Casino foes join forces in Saugerties

By Kathryn Gill, Freeman staff Daily Freeman January 20, 2006

SAUGERTIES - The town and village boards this week reversed decisions last fall not to share legal counsel with a citizens group in fighting a proposed 1.2 million-square-foot casino resort on the Winston Farm.
The Village Board unanimously adopted a motion Tuesday to again allow joint legal counsel with the village, town and the group, No Saugerties Casino. The Town Board passed a similar motion at its meeting Wednesday.
Village Mayor Robert Yerick said he always was in favor of uniting with No Saugerties Casino but joined in the decision to split with the group back in October because of his stronger desire to stay united with the town.
Yerick said the town had conflicts with certain elements of No Saugerties Casino, but those conflicts have "disappeared."
"I'm glad we're back together," Yerick said on Thursday. "They are a vibrant group with money in their pockets and time on their hands, and I want to be a part of that."
Town Supervisor Greg Helsmoortel could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Meg Lundstrom, the secretary for No Saugerties Casino, said the group is pleased by the boards' decisions.
"The threat to Saugerties has not gone away, and neither has the threat to other Ulster County towns," she said. "This is still virgin territory. That is why we are so attractive."
The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma has proposed a casino resort on the Winston Farm, the site of the Woodstock '94 concert, at state Routes 212 and 32 opposite the Thruway interchange in Saugerties. The proposed resort would include 1 million square feet of retail space, a 900-room hotel, an arena and convention center, and a 27-hole golf course.
Naomi Rothberg, a spokeswoman for No Saugerties Casino, said a recent case in California points to problems that can emerge when a casino comes to town. In that case, she said, a group of California women sued their former employers at the Thunder Valley Casino near Sacramento, claiming they were sexually abused and harassed, but the tribe running the casino, as a sovereign Indian nation, was exempt from U.S. civil rights laws

.©Daily Freeman 2006

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