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Pataki In Quandary On Wet Wilderness

By Steve Israel
Times Herald-Record, April 2, 2002

Darned if you do, darned if you don't:
Yo, Governor Pataki. Casino Confidential thinks you may have a problem.
You've hiked the beautiful Basha Kill near Wurtsboro. You've told folks how much you love the lush wetlands. You've named it a bird preservation area. You've also OK'd three casinos for the Catskills because the state needs money.

Here's your problem:
Two of those proposed casinos would flank the Basha Kill. One with 250 rooms would sit on 300 acres atop the Shawanga Ridge (Wurtsboro Mountain). The other, on 800 acres with 600 rooms and as many as 714 townhouses, would be built a couple of miles west, in Wurtsboro Hills.
Governor Pataki, would you like to hike in the Basha Kill, gaze up at the mountains and see two casinos?
The Basha Kill Area Association hopes not. The 500-member environmental group wrote you a letter with these words: "This environmental jewel is threatened by two proposed casino/resort megacomplexes..."
The letter claims the sewage and runoff from the casinos will "unavoidably alter the flow rate" of the Basha Kill. That casino traffic would pollute the air. That the sight of the casinos would "remove forever the feeling of wilderness" of the 3000-acre wetland that's home to 230 species of birds and scores of rare fish.
The letter urges you to "help preserve the Basha Kill's uniqueness, while you continue to assist other townships in Sullivan County to acquire the casinos that they are seeking."
Governor Pataki, you haven't answered the March 14 letter. Your office didn't return a call for comment. You must realize you're darned if you do and darned if you don't.

Double-talking Donald:
This is what Donald Trump said Indian casinos could do to New York: "Cost us jobs, cause tax increases, bankrupt local businesses."
That's what an ad he paid for said two years ago.
This is what Donald Trump did last week: Lent an Indian tribe in California $11 million to change the name of its casino to Trump 29 Casino. Trump would also get $7 million to $10 million per year to help run the casino. The tribe is the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Missions Indians. Their casino is 20 minutes from Palm Springs. It's about 3,000 miles from Trump's Atlantic City casinos.

The waiting game:
What's the only sure thing about casinos coming to the Catskills? All together now: There is no sure thing about casinos coming to the Catskills.
Two weeks ago, the eastern office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs said it would finish its review of the application for a St. Regis Mohawk casino at Kutsher's in two weeks. Then it would send its recommendation to Washington for final approval.
Now the BIA says the process is going to take at least a few weeks longer.
According to a BIA official, the Mohawks have decided to submit a more thorough environmental impact statement than the one they already filed. "They're being very cautious," said the official. "They want to get it right the first time, instead of us sending it back with a lot of questions."
The only other casino application at the BIA is for the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans, who want to build a casino in Bridgeville, off Route 17 Exit 107. Their environmental impact statement is complete.