Full Report Here:

BUSINESSES AGAINST THE CASINO in ADAMS COUNTY

You can get No Casino Gettysburg Merchandise at the following businesses:

Aces High Gallery, 433 Baltimore Pike, Gettysburg, PA
Gettysburg Christian Bookstore, 24 Chambersburg Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325

The Horse Soldier, 219 Steinwehr Ave., Gettysburg, PA 17325
http://www.horsesoldier.com

93 businesses in Adams County oppose the casino, most because they respect the historic identity of the area, want to keep our family-friendly, small town community and because their customers tell them it will be a big turn-off. Since heritage tourism is the community’s main source of income, there is an economic reason to oppose this.
These businesses testified before the PGCB on Sept 30 using an independent report by Mike Siegel. Mr. Siegel’s report is available here.

2010 Campaign:

Aces High Gallery
433 Baltimore Pike, Gettysburg, PA

Adams Rescue Mission Thrift Store
2525 York Rd. Gettysburg, PA 17325

Ambiance Resource Management Energy Audits
Gettysburg, PA 17325

Caprine Delight Goat Dairy and Room to Grow Farm
1778 Chambersburg Rd., Gettysburg, PA 17325

Norma Calhoun, CPA,
Gettysburg, PA 17325

Colonial Design and Graphics
162 York Street, Gettysburg, PA

Craftix Technology Solutions
Gettysburg, PA

Cricket House
162 East Middle St, Gettysburg, PA

Penelope Emmons, MSW, Counseling and Coaching
126 E. Middle St. Gettysburg, PA 17325

Farnsworth House Inn
Farnsworth House Dining
Farnsworth House Ghost Tours
Farnsworth House Military Impressions
Farnsworth House Bookstore
401 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325

For the Cause Productions
2699 Heidlersburg Road, Gettysburg, PA 17325

Golden Menu Restaurant
1885 Baltimore Pike, Gettysburg, PA 17325

Gettysburg Christian Bookstore
24 Chambersburg Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325

Gettysburg Electronics
24 Chambersburg, Gettysburg, PA 17325

History Matters Publications and Artwork
Bellwood, PA 16617

Hoffman-Woodward Makers and Painters
412 W. King St., East Berlin, PA 17316

Victorian Costume Rentals
770 Taneytown Rd, Gettysburg, PA 17325

The Lion and the Lamb
548 W. King St, East Berlin, PA 17316

Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, 61 Seminary Ridge, Gettysburg, PA 17325

5/4/2005 Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg Protests Casino Plans
Seminary President Michael Cooper-White, interpreting this action as a part of the 179 year-old graduate school’s role within the greater community, said “Gettysburg Seminary has a long standing commitment to be a good citizen concerned for the well-being of this community that is our home. Our board went on record opposing activities that in our best judgment will detract from the well-being of local residents and our millions of guests.” The Seminary board also called upon “the greater Gettysburg community, its institutions and governmental authorities to join in opposition against any plans to develop a legalized gambling enterprise in Adams County of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” The board’s discussion centered around three issues related to gambling concern, focusing on economic justice, community impact and symbolic consideration of Gettysburg as a national historic treasure.

Mamma Venturas
13 Chambersburg St. Gettysburg, PA 17325

Moon House Media
Gettysburg, PA

Needle and Thread, Wooded Hamlet Designs
2215 Fairfield Road, Gettysburg, PA 17325

James E. Paddock, RLA, Landscape Architecture
Gettysburg, PA

Susan Star Paddock, LCSW, Coaching and Counseling
Gettysburg, PA

The Ragged Edge
110 Chambersburg Street, Gettysburg, PA

Rice Fruit Company
2750 Carlisle Rd, Gardners, Pa

Ronn Palm’s Museum of Civil War Images
229 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325

Schneider and Associates
Mechanicsburg, PA

U.S. Christian Commission
242 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325

Washington Street House Apartments
201 South Washington Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325

Wolfe and Rice LLC, Attorneys at Law
47 West High Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325

Yellow Hill Farm
670 Yellow Hill Road, Biglerville, PA 17307

A Sentimental Journey Bed and Breakfast
431 Baltimore St. Gettysburg, PA 17325

Maryland Businesses

Butternut and Blue
3411 Northwind Road Baltimore, MD 21234

For a politician, integrity is more important than being right about everything.

State Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Bucks, has been flagrantly wrong on some issues, notably motorcycle helmet laws and gun control. (By wrong, I mean that he clashed with the incontrovertible logic surrounding those issues, as articulated by me.)

Even his toughest adversaries in Harrisburg, however, admire Clymer’s integrity.

As reported on Thursday and Friday, Clymer, 72, has decided not to run for re-election in the 145th Legislative District, which he has served since 1981.

”He was at the forefront of the opposition to slot machines in 2004,” observed Thursday’s story, reporting unconfirmed speculation about Clymer’s departure.

Harrisburg sources were quoted as using terms like ”honest and hardworking,” ”personal integrity,” ”decent” and ”gentleman” to describe him.

I went to see Clymer at his Perkasie office after I saw Friday’s story about the confirmation of his plan to retire. This is a guy who exulted over his participation in something he considered sacred.

” William Penn convened the legislative body in 1683,” he said. ”It [the Pennsylvania General Assembly] is the longest serving legislative body in North America. … To be a part of that holy experiment is something special. … I don’t take it for granted that we’ll always have a democracy. We should have a special appreciation for the job we’re elected to do, and not abuse it by serving special interests.”

No one is a harsher critic of state government than I, and no one expresses more contempt for the way most politicians serve special interests and not the public. However, when I hear angry demands for term limits as a way of prying the bums out of their entrenched legislative seats, I think of the rare breeds like Clymer and hold off.

Gambling industry interests poured millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of many politicians, especially those of Gov. Ed Rendell, who then granted their every wish by enacting slot machine casino measures in secretive, dead-of-night ways specifically prohibited by the Pennsylvania Constitution. (The measures received the blessings of the indisputably worst state supreme court in America.)

The state’s foremost foe of those shady measures was Clymer, who also fought similarly illegal pay raises enacted for top state officials, including members of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. ( The Supremes went along with a prevailing argument that the pay legislation was illegal, but kept their own pay hikes anyhow.)

I have been writing about Clymer since the early 1990s, not always in a supportive way, but I was flattered in 2005 when he said he was ”inspired” by a column I wrote about plans to put ”a sleazy casino on Gettysburg’s hallowed ground.”

Clymer then led a successful fight to prevent such a joint from being built there.

Many of his efforts have failed, such as a bill to prevent casino operators from plying suckers with free booze to lessen their inhibitions, but you can’t help but admire his quest for some modicum of honesty.

Needless to say, Clymer has not benefited from any part of those millions the gambling industry sent to other politicians. He once returned a $250 check to a lobbying outfit because he feared the outfit might have gambling interests among its clients.

So his election campaigns have had total financing of $24,000 or less, while other legislative candidates have campaign budgets soaring well into six figures.

Clymer and I are on the same page for a number of issues, including tort reform and his attempts to require ignition devices to prevent previously convicted drunken drivers from driving while looped.

We clash on other things, such as a proposal to allow same-sex marriages, whether to let convicted criminals vote, motorcycle helmet laws and gun control. The important thing to consider regarding those disagreements is whether Clymer ever accepted a campaign contribution from some special interest lobbyist to support gun control, helmet laws or anything else.

Not a dime, he said, and — based on what I’ve learned about the man over the decades — I believe him.

”I’m not saying they [other politicians] should not get money from the special interests. I get some myself. But it should not be … ” He then seemed stuck for a term.

”Quid pro quo?” I asked.

”Yeah,” Clymer said.

A politician should not base his or her actions on quid pro quo — ”something given or received for something else.”

Sadly, Harrisburg is infested with politicians who base everything they do on quid pro quo and, come next January, one of their opposite numbers will be gone.

paul.carpenter@mcall.com 610-820-6176

Paul Carpenter’s commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The Morning Call

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LeVan is seeking a resort casino license for the Eisenhower Hotel and Conference Center in Cumberland Twp. That license would allow development of a casino with up to 600 slot machines and 50 table games on a tract lying just a half-mile from the Gettysburg National Military Park.

The coalition, comprised of the Civil War Preservation Trust, National Parks Conservation Association, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Preservation Pennsylvania, issued a joint statement today saying their opposition is based on the threat of overdevelopment of an area so close to the historic Civil War battlefield. The groups also contend a casino is a bad fit with the heritage tourism Adams County thrives on.

“Locating and marketing a gambling facility at Gettysburg unavoidably conflicts with the essential meaning of this place in American history,” said James Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Preservation Trust.

LeVan’s partnership criticized the groups for acting before seeing final plans for the site. LeVan has said his project will save and create hundreds of new jobs, improve a now-struggling commercial property and generate needed revenue for county and local governments.

By CHARLES THOMPSON, The Patriot-News
January 28, 2010, 6:25PM

When its goal is met, the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) plans to sell the land to the National Park Service – which has already allocated $300,000 toward the purchase. In the meantime, the CWPT has the land under contract.

Acquiring the property – which lies directly along the Emmitsburg Road and was originally part of the historic Philip Snyder farm – has long been considered a top priority by Gettysburg National Military Park officials, spokeswoman Katie Lawhon said.

There are two main reasons for that status, Lawhon said.

First of all, the property is in close proximity to areas of major battle action – particularly Little Round Top, the Peach Orchard and Devil’s Den, all popular tourist areas. It is estimated that nearly a third of the Union Army marched by or across the property on their way to Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.

Secondly, two modern homes which sit on the property are significantly more intrusive on the views of those studying the battlefield since park officials completed a landscape rehabilitation project on that section of the battlefield. Much of the work included tree removal to make the land look more like it did in 1863.

What that meant was a better view of the landscape – and the houses.

“They really, really stuck out like a sore thumb,” Lawhon said, adding that the park plans to remove the homes when the land comes under its ownership.
But – as with any potential land purchase – the park cannot do anything unless there is a willing seller.

The park was notified late last year of the owner’s intention to sell the property. But the land was appraised at a value significantly higher than the $300,000 already set aside.

Lawhon declined to comment on the difference, but the CWPT has set its fundraising goal at $75,000.

Acting quickly, before a new private landowner could purchase and further develop the property, the CWPT put the land under contract. After closing, the CWPT plans to sell the land to the National Park Service for $300,000.

“Virtually everyone who has ever come to Gettysburg, seeking to walk the fields of the Civil War’s greatest battle, has passed by this land,” CWPT president James Lighthizer said in a news release. “As significant as the protection of large swaths of historic land can be, getting critical in-holdings like this one under protection of the National Park Service cannot be overemphasized.”

About 80 parcels of land – the equivalent of about one in every six acres – within the 6,000-acre battlefield are privately owned. Of those, about 30 are considered high priority by park officials.

Those types of statistics are not unique to Gettysburg, however.

According to a 2008 study by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), there are 4.3 million acres of privately owned land within the borders of America’s national parks.

Gettysburg National Military Park received land-acquisition funds from the federal government in 2009 for the first time since 2001. That allocation, which amounted to $2.2 million, is what will fund this latest purchase.

Lawhon said the park’s plan is to restore the property to its 1863 appearance by removing the modern structures and returning the landscape to an agricultural field.

Donations toward the fundraising campaign can be made at www.civilwar.org/battlefields/gettysburg/gettysburg-2010/.

ON THE WEB

The Civil War Preservation Trust is raising money to preserve a 2-acre piece of land near Little Round Top and Devil’s Den. To donate, visit www.civilwar.org/battlefields/gettysburg/gettysburg-2010/.

By Erin James

Copyright © 2010 – The Evening Sun

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The Evening Sun – mcharisse@eveningsun.com
135 Baltimore Street, P.O. Box 514, Hanover, PA 17331
TELEPHONE: (717) 637-3736 FAX: (717) 637-7730

York Daily Record – 300 word max – letters@ydr.com
ydr.com. York Daily Record/Sunday News 2009.
1891 Loucks Road. York, PA 17408, (717) 771-2000

The Patriot-News – 200 word max. http://www.pennlive.com/mailforms/patriotletters/
or letters@patriot-news.com or fax to (717) 255-8456
… 812 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101

Learn the Facts about the proposed Mason-Dixon casino and
why and how it will hurt businesses in Gettysburg and Adams County, alienate our heritage tourists, and cost more $ and jobs than it will create.

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Learn the Facts about the proposed Mason-Dixon casino and
why and how it will hurt businesses in Gettysburg and Adams County, alienate our heritage tourists, and cost more $ and jobs than it will create.

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This predatory business just doesn’t fit in this location. Gettysburg is America’s most beloved small town, the site of what some historians consider the most important battle of American history. People visit here because they can relax in a family friendly community. We don’t want the identity of our town changed to a “casino town”.

We need the help of everyone who loves Gettysburg. Please join our network to help stop this desecration!
If everyone invited a few friends, think just how great this group will be!

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