Casino news source: South Coast Today - http://www.southcoasttoday.com
Wampanoag leader says casino would give boost to area businesses
By Steve Decosta
Standard-Times staff writer
July 12, 2007 6:00 AM
LAKEVILLE — Wampanoag Tribal Council Chairman Glenn Marshall promised local business owners Wednesday they all will share the wealth from the tribe's planned casino in Middleboro.
"If you have an everyday service industry, that's going to be taken care of," Mr. Marshall told about 125 people at a breakfast meeting of the Middleboro-based Cranberry Country Chamber of Commerce at LeBaron Hills Country Club.
Saying a new hotel-casino would bring in "tons of jobs," Mr. Marshall claimed the economic spinoff of that operation would benefit the entire region.
"Very, very few businesses suffer when a casino comes in," he said. "In Ledyard and Montville, there has never been a local business that had to struggle," he said, referring to the respective Connecticut communities where Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos are based.
Those assertions, however, run contrary to the feelings of many Connecticut officials.
"There are businesses out there that feel they have been hurt," said Tony Sheridan, president of the Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce. "We've had some small restaurants that have gone out of business."
"It's a mixed bag," he continued. "It depends on what your business is and where it's located. I'd say it's more positive than negative, but there is a downside."
Ledyard Mayor Susan B. Mendenhall said the casino has not been a boon for businesses in her town.
"When this first happened, we thought it would be positive," she said. "We have not witnessed that. We have not seen a lot of local economic spinoff."
While promising economic benefits, Mr. Marshall said the casino would not cure all economic ills. "If your business is struggling now, what am I supposed to do if the business is struggling after we come in?" he asked.
The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is proposing a five-star hotel and 150,000 square feet of gaming space — more than twice the size of a giant supermarket — with 4,000 slot machines and 125 table games on a site off Route 44 in Middleboro. An investor for the tribe has bought 125 acres off Precinct Street and the tribe has an option for another 200 acres in the area.
Voters will be asked their opinion of an agreement that would pay Middleboro millions of dollars annually during a Town Meeting on July 28.
New Bedford and unspecified other communities are possible alternative sites, although Wareham is not one of them, Mr. Marshall said yesterday. "Wareham is a little south of where we want to be because of the bottlenecks."
Mr. Marshall told chamber members and guests that the tribe's planned casino would produce up to 2,700 construction jobs, with preference given to companies that employ union members.
Once constructed, the hotel-casino complex would employ 5,000 to 7,500 people, he said.
When locals complained about traffic tie-ups on Route 44, Mr. Marshall said, "Our engineers are working on that right now," and promised a report in three to six months.
"If we can't get people in and out, we're not going to be successful. And we have to be successful because of the debt service we're going to be carrying."
Before addressing the gathering, Mr. Marshall presented a 15-minute video on the Wampanoag history, tradition and culture, issues that he also focused on during a half-hour presentation.
That led to a confrontation with Elaine Santos of AMS Entertainment of Middleboro, who accused Mr. Marshall of "playing on our emotions" without addressing issues relevant to businessmen.
"I don't think we are being dealt with up front and honestly," she said.
Contact Steve DeCosta at
sdecosta@s-t.com |
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