Hollister
– Armed with PowerPoint presentations, sub-committees, signs and
a fierce desire to keep a casino out of San Benito County, a group
of about 25 residents are planning an attack against a proposed
casino.
Hollister – Armed with PowerPoint presentations, sub-committees, signs and a fierce desire to keep a casino out of San Benito County, a group of about 25 residents are planning an attack against a proposed casino.
A group calling itself CRAPS, Casinos Represent a Poor Solution, held its third meeting at Ladd Lane Elementary School to organize ways to rouse community opposition and discussed making the issue a hot-button item in the November board of supervisors election.
The CRAPS group, which opposes a casino resort proposed by the California Valley Miwok Tribe on a 209-acre parcel of land along Highway 25 in San Benito County, near the Santa Clara County border, is in its infancy but already has about 100 residents who support its cause, said Steve Merrell, the group’s chairman.
“At the end of the day the governor means it when he says he won’t approve a casino in a location where the local people are against it,” Merrell said. “When the people understand what it means and what’s at stake, I think they’ll (rally against it).”
Group members plan to bombard residents with petitions at grocery stores, canvass neighborhoods disseminating information, send mailers to community members and write letters to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other members of government to further their cause.
David Nicolaysen, the owner of Beaver Lumber, is opposed to the casino for moral reasons. He believes it will increase crime and is a bad solution to the county’s financial woes, he said.
Something needs to be done to help bring revenue into the county, but instead of a casino, Nicolaysen said the community needs to entice retail businesses and developers to the area.
“The supervisors are under a tremendous amount of pressure. They look at something like this as a God send. Here’s somebody willing to pump a bunch of money in,” he said. “The people in this community need to recognize they can’t make demands of no growth and expect the supervisors will be able to balance their budget in hard times.”
He said that the idea of a casino could, if not approved, be a blessing in disguise if the community takes it upon itself to find different options.
“If this group recognizes the opportunity of being held to the fire to not just bring up the negative, but to also propose a healthy approach to a solution, it can help us solve the problem,” he said.
The CRAPS group will hold weekly meetings at 7pm at Ladd Lane Elementary School in the multi-purpose room until the Oct. 21 meeting at the Veteran’s Memorial Building.
