Slots parlor backed in Lawrence County
Friday, May 16, 2008
By Jim McKinnon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Even a parish priest supported Valley View Downs’ application for a slot machine casino at a harness racing track to be built in Lawrence County.
Not one of the nearly three dozen speakers opposed the casino as they addressed the state gaming control board yesterday in the Mahoning Township Community Center in Hillsville, fewer than 10 miles north of New Castle.
The only potential glitch that came up, after the board held its public hearing on the license application, was a fast-approaching deadline between the applicant, Centaur Gaming, and Credit Suisse, which has agreed to lend the money to build the track, casino and related amenities.
That financing deadline is June 15 for the $429 million facility.
Credit Suisse is the same lender that Don Barden, developer of the Majestic Star Casino on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, is negotiating with for money to build his $770 million facility.
“I feel like somebody’s trying to put our backs against the wall on this,” gaming board member Kenneth T. McCabe said after the public hearing.
Centaur Gaming still is undergoing background checks by the gaming board.
Board Chairman Mary DiGiacomo Colins said the board is committed to “thoroughness and completeness” in its investigation.
“They’re not going to sacrifice quality for speed,” said Doug Harbach, spokesman for the board.
The license application can’t be approved fast enough for folks in and near Lawrence County.
About 250 people crowded the main floor of the community center, and another 50 or so viewed the hearing on a big screen in the basement of the building. Dozens more supporters, mostly members of the county’s building and trade unions, demonstrated their support outside during the hearing.
Everyone seemed to see the casino/racetrack project as a panacea for what has ailed the region since the economic downturn of the 1970s.
Centaur projects at least 1,000 permanent jobs once the harness racing track and casino with 3,000 slot machines open on a 250-acre site in Mahoning. The land is between Route 422 and Route 551 in the township’s Hillsville area.
Valley View Downs already has a license for the harness racing track.
State, county and local government officials see the project as long-overdue tax relief. Even officials from neighboring counties, including the mayor of Lowellville, Ohio, just across the state line, hailed the plan as beneficial to the region.
“If we get this gaming license, I will do a happy dance,” JoAnn McBride of the Lawrence County Tourist Promotion Agency told the board.
The track would revitalize largely idle farmland in the county, because there will be demand for hay and straw.
Speakers also touted the location near major highways and the one-mile track, which could attract better horses than some of the smaller tracks in the state.
Even the Rev. James Downs, pastor of Christ the King Catholic Church in Mahoning, endorsed the casino.
He acknowledged there may be other, seamier issues that go along with a casino. Though important, the issues are ancillary, Father Downs said.
“We have no hue and cry to ‘Burn down the racetrack,’ ” he said, adding that he has seen little or no opposition to the casino within his parish.
“We welcome it on every level, including the faith level,” he said. “I don’t know if they’ll pray to win,” he said to laughter from the audience.
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