How can I control the Terminal in the current space with AppleScript? Working on building a Handler that passes the terminal window then calls the ID for a script I've run into mixed results and I'm curious if there is a cleaner way to get window 1

The handler:

on termHandler()
    set activeTerminal to ""
    if application "Terminal" is running then
        tell application "Terminal"
            if not (exists window 1) and not busy of window 1 then
                activate
                tell application "Terminal" to do script "echo snow" in window 1
            else
                tell application "Terminal" to do script "date" in window 1
                set activeTerminal to window 1
                return activeTerminal
            end if
            do script "echo foo"
            activate
            set activeTerminal to window 1
            return activeTerminal
        end tell
    else
        tell application "Terminal"
            activate
            do script "echo bar" in window 1
            set activeTerminal to window 1
            return activeTerminal
        end tell
    end if
end termHandler


Everything I've read and researched:


Applescript to open a NEW terminal window in current space
Open terminal via AppleScript
Applescript to open specific Terminal Style Windows
Script opens two terminal windows
Sending commands and strings to Terminal.app with Applescript


Suggests that AppleScript and Terminal do not get along.  My current OS is Sierra I'm writing this in but other boxes I have run Yosemite which would use this script. My end goal here is to identify a Terminal window in that particular space and fire some do script but I seem to be having an issue doing so.  Is there an easier way to identify if the Terminal is running, not create a new window and if it is running return the window 1 as a variable so I can pass it do script?
Do you need to actually have it input into a terminal window or is that just the way that you found it to work? I am not sure if you are aware of this or not but you can run shell scripts directly from an AppleScript by using this "do shell script" command. As an example:

do shell script "echo snow"