should attach conditions sought by the coalition. Two percent are not sure.
The City Council is expected to approve when it meets tonight at City Hall. It had been originally scheduled to vote two weeks ago.
Voters were also asked to comment about the deal. Here are three:
- “The city should consider itself lucky to have a developer interested in risking their capital and labor on an old building, which until now, was attracting no interest whatsoever from local developers.”
- “Let the businessman run his business. This project is not a city/state (or) federal project. It's private. If the city wants to attach conditions then they should develop the site themselves.”
- “Maybe not all of the demands can be met. But one can: They can put something on paper saying they will hire locally. A deal can be struck; all they have to do is say we will hire local labor force.”
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