Slots petition details emerge
BY SCOT A. PITZER
Times Staff Writer
More than 60,000 signatures opposing a controversial Gettysburg area gaming proposal are indeed accounted
for, a state gaming official confirmed Thursday.
Even though the Gaming Control Board’s executive director, Anne LeCoeur Neeb, did not mention a 62,634 signature petition during her Crossroads Gaming Resort testimony Wednesday afternoon, those tens-of-thousands of signatures do count
as recorded evidence.
“Anne’s comments referred only to the written submissions
received during the public comment period,” board spokesman Doug Harbach
said via email. “The voluminous petitions submitted by No Casino Gettysburg were part of the public hearing
process and were entered into the evidentiary record.
Therefore, all of those 62,634 petition signatures are also in evidence for the board.”
Neeb, speaking before the seven-member regulatory panel Wednesday afternoon, did not acknowledge the hefty petition assembled by No Casino Gettysburg and the Civil War Preservation Trust.
She told the panel that the Crossroads application, prior to the June cut-off date, garnered
706 written comments, of which 280 opposed the casino.
The documents, Neeb said, included two petitions totaling 1,434 signatures.
Her testimony confused high-ranking members of No Casino Gettysburg, who questioned why the 60,000 signatures
were not included as testimony — and if those signatures were counted for the record.
The gaming board put those questions to rest Thursday, much to the delight of NCG chairwoman Susan Star Paddock.
“The 1,400 or so signatures Neeb mentioned are actually in addition to what we already
submitted,” Paddock said by phone. “We have more signatures than we even realized.”
Neeb’s testimonial omission— while legitimate — drew the wrath of numerous preservation organizations
Thursday, including the Civil War Preservation Trust. “This was an incomprehensible oversight,” stated Trust
spokesman Jim Campi in a press release. “By the June cutoff date, casino opponents had delivered more than 60,000 signatures against the Gettysburg casino. Such remarks beg the question: is the Gaming Board trying to downplay
the opposition?”
Cinda Waldbuesser, of the National Parks Conservation
Association, also weighed in on the controversy.
“This should be a fair unbiased process that equally takes into account all public input,” Waldbuesser said via press
release. “We are concerned this gross oversight indicates otherwise.”
National Trust for Historic Preservation representative Adrian Scott Fine was dismayed by Neeb’s testimony. He noted that
National Trust members are still submitting letters to the Gaming Control Board.
“Is the board ignoring these legitimate public comments?”
Fine asked.
During an April 6 public hearing held at Gettysburg College, Paddock’s testimony was punctuated
by a parade of 10 NCG members, including one young girl, each carrying a box of petitions purported to contain the 60,000
signatures. About 20,000 of those signatures were that of state residents, while more than 6,000 of the John
Hancock’s were signed by Adams County residents.
“What appeared to be a huge underestimate worked out in our favor,” Paddock said Thursday.
“We are grateful to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for clearing up this error.”
Another 1,200 signatures, which would bring the total of opposers
to 65,268, are being submitted this week, Paddock said.
The Crossroads application, during the public comment period, accumulated a total of 706 written comments, of which approximately 425 were in support of the project.
Supportive documents included a petition with 5,606 signatures in favor of Crossroads.
Contact Scot Pitzer at 334-
1131, ext. 247 or
spitzer@gburgtimes.com.
Inappropriate Locale for a Casino
Editor, Gettysburg Times:
No Casino Gettysburg, a grass-roots coalition of persons, organizations, and businesses, has been working for 19
months to promote its message, that Gettysburg is an inappropriate location for a gambling casino.
Since May 21, 2005, petitions have been collected on the streets of Gettysburg from residents and tourists,
and many more have been voluntarily mailed to us from residents elsewhere in Pennsylvania and from other states. On
June 2, 2006 and Nov. 14, 2006, Susan Star Paddock and I delivered the petitions, plus four copies of each, to the Pa.
Gaming Control Board. It was a total of 32,443, including 6,720 from Adams County and 20,563 from the rest of
Pennsylvania. In addition to our numbers, 30,191 signatures were delivered by the Civil War Preservation Trust from their
members. A total of 62,634 persons voluntarily
identified themselves as opposing a gambling casino in Gettysburg.
The esteemed Rev. Dr. Herman G. Stuempfle was recently honored by the
Rotary Club with the Eisenhower award. In accepting the award, he spoke of
Gettysburg and Adams County as “a privileged environment in which to live and raise a family.”
He described it as “a setting of extraordinary beauty and unique historical significance.
It is known around the world as a symbol of freedom and democracy,
both because of the battle fought here and the address given here by the greatest of our presidents. It is my fervent hope that
this will remain true and that we will bequeath to our descendants what our ancestors have bequeathed to us.”
This eloquent statement is, in effect, what all the persons who don’t want a casino here are saying. We ask the members
of the Pa. Gaming Control Board to heed these voices. They are from Gettysburg and across the country. They feel that Gettysburg belongs to the nation, and should not be desecrated by a gambling casino in Gettysburg.
Muriel L. Rice
No Casino Gettysburg, Vice-Chair
Gettysburg |
