They may not be quite as vocal as their anti-casino
counterparts, but there are Hollister residents who support the
proposed Miwok casino and believe it will bring jobs, entertainment
and economic stability to Hollister. And tonight the community may
see them turn out in great numbers.
Hollister – They may not be quite as vocal as their anti-casino counterparts, but there are Hollister residents who support the proposed Miwok casino and believe it will bring jobs, entertainment and economic stability to Hollister. And tonight the community may see them turn out in great numbers.
In a recent Farm Bureau poll, 66 percent of voters surveyed said they opposed a Miwok casino at its previously proposed location off Highway 25 near the Santa Clara County line. Local anti-casino group Casinos Represent A Poor Solution has delivered the poll results to state legislators along with a petition signed by almost 5,000 residents opposing the casino.
But the same poll found that 24 percent liked the idea and now those who disagree with CRAPS’s stand are gearing up to speak at tonight’s public casino meeting.
Hollister resident Susie Fisher said she will not only be attending tonight’s meeting, she already has her speech written. Fisher said she supports a casino based on the life and economic benefits it has the potential to bring to San Benito County.
“I feel that with all the dealings we’re having with state cutbacks in the community and services … I view it (the casino) as a business coming in and giving us financial strength,” Fisher said. “I’m stepping away from ‘it’s a casino.’ With a casino here where we don’t have much of any infrastructure, we could possibly bring hotels, mini malls… people will come to Hollister and see that this is a beautiful city and a beautiful county. We’re secluded, and we don’t have much to offer. I just feel that it’s what we need for the financial shape we’re in.”
In addition, a good amount of the city’s Latino population supports a casino, according to Carlos Vargas, president of the Hollister Soccer League and a local casino proponent, though other Latino leaders disagree. On Saturday night, a group of more than 100 local Latinos invited California Valley Miwok Project Manager Gary Ramos to discuss the 2,000 local jobs he has estimated the casino would create, Vargas said.
“Our priority of course will be the jobs that it’s going to bring to so many local families,” Vargas said. “Most of the people (at Saturday’s meeting) had so many questions like ‘Are they going to insure us?’ They asked all these questions pretty straight. But Gary Ramos was there and he answered all of our questions, and we were confident in what he said. And everybody who attended this meeting was happy.”
Vargas added there will be another similar meeting next week for people who couldn’t attend Saturday’s question-and-answer forum. And as for those who already have the answers they want to support the casino, they’ll be showing up in numbers at tonight’s public meeting, he said.
Investment group Game Won, who has hooked up with the California Valley Miwok tribe, hired American Campaign Service to gather signatures asking the board of supervisors to wait until all the facts are in before voting on the resolution in opposition of the proposed casino, according to an American Campaign Service employee working outside of the Hollister Albertsons Monday night.
The tribe and Game Won hope to build a casino on about 200 acres off San Felipe Road across from the Hollister airport. The casino could be similar in size to Yolo County’s Cache Creek, which is 66,000 square feet with 1,762 slot machines. Ramos has said the tribe is looking at a unique business plan that will give 10 percent of the casino’s revenue to the state, 10 percent of that to the county, and 10 percent of that to the city.
But the tribe has yet to prove its ancestral ties to the area, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he will not support Indian gaming for tribes outside of their aboriginal area without overwhelming support from the locals.
Tonight the San Benito County Board of Supervisors will hold its final pubic forum to feel out public sentiment before drafting a resolution opposing the casino.
“We are going to be there to show our support for this project, because I believe as Hollister residents that we really love this city. And we feel that this project will benefit the community,” Vargas said.
Vargas said he believed the general sentiment in the Latino community was in support of the casino. But Ruben Lopez, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said he was surprised to hear of Vargas’ group’s stance. LULAC has not and will not be taking a side on the issue, Lopez said.
There’s also a Hollister woman named Angie Filice who has started a “tongue-in-cheek” campaign called Smart People Able to Recognize Choice (SPARC), though she said it’s never congealed into an actual organization. Still, she said, she’d be at tonight’s meeting, although she does not plan on speaking.
“I usually don’t go public with anything, but I was getting tired of all the people coming out and saying they were against the casino. I think the other half needs to be heard, and I don’t know how many other halves there are, how many other people are for it, but I say we’re all mature adults. Let’s make our own decision,” Filice said.
Former Hollister City Councilman Brian Conroy, who supports Filice’s efforts to let the other side be heard, said Monday he wasn’t necessarily for the casino so much as he was for allowing the tribe to make its case.
“I think that we need to hear them out before turning them down out-right,” Conroy said. “They ought to be allowed to go through the planning process; I think they deserve the same rights as any other business coming into the area.”
Representatives from the California Valley Miwok Project will also be present at tonight’s meeting, according to Ramos.
“We are planning to attend tomorrow night’s community forum hosted by the Board of Supervisors to hear what residents have to say. We are hopeful that in the end the community feels that the Supervisors do not have enough information to make a decision at this time on our project one way or the other,” he wrote in an e-mail yesterday.
There will also be the more familiar casino opponents at tonight’s meeting, including members of CRAPS, which opposes the casino for moral, economic and social reasons.
“I don’t think we really have any big guns to pull out (at the meeting) because we’re a grass-roots organization, but we’ll have a bunch of little guns,” said CRAPS Chairman Steve Merrell.
