Page 55 - BusinessWest December 8, 2021

Enfield
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there on a consistent basis,” he noted. When the pandemic hit in early
2020, officials tried to figure out how
to keep town business operating. It
so happened that a Santander Bank branch two doors down from Town Hall had recently closed and was on the market. The idea was floated to lease the former bank and use its drive- up window as a convenient and con- tact-free way to conduct town business during the pandemic.
“The drive-up window worked great for residents looking to apply for build- ing permits, pick up a dog license, or pay their taxes,” Tereso said.
The town moved the entire Tax Department into the former bank
and renamed it Enfield Express. The site also had enough room to locate
a police substation in the rear of the building. Tereso said the town just finalized the purchase of the building, making it official that Enfield Express is here to stay.
McCollum
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sive fan base has a status in sports that is much like a certain baseball team in New York. He called it a ‘community.’
“They’re the most loved — and the most hated, kind of like the Yankees, as they say, which makes a lot of sense,” he noted, adding that the message- board comments reflect every emotion when it comes to the team, from loyalty to cynicism.
“A lot of members seem to enjoy misery,” he went on. “They claim to be Notre Dame fans, but they’re not just cynical, they almost seem like they’re hoping for the worst thing that can happen. But deep down, I think they’re still Notre Dame fans; they just enjoy pain.”
Breaking News
When BusinessWest first talked with McCollum in very late November, after the final game of the sea- son, a win over Stanford, he said much of the discus- sion on the site’s message boards was about what had to happen for the Irish to become one of the four teams in the FBS playoff — certain teams needed to lose in the week ahead for that to become likely — whether that would happen, and even if it should happen.
Indeed, McCollum acknowledged that some of those cynical fans were wondering out loud if it might be better for a team that has made the playoffs sever- al times, and even the championship game one year, but have been routed in each game, to earn a New Year’s Six bowl game instead. The thinking among some is that latter scenario would actually be better for recruiting.
“That’s a big debate we have on the board all the time,” he told BusinessWest. “People say they would rather not go to the playoffs if they’re going to get beat by 30 by Georgia. I’m of the opposite camp. You’re playing these games to try to win a champion- ship, and you can’t win it if you’re not there.
“Some people say it hurts recruiting when you lose big like that, but this is what happened in recent years, and it doesn’t seem to have hurt recruiting,” he went on. “And it’s just as easy to say it helps recruit- ing; you can say to a kid, ‘we’re there ... we just need
in Enfield.”
Enfield Square, purchased by Nam-
dar Realty in 2018, could be another candidate for redevelopment. The new owners were granted a zone change to reconfigure the mall and subdivide the parcels.
While malls all over the country
are being redeveloped, Tereso believes Enfield Square’s close proximity to two I-91 exits is a big selling point for future use. He plans to survey residents on possible redevelopment options to get a read on what people would like to see at the mall.
“Whether it’s entertainment, mar- ket-rate housing, or outlet shops, all those things could be a successful way to develop the mall for new use,” he said.
Life in the Fast Lane
For Cressotti, life these past months has been moving fast.
In October, he won the election to be Enfield’s new mayor. On Nov. 6, he
took over the position, and on Nov. 15, longtime Town Manager Christo- pher Bromson abruptly resigned after a heated exchange with several Town Council members.
After serving in different positions with the town since 1989, Bromson decided to retire and was recently quoted saying he is grateful to see many of the projects started during his time are now going forward. Enfield Police Chief Alaric Fox has added inter- im Town Manager to his job title until a new manager is hired.
Even with all that happening, Cres- sotti likes the direction Enfield is headed.
“We are making five- and 10-year plans instead of just reacting to what’s happening now,” he said. “Sure, there are challenges ahead of us, but we’ll take each one as they come and always try to do what’s right for the town of Enfield.” u
“People love it,” he added. “We will absolutely continue the drive-up ser- vice after the pandemic is over.”
Purchasing the former bank branch also expands the amount of municipal parking and provides another entry point for the newly configured Higgins Park.
“When the Tax Department moved out of Town Hall, we turned their old space into a new conference room,” Tereso said, noting yet another benefit of creating Enfield Express.
Finding new uses for existing struc- tures is all part of the plan in Enfield. For example, the Social Services Department recently moved from 110 High St. to the former Alcorn School, where the town’s IT Department is located, while 110 High St. is one of seven town properties Enfield has sold while it strives to efficiently use munic- ipal space.
As Tereso explained, “110 High Street was once a day-care center. We sold it to a day-care provider who will now be able to expand their presence
to take the next step, and you’re one of the players who can help us take that next step.’”
But then, Kelly dropped his bombshell — a few weeks after dismissing speculation that he might be tempted to take other college jobs, such as the one at the University of Southern California — and every- thing changed.
McCollum had been planning to do a number
of stories on Notre Dame’s coaches, including Kelly, fanning out to different parts of the country — now that their regular season was over and another game wouldn’t be played for at least three weeks and pos- sibly more than a month — to check in with those coming to Notre Dame and try to sway some others to come to South Bend. Now, those trips, the ones that will still happen, will be much different in tone and complexity because so much is uncertain.
As for McCollum, he’s already been working the phones to gauge the reaction of recruits and their parents to what has taken place.
“Initially, the response was disbelief,” he said of his early calls to recruits and their families, during which he was often breaking the news about Kelly. “And then, disbelief turned into frustration. There was some hard feelings from some of the recruits and their parents, but mostly disbelief; it took a while for it to sink in.”
Overall, the Kelly saga presents an intriguing day in the life for McCollum, or, to be more precise, a day unlike any other.
Indeed, when asked where he was when the news broke, he said it was more of a process than a single phone call, text, or tweet.
“I was at home during the day when I started hearing rumbles from people I trust,” he said. “It wasn’t that Kelly was going to LSU, but that LSU was going to make a serious offer, as in money that would be hard to turn down.”
From there, events unfolded relatively slowly, and Kelly’s departure, which earlier in the day still seemed unlikely, became more of a possibility, said McCol- lum, adding that he kept getting calls and updates all day long, even while attending his daughter’s basket- ball game.
“When I got home, I still didn’t believe he was going to go because of the culture fit,” he explained.
“So I started texting some of my buddies to let them know that this was out there and that it would be just my luck to have this happen now and turn my world upside down.”
And ... that’s just what happened. His world turned upside down.
But that’s part of life when you cover this team, one that has such a huge following. One where seem- ingly small news is big news, and where big news is BIG news.
Big enough to keep him off his Peloton.
Instead of the planned stories on what recruits were thinking as National Signing Day (Dec. 15) approached, now, the focus was on whether they would stay with the Irish if they were already commit- ted — some have already de-committed — or adjust their focus if they were not.
Endless Cycle
As noted earlier, talking with recruits and follow- ing the high-stakes, often-changing competition to sign top-tier athletes has become more than a job for McCollum.
He’s now one of the foremost, and most trusted, sources on Notre Dame football and especially its recruiting efforts.
He said there is certainly a Groundhog Day nature to his work in that he’s asking the same questions of different people each year, but he noted that each story is different in some respects, and he enjoys fol- lowing each one to its end — whether the recruit comes to Notre dame or goes somewhere else.
“And it never really ends — it’s always a rolling thing,” he said. “Once this class of ’22 is signed, we’re heavily into ’23 and ’24, to be honest. I enjoy it ... it’s my job to really help members understand what’s going on in that young man’s head, what he’s think- ing, who’s the competition, what he’s going to value when it comes to making that decision, and keeping our subscribers up to date on what’s likely to happen when it comes to recruiting at Notre Dame.” u
George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]
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