Ward 2 candidate Joan Boucher said she is running for City Council because she thinks Westbrook could benefit from having a new voice on the council.
“I’d like to be part of the solution for Westbrook,” said Boucher, R-Longley Road. “Maybe a new voice is what we need.”
Boucher thinks the city needs to work to strike a balance between commercial growth and residential development when it comes to the city’s future growth. “I think we need to have a careful balance,” she said.
Boucher said she envisioned a downtown that had a mix of office space and retail stores that would make downtown Westbrook a destination. “I would like to see the downtown become a real downtown,” she said. “What we do need is a group of stores that would draw people to walk up and down the street.”
While there is a focus on downtown, Boucher said she would like to see the city do more to develop the Prides Corner section of the city by Route 302. She said she thought that area was ripe for development, though the fact that the city would have to extend the sewer lines to the area would be an obstacle.
Boucher said she thinks it would be difficult to lower taxes, especially without making drastic cuts to services. She said by striking a balance between commercial and residential growth, the city would be able to keep the tax base stable. In addition, Boucher said she would be in favor of a citywide revaluation to help equalize the tax base. “It has to happen,” she said. “It’s overdue.”
While she thinks cutting taxes would be difficult, Boucher feels the city can continue to find ways to streamline government and look for ways to cut costs wherever it can. “I would support looking into what is really needed in the city and what isn’t,” she said.
Boucher said if she were elected to the council, she would work as hard as she could and if there were a question she didn’t know the answer to, she would do everything she could to find the answer. “I think doing your homework and keeping up with what’s going on is half the battle,” she said.
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