John O’Hara promises if he is elected to a fifth term as an at-large member of the City Council he will continue to ask the tough questions and ensure residents have a voice on the council.

O’Hara, R-Cottage Place, said in his time on the council, he has felt the city has made great strides forward, but there is still much work to be done. “We’ve had some good development in this community,” he said. “I think we’re spoiled. We’ve had great success for a long time.”

The challenge facing the city now, said O’Hara, is to keep the momentum going. He said a project like the Westbrook Heights Business Park on Saco Street, where the city bought the land to develop it into a business park is a good start. “For the city to show it can do a public/private partnership, that will bring some of the buzz and excitement back to Westbrook,” he said. “When that is totally built out, the community will have one heck of a development project to be proud of.”

The city should also look at the possibility of another building adjacent to One Riverfront Plaza and the municipal parking garage off Bridge Street. He said two more levels of parking could be added to the existing garage to accommodate the new building. Another area of the city that should be developed is the Route 302 corridor, he said. The problem with developing that area is that sewer lines would have to be extended there before any major development could take place. The cost of extending the sewer could be prohibitive to all but the largest developers, said O’Hara.

“At a million dollars a mile, it gets pretty expensive,” said O’Hara.

O’Hara said it is also time for a city-wide property revaluation. He said he would support a revaluation if it were to include both commercial and residential properties. In order to ease the effect of the increased values, O’Hara would like to see the city phase in the increased property values over a period of time.

“This will let people adjust and bend their incomes to what is going to happen,” he said.

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