Missing the boat?

MISSISSIPPI COUNTY, Mo. -- In East Prairie, there's not one industry left on Industrial Drive anymore, only the boarded up remnants of buildings that used to provide $8-an-hour jobs to eager-to-work country folks.

Ten miles up Highway 105 in Charleston, a once-thriving Wal-Mart sits in a similarly sad state, one of several symbols of this Bootheel county's desperate economic situation.

The public housing developments remain full. The unemployment lines remain long.

No one denies it: Times are tough in Mississippi County.

But what people are debating -- and fiercely -- is whether economic salvation lies in a $300 million casino development proposed by a Tennessee stranger named Ricky Smith.

Smith, a third-generation farmer who now is a developer, has picked Mississippi County, just a few miles across the river from his hometown of Union City, Tenn., for his luxurious Disneyland-like dream.

His plans call for a massive complex that would cover almost 1,400 acres near the Mississippi River, including an amusement park, a 1,000-room hotel, a PGA tournament-level golf course, a 6,000-foot airplane runway, a cable car that would carry 180 people back and forth across the Mississippi River from nearby Hickman, Ky., housing, strip malls and other retail centers.

If that were the entirety of the proposal, the residents and political leaders in Mississippi County, located roughly 80 miles south of Cape Girardeau, would probably have no disagreement.

But there's also the casino.

It's the gambling-based centerpiece of the project that Smith and many within the county say will help create hundreds of jobs, dump millions of tax dollars back into the economy as well as bring in new business and tourism money.

Smith, whose largest project to date has been a $60 million contract to build warehouses for the IRS, estimates that it would be a windfall for the county, generating $50 million to $75 million in new taxes within five years. He expects a customer base from at least three states -- Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky.

The facility would be done in phases, and he expects the first phase -- the casino, hotel with restaurants and the air strip -- to be finished by the end of next year.

Saving the jobless

It's the high unemployment rate that attracted Smith to Mississippi County, along with its location and the fact that casinos are illegal in Tennessee and Arkansas.

"These people are looking for work, and I want to give it to them," he said.

Some expect Mississippi County to gain more than $3.5 million annually from gaming taxes alone, not to mention what it would collect in property taxes and the ripple effect that would be felt by businesses that could expect to see thousands more customers each year.

Of course, that's only if it gets afloat. Some have their doubts because Smith has never done a project this big, the state gaming commission doesn't think Missouri needs another casino right now and stark division exists within the county.

Smith is optimistic.

"It will light a fire under this county," he said. "It really only can do good things for Mississippi County. I don't see how anybody can be against that."

Randy Bramlett of East Prairie isn't against it. He said he can't afford to be.

"I have been unemployed for way too long," he said. "And yet they have the audacity to speak against anything that might create jobs for the common unemployed taxpayer?"

Those who disagree, who have equal or maybe even greater numbers, say that a casino has no place in the morally upstanding farming country that is Mississippi County.

It will bring drugs, they say. It will bring prostitution, they say. Families will be torn apart. Children will go hungry. No good will come of it.

"Besides," says Felicia Lampkin, a Charleston homemaker, "God hates greed and the love of money. That's what a casino's all about."

Border war

Smith's plans, regardless of merit, have created something of a border war, pitting the Mississippi County Commission against the East Prairie Board of Aldermen, with the Charleston City Council sitting this one out.

The casino project wouldn't actually be in either Charleston or East Prairie, but would be about 15 miles from East Prairie and 25 miles from Charleston in an unincorporated area within five miles of the Dorena Ferry. The ferry connects Dorena with Hickman, Ky., in the southeastern part of Mississippi County.

The three-member Mississippi County Commission voted last week to not support the casino. Presiding Commissioner Jim Blumenberg said he doesn't believe in casinos based on morality issues.

"I don't believe we need gambling," said Blumenberg, who has lived in East Prairie 33 years and runs a service station there. "Poor people do all the gambling. It's nothing that we should want here. They say things are rough, but we've never thought about a casino until now. If you have to have a casino, you need to get your priorities right."

But the East Prairie Board of Aldermen holds the opposite opinion, voting to unanimously support the proposal.

East Prairie Mayor Gene Ditto points to statistics that show a county unemployment rate of 8.1 percent, much higher than the state average of 4.7 percent. The poverty rate is a whopping 20 percent. The average wage, for those lucky enough to find work, is $385 a week, meaning about an annual salary of $20,000.

"I've always been told anything that sounded too good to be true probably is," Ditto said. "But if there's any possibility it could be true, it wasn't going to be me to stand in the way, especially considering what it could mean to the community."

Meanwhile, the Charleston City Council has remained silent, voting instead to defer any decision on support to the county commission, saying that because the property is not within the boundaries of Charleston, it doesn't have an interest.

"The council declined to get involved," said Charleston city manager David Brewer. "They stated the night they voted that they are in favor of economic development in the county. But they don't feel like they have a dog in this fight."

So it begs the question: Who decides? It's actually the state gaming commission that gives permits to casino builders to allows them to operate within the state, which currently has 10 casinos.

Steps to casino

The first step is usually asking registered voters within the governmental subdivision where the property lies to decide whether or not to have a casino, said Harold Bailey, a spokesman with the gaming commission. The vote only has to pass by a simple majority, or 50 percent plus one vote.

Smith hasn't said specifically where his project would go, only that it would be within five miles of the Dorena Ferry. That's within an unincorporated area, so Smith said the vote would have to be county-wide.

The problem is that it would be up to the county commission to call for a vote. That probably won't happen, considering the commissioners' stance. But Smith and East Prairie officials say an alternate plan may include annexing the property into East Prairie and allowing East Prairie to vote. It would be a lot of ground to annex, roughly 15 linear miles of agricultural land between East Prairie and the Mississippi River.

The point may be moot, however, regardless of annexation plans.

"If the county commission is not in favor of it, that would have a lot of weight on how the gaming commission views it," Bailey said.

The gaming commission isn't too keen on allowing any more casinos in Southeast Missouri anyway, he said. There have been other permits requested -- one for a second boat in Caruthersville and for casino boats in Scott City and Ste. Genevieve.

The commission hasn't acted on those, Bailey said.

"The commission hasn't really seen a need for another casino in those areas," he said. "The commission really just isn't moving on applications in that area."

The gaming commission would likely review the situation should a vote be taken, he said. "But if a referendum passes, it's not a done deal," he said. "If it's close or the support isn't wide, it may opt not to do it."

A lot of money is at stake for the community that ends up having jurisdiction over the casino, if it ever comes to be. Smith loosely estimates that his casino would make $180 million a year.

According to state gaming laws, municipalities in which casinos are located receive $1 from each $2 admission fee the casino collects. The state also collects a 20 percent gaming tax on the casino's gross receipts. Of that, the municipality gets 10 percent.

If Smith's estimate is even close, it would come to about $3.6 million in annual revenue for the municipality, not to mention what the casino would pay in property and real estate taxes, which could reach into a few million.

"Our whole budget is $2.7 million," Ditto said. "Think of what we could do with that money. We couldn't even afford to get a new street sweeper after our old one quit. The people who are against this are the same ones who are complaining about the roads not being fixed."

Ditto, who spends time away from his floor-covering business diligently talking up the casino, understands that not everyone is for casinos.

"Either people are for it or they're not," he said. "If we put it to a vote and they vote it down, then that's the will of the people. That's fair and I could live with it. But at least we should put it to a vote. I hate to think of what we might miss if we didn't."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137