Soybeans will be planted at potential casino site
Many Greene County eyes were on Council Bluffs last Thursday as the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission decided the fate of an application from promoters in Linn County for Cedar Crossing Casino in Cedar Rapids. With the IRGC’s denial of that license, the fate of the Grow Greene County/Wild Rose Casino application for a license has been a topic of conversation all over the county.
The primary reason given by the IRGC in the Cedar Rapids decision was cannibalization and destabilization of the casino industry.
Tom Timmons, chief operating officer of Wild Rose Entertainment, said Tuesday that he won’t make any guesses about what the IRGC plans to do with the Greene County application, but that the Cedar Rapids decision will not change how he and Grow Greene County pursue their license.
“We’re still planning for the same thing as we did before. We’re proud of our project. We certainly feel, and we did from the beginning, we did after the studies came out (of impact of a new casino on existing casinos), and I still feel today that the Greene County project doesn’t really affect any entity that much,” Timmons said.
He repeated that the impact on the Wild Rose Casino in Emmetsburg is irrelevant, and that the impact on Prairie Meadows is only predicted to be 3 to 6 percent. “That’s not very impactful,” he said.
Timmons referred to Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” public affairs show that aired over the weekend. The future of casino gambling in Iowa was the topic, and IRGC chair Jeff Lamberti was a guest. The program is available for viewing and a transcript is available on the IPTV website http://www.iptv.org/iowapress/
During the program, Radio Iowa news director Kay Henderson asked Lamberti if Jefferson residents should be encouraged or discouraged by the Cedar Crossing decision.
Remain neutral – Lamberti answered that he would suggest Jefferson residents remain “neutral,” saying there is not an “apples to apples” comparison between the two applications. He seemed to agree with Timmons’ view of the impact of a new casino in west central Iowa. Lamberti said the market studies showed the impact of a Greene County casino would be “much more diverse and spread out, whereas in Cedar Rapids it was honed in directly on a couple of existing facilities at very high amounts.”
Lamberti also noted another difference in the applications. He said that it could be seen as a negative factor that a Greene County casino would be “interior” – too far from a state border to draw revenue from another state – but “as you look on a map of where Jefferson is located it may be something of a donut hole and it would be a much smaller facility. That matters as well, whereas we were looking at a $160-$180 million facility in Cedar Rapids, we’re probably talking about a $30-$40 million facility. That matters as well.”
Casino or beans? Timmons said that Greene County residents should read nothing into it when the site of the proposed casino is cultivated and planted in soybeans next month. The property is still owned by Kim Rueter, though Wild Rose Entertainment has an option to purchase 40 acres should the casino license be approved. “It has to be done,” Timmons said about planting. “If the decision were coming on May 12, it would be different, but with the decision on June 12, Kim Rueter can’t wait to plant beans until June 12….It’s our understanding that he goes ahead and he plants. As much as I’d hate to tear up beans, I can’t ask him to sit and watch 40 acres go idle. Being an Iowa boy I hate to rip anything out, but it would be for a good cause if we do it. In the event the commission votes ‘no,’ he’s got the field planted and life will go on.”
Guy Richardson, a member of the Greene County board of supervisors, was in Council Bluffs to hear the decision last week. He told the supervisors at their Monday meeting that the IRGC members were very deliberate in what they said. “Everything was geared for eastern Iowa. They were very careful about the language they used,” Richardson said. “I took that as a very good sign. I’m probably more optimistic than I ever have been. I think we have a good location here and we put together a good proposal.”
“After listening to all the discussion, I think we’ve got a good shot,” Richardson said.
