Wave of support for racetrack proposal meets Leominster City Council after months of opposition

LEOMINSTER — After months of public opposition to the proposed racetrack at the former landfill site, the Leominster City Council heard a steady stream of support Monday night from labor leaders, residents, and a former state official during its public forum.

Jorge Rivera, president of the Worcester-Fitchburg Building Trades Council—a construction union representing roughly 7,500 families across the region—was among the first to speak in support of the project, saying it would create real opportunities for local construction workers.

“We have plenty of members here in Leominster; speaking on their behalf, I think it will create a lot of local jobs; it will create a lot of permanent jobs—good paying jobs that are going to create a pathway to the middle class,” Rivera said.

Several union representatives followed, including Fitchburg resident Fernando Lemos, president of UFCW Local 1445, a union which represents workers across a range of private-sector industries including grocery, cannabis, retail, healthcare, meat-packing, and warehousing. Lemos said his union represents more than 100 families in Leominster, over 2,000 in Worcester County, and more than 12,000 members throughout the Commonwealth.

“I would ask that you please consider this project, the fairgrounds, because we believe that with this project we’re going to have good union jobs — not only built union, but also once it opens, it will be 100 percent union,” Lemos said.

Fitchburg resident and UFCW Local 1445 member Tony Montalvo spoke about the financial strain many families are facing and framed the racetrack proposal as a potential source of economic relief.

“Everybody knows and feels the economy and the weight of what it is right now — to go to your grocery stores and afford the food and the gas and the uncertainty of everything looming right now with politics and the economy,” Montalvo said. “And this is why we keep talking about the good-paying jobs — and not just that, but, as mentioned, the money coming into the city as well. Leominster could be that place where people say, ‘Hey, let’s go to Leominster.’”

Jennifer Flanagan, a Leominster resident who served for over 20 years in both the Massachusetts House, Senate, and on the state’s Cannabis Control Commission, urged the council to view the project holistically.

“Jobs that bring home money to people are important — regardless of what level someone wants to judge that to be,” Flanagan said. “And I ask that when you take a look at this project, you take a look at the entirety of this project.” She added that environmental impacts would be subject to local and state oversight, just as with other landfill sites across Massachusetts.

“Everyone should be concerned about the landfill and what it can do to our families going forward. Everyone should be concerned about our families going forward,” Flanagan said. “We are ‘The Plastic City,’ this is not the first time we’ve had to deal with certain industries where people were going to be affected 20 years later.”

Flanagan added that the site could serve more than just racing interests. “You want a skating rink in the winter? A festival in the summer?” she said. Later adding, “These are all opportunities we get to create for our community if we do it together and we do it with the entirety of this project.”

Another speaker, Amanda Smart of Leominster, a UFCW Local 1445 member, described herself as both a carpenter and longtime equestrian. She pushed back on animal welfare concerns, saying there are federal laws in place and consequences for mistreatment. “If those are the moral concerns, there really shouldn’t be,” she said, noting the project could bring in millions of dollars.

Not all who spoke were in favor. Several residents, including Ralph and Katherine Crowley of Spruce Street, raised concerns about building on a former landfill. Others urged the council to conduct environmental studies and a detailed cost-benefit analysis before making a final decision.

Still, supporters made up a significant portion of the public forum during the Leominster City Council meeting on Monday, June 23 — an anomaly in a process that has, until now, been dominated by public opposition.

The city council is expected to revisit Petition 41-25 — a proposed ban on horse and dog racing and associated betting — and Petition 47-25 — a zoning amendment sought by Baystate Racing LLC for the development of a racetrack — at its July 14 meeting.