GETTYSBURG — On Emmitsburg Road here, a short distance south of the Battlefield Bed & Breakfast and General Pickett’s All-You-Can-Eat Buffet, two houses that are directly across the road from each other pretty much sum up the Third Battle of Gettysburg.
Lawn signs at one house read “Casino Yes — Pro Jobs, Pro Tax Relief.” On the lawn across the street the signs declare “No Casino — Don’t Gamble With Gettysburg.”
Even though state gaming regulators are still months away from deciding whether the buzzers and lights of slot machines will liven up a hotel/conference center south of this famous Civil War town, it hasn’t kept a fracas over slots from going strong already.
This new battle involves the same two groups of combatants who clashed in 2006, when Civil War buffs, both local and national, opposed an effort by Battlefield Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealer David LeVan to get state approval to build a large, 5,000-slot casino a few miles northeast of the town center.
That proposal, which failed to get a state license, would have been near the busy intersection of Routes 30 and 15, and close to one of the battlefields of the historic July 1-3, 1863, conflict that turned the tide of the war against the South.
Now, Mr. LeVan is back, joining with Joseph Lashinger, an ex-state legislator and a former investor in the Harrah’s racetrack/casino south of Philadelphia, to create Mason-Dixon Resorts & Casino, which wants to add a smaller gambling parlor, with up to 600 slots, at the existing Eisenhower Hotel & Conference Center on Emmitsburg Road.
The hotel is just over three miles north of the Mason-Dixon line (the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland) and exactly five miles south of the traffic circle that marks the historic center of Gettysburg.
The casino would go in an existing 70,000-square-foot “expo center” on the hotel property, which is now used for indoor soccer, wrestling matches, billiards tables and video games.
The LeVan plan is once again backed by a group called Pro-Casino Adams County, which said the rural area around Gettysburg has lost jobs in recent years and needs the 900 jobs that a slots parlor — which now can have table games — would bring.
Just as in 2006, Mr. LeVan is being opposed by No Casino Gettysburg, led by a local preservationist, Susan Star Paddock, who made frequent trips to the state Capitol in Harrisburg four years ago to fight that casino proposal.
Although the Eisenhower hotel/conference center is 10 miles south of the site Mr. LeVan proposed in 2006, critics charge that it’s still too close to one of the southern Civil War battlefields and would sully the “hallowed ground” of Gettysburg.
Both sides are trying hard to mold the opinions of Adams County residents, and perhaps the views of the state Gaming Board, through a steady flow of news releases, polls and studies.
Casino opponents issued a statement last week “imploring” Mr. LeVan “to reconsider his plan to pursue Pennsylvania’s last remaining casino license and spare our community from the bitter divisions it suffered” in 2006.
Four years ago, “This controversy literally pitted neighbor against neighbor, damaging friendships and causing deep, persistent rifts,” Ms. Paddock said. “It was painful enough the first time and nobody wants to go through it again.”
There were 140 Adams County residents who signed the letter to Mr. LeVan to drop the casino idea, but Ms. Paddock added, “We know from our local petition signatures that there are hundreds more county residents concerned about divisions in our community who will want to sign the letter.”
A spokesman for Mason-Dixon, David LaTorre, disputed the claim that the casino would be unpopular in Adams County. He said the opponents are “a small minority” of the local population.
“No less than two separate polls have found that a majority of Adams County residents support it,” he said last week. The most recent poll showed “an overwhelming 62 percent” of county residents want the casino, he added.
Other tourism venues in the county, such as Gettysburg Tours, the Links at Gettysburg, Hall of Presidents & First Ladies, the Lincoln Train Museum and others, would like to see a casino added to the local tourist attractions, he said.
“This hardly sounds like a divisive project,” Mr. LaTorre said. “In fact, it is bringing together a community where unemployment is at its highest in a quarter century.”
The southern entrance to the 6,000-acre Gettysburg National Military Park is on Emmitsburg Road, 11/2 miles from the site of the proposed casino. The casino would also be a half-mile away from South Calvary Field, a section of the national park.
But park officials are steering clear of the controversy.
“The National Park Service is not taking a position on the casino proposal because it is outside the boundary of both the park and the [11,000-acre] Congressionally-designated battlefield historic district, which is larger than the park itself,” said spokeswoman Katie Lawhon.
Park Superintendent Bob Kirby told the Gettysburg Times that the casino “would have no direct impact on the park’s resources,” a statement that was welcomed by Pro-Casino Adams County. His comments should “quell all the nonsense about ‘proximity’ that [casino opponents] have tried to drum up without success,” said Jeff Klein, a casino supporter.
From the heat of the dispute, you might think that the Gaming Board was close to deciding which of four competing groups will get the state’s 14th and final casino license, and the second of two licenses to be awarded for resort hotel casinos. But a decision is still far off, said board spokesman Doug Harbach.
“It will take the board months to ensure that the applications are complete, have the Board of Investigations and Enforcement conduct thorough background investigations to gauge the suitability and hold public input hearings in the affected municipalities to gain citizen input,” he said.
Besides Mason-Dixon, groups competing for the second and final resort hotel casino license include Nemacolin Woodlands in Fayette County; a conference center near Reading in Berks County; and a resort in the Poconos. Nemacolin has scheduled a news conference Thursday to detail its proposal.
The only other resort/hotel casino in Pennsylvania will be at the Valley Forge Convention Center, west of Philadelphia, which already has been issued a state license and could open late this year.
Bureau Chief Tom Barnes or 717-787-4254
Copyright © 2010 – Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Reports:
Economic impact report for proposed casino
Mason Dixon Transportation Study
An open letter to David Levan regarding proposed casino
