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Tribe blew casino deadline, Parete says

By Paul Brooks
Times Herald-Record, February 22, 2003

Marbletown - The Indian tribe angling for a casino in Ulster County has blown the deadline for applying for a site, a county legislator charged yesterday.
"The Modocs appear to have failed to live up to their obligations under the contract," said Richard Parete, a Democrat from Marbletown. "Our relationship with them should be severed."
The Modoc tribe of Oklahoma signed a contract with Ulster County
officials last April. In it they agreed to pay the county $15 million a year once the casino opens.
But Parete said the contract requires that the tribe submit an
application for a casino site to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs by
Jan. 15 of this year. That has not happened, Parete said.
Ed Jennings, a Republican on the team that negotiated the contract, said that as far as he knew the contract was still valid.
Richard Gerentine, the Republican who heads up the county's commission on gambling, said the county met with the Modocs about a month ago.
"They are working very vigorously to make this thing happen," Gerentine said. The tribe has an option on some land south of Ellenville and is negotiating with both the BIA and Gov. Pataki's office. And they are negotiating with a New York tribe to strengthen the Modoc claim. Parete also took the Republicans to task over what he called their failure to fully and openly analyze gambling in the county. Gerentine called that premature. "Once they locate, then we can start with that," he said.