This was on front page of today's Sullivan County Democrat.

[WNYresident]

Dear CACGECers,

I don't normally forward news from other parts of the state (there's
just too much of it), but this item was so encouraging, and the coverage
so positive, that I just had to share it with you. This comes to us by
way of Tina Hazarian, of the Coalition for a Casino-Free Sullivan
County. -- Joel

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This was on front page of today's Sullivan County Democrat.

Residents Warn of
Casinos, County Quiet
in Its Response

By Nathan Mayberg
MONTICELLO — One by one on Thursday, angry casino opponents walked up to
the microphone at the Sullivan County Legislature’s public comment
session to express their deep hostility to the prospect of a casino town.
They want a referendum. Bankruptcies will skyrocket, several
charged. The casinos will take money away from the people’s rent and
utility bills, they said. Crime will rise. Addictions will increase.
Families will be torn apart.
Others did not believe the county would be compensated fairly,
whether the impact fee was $5 million or $15 million per casino.
Al Steppich, whose family has lived in the county since 1948, took
shots at Native American gambling in general.
“Why is it that just the Indians can do the gambling here? They
don’t pay taxes and don’t serve in the military,” he said. “That makes
me and other taxpayers sub-standard.”
Jack Hirschfeld, saying the current deal is poor, rhetorically asked
the legislators if the county’s roads would be safer, if the social
environment would promote responsibility.
One local resident was outraged that the Sullivan County
Legislature hired a consulting agency which works for the gaming
industry (Spectrum Gaming) in order to conduct a study on the impacts of
gaming. She wondered if the legislature would also trust a drug
company’s information on the safety of their medication.
One person compared the issue to the landfill, in that the county
was taking the quick fix in response to its economic difficulties.
“The landfill disaster will look like a day at the beach” compared
to the casinos, said one.
John Wombacher from the Town of Liberty gave the most emotional
speech of the day.
“The future of this beautiful county is being endangered. . . .
Green spaces will be jeopardized.”
The county is being sold out to a “malicious industry,” in his
view. The Bureau of Indian Affairs’ “tribal recognition process is a
disgrace to the American people. . . . They should be stripped of their
power.”
He called for a referendum like Saratoga had.
“We are entitled to one.”
The casinos would be “a scar on all of your reputations,” he warned
the legislators. “We don’t want an additional 90,000 diesel fumes on our
roads . . . [and] alcohol- and drug-crazed maniacs on our roads.
“Should a little county of 70,000 be destroyed to pay for a debt
that somebody else created?” asked one.
Most people in the county don’t want casinos, she said. Forty-two of
45 proposed casino sites in the country have recently failed, she added.
“We’re on a roll,” she said.
With Crystal Run Healthcare and the Bethel Woods Performing Arts
Center on the way, casinos won’t be necessary, in her view.
Another local resident was concerned with the “silent addiction” –
teen gambling.
“[It’s] the fastest-growing addiction, surpassing drug addiction”
among teens, she stated.
Furthermore, the county and the state are not prepared to handle problem
gamblers, she said.
“There are only eight licensed gambling counselors in New York State
. . . [and] 200,000 minors are turned away every year at Atlantic City.”
She also ripped the Spectrum Gaming Report for spending only half of
a page on the social impacts of the casinos. She acknowledged that “many
of our kids are leaving the county and the state, but I would rather see
[my son] leave the state than work in a casino.”
Tina Hazarian of the Coalition for a Casino-Free Sullivan County,
did not believe that casinos would be economically advantageous.
“Nevada had an $800 million budget deficit” last year, she said. And
Las Vegas has the highest suicide rate in the country, she added.
According to her research, casino visitors to Foxwoods and Mohegan
Sun in Connecticut were only stopping in the towns for the gas station.
Now, casinos are starting to build their own gas stations, she said.
Afterwards, Sullivan County Legislature Chair Chris Cunningham, who
has been an opponent of casinos, said, “It appears more people than in
recent memory are against casinos.”
Legislator Ron Hiatt said he was told by County Attorney Sam Yasgur
that he had to refrain from speaking out against casinos due to the
agreements with the casinos to support them publicly.
He provided documents signed by past Chairman Rusty Pomeroy, County
Manager Dan Briggs and County Attorney Ira Cohen which call on the
county to “support the project and to actively work with and assist the
tribe and its contractors and agents to obtain any and all approvals . .
. [and] assist the tribe in responding to negative comments about the
project.”

[joehajduk]

As our civic duty someone should send this article to the Gabryszak regime in Cheektowaga........

[absolivious]

Originally posted by joehajduk
As our civic duty someone should send this article to the Gabryszak regime in Cheektowaga........

Go ahead but you can bet he will have already read this one in todays Buffalo News.
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial...23/1009888.asp