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Less than a week after hearing a presentation from the sole developer to return a proposal to Rockaway Beach with plans to build a riverboat casino in the city’s downtown, officials announced at a board of aldermen meeting earlier this week that they would make trips to visit some of the existing casinos owned by the company.
Gaming Committee Chairman Chuck Walters said he felt the company, Barden Development Inc., looked to meet all of the city’s prerequisites for the project.
“The company, within itself, after having been looked at — looking through the books, looking through the finances and all the things that are pertinent — I believe Barden meets all the requirements necessary,” Walters said.
Mayor Tom Strom said he had been advised by the city’s gambling attorney, Doug Stone, that a visit to one of Barden’s five existing casinos would be advisable before making a decision on the developer.
“I got a letter from Doug Stone, stating that we should go investigate,” Strom said.
While officials are visiting a casino, Walters said they would take the opportunity to not only view the facility and speak to casino employees, but also speak to the city’s mayor and police chief to see what effect Barden’s casino has had on the area.
Walters confirmed that he was making plans to visit Barden’s first casino, the Majestic Star in Gary, Ind.
Strom said he was making plans to visit one of the casinos, but he was planning to visit one Barden acquired, the Fitzgeralds casino in Tunica, Miss.
“I was planning to go, too, but I was going to go in the opposite direction to Tunica,” Strom said.
Steve Lemberg, vice president from Barden Inc. who made the presentation to the city’s aldermen said the Fitzgeralds in Tunica would be the closest in size to the casino the company hopes to build in Rockaway Beach.
When city leaders met with representatives from the company and a representative from ICI Design Group, the architectural firm that would design the casino, earlier this month, Lemberg said the developer would like to build a riverboat casino in the city’s downtown that would feature about 57,000 square-feet of gaming space, more than 1,300 slot machines and over 40 gaming tables.
This is Rockaway Beach’s second attempt at bringing a casino to the city of about 600. In 2004 Rockaway Beach failed to convince Missouri voters to change the state constitution to allow casinos along the White River. Currently, according to the state constitution, casinos can only operate along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
No matter which casino Walters said he and the mayor visited he encouraged that they needed to be quick in deciding whether to partner with Barden or not on the project.
“It would be in the city’s best interest to move forward with this quickly and make a decision so there would be leeway, because the decisions are going to be made on 2007 or 2008 for a vote date,” Walters said to the city’s mayor and aldermen.
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