The Randolph Police Services Committee is preparing to recommend a partial expansion of the village police district to include the areas south of the village on Route 12 and Beanville Road to the Bethel town line, as well as the Route 66 corridor up to and including Exit 4. What would happen if this were approved?
If the village police district were partially expanded, it would create the same situation we have now over a larger footprint.
What has happened since the town and village merger in 1984 is that the large and small businesses that used to be the foundation of Randolph village have either relocated, closed or expanded outside of the village district. Route 12 and Beanville Road south of town was almost entirely vacant farmland prior to 1984. For decades, businesses were located in the village where there was infrastructure for utilities and pedestrian traffic.
People used to walk everywhere in the village; you didn't need a car. That changed over the years as cars improved and retail began the era of large buildings with acres of parking, totally the opposite of the village. People began to walk less and drive more. Slowly but surely, the access and exposure offered by a Main Street retail location was not as important as having a big standalone box. A changing business environment coincided with an altered business landscape.
The businesses did not move out of the village because of the police district taxes, but the taxes have certainly discouraged new business from locating in the village. Look at all the new business development that has occurred just outside of the village district boundary. Now consider how many vacant spaces and dilapidated buildings there are in the village. Some of them could be rebuilt, but instead new business locates outside the village.
A village location, especially retail, is not in demand. Retail has been decimated by Amazon. That is not going to change anytime soon, and will probably get worse. We are lucky to have the retail we still have, both in and out of the village.
There are many advantages to business locating out of the village; avoiding the police tax is a bonus.
If Randolph were to partially expand the district, the new district would be at a disadvantage and new businesses would be incentivized to avoid the new district. It would encourage new business development just outside of the new boundaries, while business in the newly expanded district would be encouraged to relocate - just like they did after the merger in 1984.
If you give a business a loophole, they will take it. The police district needs to cover the entire town, or the boundaries will be exploited.
What the town needs to do is encourage, not discourage, new business to locate in Randolph. The best way to do this is to level the playing field and stop giving business an excuse to locate elsewhere.
There has been some discussion about fairness - specifically, imposing a tax on businesses that do not get to vote on the tax being imposed. Well, as a general rule, a business will almost always oppose any new taxes. That is essentially what keeps lobbyists in business.
The same is true for individuals - most people do not want to pay any more taxes than necessary. That is understandable. That is also why strong leadership sometimes involves taking controversial positions that benefit the bigger picture.
Ironically, it is the intersection of 3 major roadways, a river and a railroad that was a benefit to the area and caused Randolph village to flourish and become a destination. The intersection is now what causes a regional bottleneck which forces area residents through the village to reach their destination. When combined with the police tax on the village, this is a burden, not a benefit.
Randolph is not entirely unique in suffering the effects of a bottleneck and traffic passing through a village that is no longer in demand. As the retail box stores have proliferated, the traffic they cause has resulted in many communities finally having no other choice but to build a bypass. This is obviously a drastic option that is not feasible for Randolph now, but it illustrates the problem and one way to deal with it.
The town has created this problem by maintaining the disparity between the village district and the rest of the town. It is up to the town to solve it.
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