“What’s the point of living in the Catskills if the traffic’s as bad as in the city?” Say No To Casinos In The Catskill

Say no to casinos in the Catskills:  Send a message to Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION

For immediate release: For further information, contact:

Thursday, August 23, 2007 Ramsay Adams, 845-482-5400 or Wes Gillingham, 845-901-1029

“What’s the point of living in the Catskills if the traffic’s as bad as in the city,” Catskill Mountainkeeper asks in Route 17 billboard

Group kicks off on-line letter-writing campaign to Interior Department before casino decisions are made in Washington

Youngsville (August 23, 2007) -- Catskill Mountainkeeper kicked off a campaign today that urges Catskill residents and visitors to speak out against the massive casinos proposed for the region.
The campaign includes a billboard just east of Exit 116 on Route 17 near the Sullivan County border in Orange County that cites the likelihood of significant traffic congestion if casinos come to the region. It also includes a web-based letter-writing campaign to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, who currently is considering an application for a casino at the Monticello Raceway.
“Many of our members have told us loud and clear that they oppose massive Las Vegas-style developments that will jeopardize our way of life here in the Catskills,” said Ramsay Adams, the group’s executive director.
Instead, Adams said, local and state leaders should develop a vision for the Catskills region that emphasizes smarter development, not large-scale projects that do not fit in with the region’s character.
The billboard shows a heavily congested country highway at dusk with the words: “What’s the point of living in the Catskills if the traffic’s as bad as in the city?”
It then urges Catskill residents and visitors to “Say no to casinos in the Catskills” and directs them to the group’s website, www.CatskillMountainkeeper.org.
At the website, visitors can send a message to Interior Secretary Kempthorne that urges him to reject the application from the St. Regis Mohawk Indian tribe for a casino at the Monticello Raceway and other “off-reservation” casinos that other developers and tribes have proposed for the region. The message reads, in part: “With one or more casinos, traffic congestion on Rte. 17 – the region’s major artery – and other roads will increase to intolerable levels. That’s the last thing we need in the Catskills.”
Other negative impacts The sample letter to Secretary Kempthorne also cites “other negative impacts,” including “on police, emergency services and open space” and adds that the “assertion that there is widespead support for these casinos ignores the thousands of us who live in or visit the Catskills who think that casinos are a bad bet for the region." Letter writers also can add their own message to Kempthorne.
“Anyone who drives on the Quickway knows that it already is dangerously overcrowded, especially during weekends,” said Wes Gillingham, program director for Catskill Mountainkeeper.“ Gillingham noted that the Catskills were in the top 10 of vacation destinations with “the worst summer traffic delays resulting from traffic bottlenecks,” according to the American Automobile Association in 2005.
In a 2006 report on traffic congestion that would result from Sullivan County casinos, Erich Arcement of Sam Schwartz PLLC, a respected transportation consulting firm, wrote “…there are numerous significant issues that would unduly compromise regional safety and mobility, in some cases bringing traffic to a standstill and increasing the probability of car crashes.”
“The Route 17 corridor is the main street of our region, uniting the metropolitan core. All credible evidence, not to mention common sense, says that one or more casinos will have a severe impact on our mobility,” said Michael Edelstein, president of Orange Environment. Edelstein urged Orange County residents to sign either the Catskill Mounainkeeper on-line petition or one of the paper copies his group is actively circulating. Orange Environment has raised its concerns about traffic and related air pollution and impacts to community resources in comments to the Interior Department.
Kempthorne must decide on an application from the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, based along the St. Lawrence River in northern New York and Canada, for a Class III gambling facility that would include a 667,000 square-foot casino with 3,000 slot machines and 100 gaming tables, a 750-room hotel complex and at least six restaurants. By comparison, the MGM Grand—the largest Las Vegas casino—has 3,200 slot machines and 164 gaming tables. Empire Resorts would operate the facility.
Another casino has been proposed along the Neversink River, also in Sullivan County, and other proposals for Sullivan and Ulster counties have surfaced recently.
Catskill Mountainkeeper launched in May with a mission of building “an active group of citizens speaking out for the Catskills way of life.” In July, Gillingham led 12 Delaware County and New York City high school students on a three-week trek through the Catskills called “Mountaintop to Tap” as part of the group’s educational mission. -- 30 --