The loss of Main Street Market for the Town of Wellington should open our eyes to what is happening in our not-so-little town.
I have served on the Town Board for almost 15 years, and have witnessed a lot of change to our town in that time. We have worked very hard to try and bring new businesses to town, and the day Main Street Market opened its doors was another step in the right direction. We as a Town Board had sent out a questionnaire asking the residents what they would like to see added to town, and one item more than any was a community swimming pool, built of course by the town, using tax revenue. I for one would love to see that happen, but until we have the tax base to support one, let alone actually build one, I just don’t see us ever getting to that level.
We as a community really need to support our local businesses if we ever want to see opportunities like this come to fruition. As we see doors close on existing stores like Main Street Market, it really poses a threat to potential businesses from wanting to open or relocate to Wellington if they think they won’t have the support of our local community. We as a community must do whatever we can to help support existing as well as any new businesses that may want to come into town, and in return, they will be able to maintain competitive pricing, and restock shelves more often with fresh products. We have a new Dollar Store breaking ground, and my hopes are that the Wellington community will offer their support.
I know that what we have is a bedroom community and the majority of us work outside the town. We may see it as more convenient to stop on our way home to make a purchase, or it may save us a few dollars up front, but in the long run, what is it actually costing us? The Town uses sales taxes collected from our businesses to update and maintain our aging infrastructure, meaning water/sewer lines, streets and sidewalks. We as a community need to be mindful when making a purchase, and take a second and consider if our town could be the benefactor of sales tax being collected on your next purchase.
Until we have buy-in from our whole community, we may never be able to support many new ventures to our town.
Jack Brinkhoff
Wellington