|
Packed hall hears both casino ‘sides’
The Sloan Volunteer Fire Company hosted Monday’s Town Board meeting, and a packed hall heard supporters and opponents state their cases concerning a potential Transit Road location for a casino operated by the Seneca Nation of Indians.
Casino opponents addressed the board for the fourth consecutive meeting, but Monday’s gathering marked the first time that casino supporters spoke in public.
Opponents generally raised concerns that have been presented to the board at earlier meetings. The concerns include: increased traffic, fear of higher crime rates and declining property values, the location’s proximity to a Lancaster school, gambling addiction and higher welfare rolls resulting from addiction.
The site– where the Senecas have purchased an option to buy several parcels of land– is located west of Transit Road and about a quarter-mile south of Genesee Street.
The meeting attracted a large number of Lancaster residents, prompting Supervisor Dennis H. Gabryszak to quip "there are probably more people from Lancaster here at the Cheektowaga Town Board meeting tonight than are at the Lancaster Town Board meeting."
Two casino supporters were Cheektowaga residents Dale Knickerbocker and John Pietruszewski.
Knickerbocker stated that Native Americans were "slaughtered, maimed and run off their own property" more than 200 years ago.
"We still reside on their property today," Knickerbocker added. "We didn’t buy anything from them...we killed them and removed them."
Knickerbocker added that Native Americans were given "uninhabitable land" in which to reside.
"They have been incarcerated on land that we didn’t want," Knickerbocker said. "Why should we stop them from purchasing their own property?"
Pietruszewski questioned some of the concerns raised by the casino’s opponents.
"I can’t believe that children are going to be corrupted by a casino across the street," Pietruszewski stated. "Are they going to run across the street during the lunch hour and put their lunch money into the casino?"
Pietruszewski suggested that if gambling is bad for children then parents shouldn’t bring their children to Bingo games or to stores that sell lottery tickets.
"There are bigger problems to worry about," Pietruszewski added. "Worry about MTV."
While the casino supporters sat quietly and listened to the anti-casino group, both Knickerbocker and Pietruszewski were not afforded the same treatment, being shouted at and booed by some of the opponents.
When Pietruszewski was shouted down, he "thanked" the interrupting parties for their "cooperation."
Town Receiver of Taxes William P. Rogowski also spoke in favor of the casino, noting that Cheektowaga cannot tax land owned by the New York State Thruway Authority, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, and other parcels such as cemeteries.
"(The Senecas) want to put a casino in this town because of the airport and the Thruway," Rogowski said. "I want to thank them for considering us and to give back some of those millions of dollars in taxes that our taxpayers lost."
Lancaster resident Timothy Sherry, a member of CONCERN, an acronym for "Citizens Opposed to New Casinos in Established Residential Neighborhoods" stated that his group is not against a casino, but is against the Transit Road site.
Sherry provided maps detailing residential neighborhoods within 3,100 feet of three separate locations that have been reported as possible locations.
The maps indicate that roughly half of the land within a radius measured from the Transit Road site is residential.
Two other sites, off Sonwil Drive and the former Pfohl Brothers landfill, have also been reported as possible locations. There is less residential land around the Sonwil location, and considerably less residential space near the landfill site.
"The impact of the residential communities should be at the top of the list," Sherry told the board.
Statistics compiled by CONCERN indicate that there are 1,368 homes within the 3,100-foot radius of the Transit Road site. There are half as many homes within 3,100 feet of the Sonwil site, and only 74 homes within the Pfohl site’s radius.
Gabryszak said that Seneca Nation of Indians President Rickey Armstrong is aware of the school and that the school "is a concern of the Seneca Nation. They’re looking to be a good neighbor."
Monday’s meeting was the third within a year that the board held away from Town Hall. Last October, the board held a meeting at the Cleveland Hill Fire Hall and last March the Alexander Community Center hosted a meeting.
| 
