Riverboat referendum divides Indiana town

Kimberly Hefling

Monday, Nov. 3, 2003 | 8:50 a.m.

FRENCH LICK, Ind. -- For years, residents clad in orange T-shirts drove by the busloads through the winding hills of southern Indiana to the Statehouse to lobby lawmakers for a casino.

They finally won the legislative battle. Now, back on their home turf in Orange County, a Tuesday referendum on whether to proceed with a gambling boat is dividing the community.

"We don't want neighbor against neighbor, but they feel strong about it and so do we," casino opponent Debra Birkhimer said.

From church pulpits, ministers have preached on the evils of gambling, raising concerns about crime, addiction and higher suicide rates.

But most county officials are in favor of a riverboat casino, claiming it will create hundreds of jobs, pour millions annually into the economy and return French Lick and neighboring West Baden Springs to their former glory.

Some residents claim Sheriff Doyle Cornwell has been too zealous in leading the pro-casino Citizens for the Future of Orange County. He is accused of violating state law by campaigning for the casino and posting yard signs while on duty, and a special prosecutor is investigating. Cornwell could not be reached at his office for comment.

Financially, it's a David vs. Goliath fight. Casino advocates raised more than $100,000 to promote the venture, including $20,000 from each of the five companies vying to run the casino. Opponents raised just a few thousand dollars to fight it.

The riverboat casino would be located on a man-made waterway along the mile between French Lick Springs Resort & Spa and the West Baden Springs Hotel. There are plans for a trolley to connect the historic hotels and for museums and shops to be built along a boardwalk.

Decades ago, both hotels catered to the elite rich. Vacationing U.S. presidents, sports icons and movie stars -- including Bob Hope, Lana Turner and Frank Sinatra -- all checked in for stays. During its heyday in the 1920s, the area had as many as 17 casinos.

Backers say the casino is needed to jump-start Orange County's economy, which consistently ranks among the top Indiana counties in unemployment.

"We have nothing else. If we don't get the gambling, they may as well shut down the gates to the town," said Kenny Main, a bank employee who has spent most of his 50-plus years living in a two-story white house overlooking downtown. "I want to stay here until I die. It's a nice place to live, there's just nothing here."

The stakes are so high that some opponents say they are afraid to do more than stick a sign in their yard. Yard signs line the residential streets of the county with a population of 20,000, but orange pro-casino signs greatly outnumber opponents' blue signs.

Sentiment is so high that some who oppose the casino are worried about keeping their jobs, said Robert Hoyt, a spokesman for the Orange County Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.

Sherry Schmidt, a nurse practitioner, said employees at Southern Indiana Comprehensive Health Care in Paoli were told not to distribute anti-gambling materials in the office after a complaint by state Rep. Jerry Denbo, D-French Lick.

Fearful of harassment, some gaming opponents also have taken anti-casino stickers off their cars, Schmidt said.

Denbo, who is leading the casino effort, says no one has been intimidated. "We had so many prominent people involved, maybe it just appears to people it's an intimidating group," Denbo said. "It's just them grasping for straws."

Such comments do little to reassure opponents such as Birkhimer, 48, who watches county fire trucks drive by bearing pro-gambling signs.

"There are people who have been threatened and there are people who have lost their jobs," Birkhimer said. "It's been kind of nasty."

Even the county's children have joined the fight. Birkhimer's daughter, Hannah, 14, said casino supporters threw candy back at her and other anti-gambling teens riding on a float at the French Lick Pumpkin Festival. Others gave them hearty thumbs up.

If the referendum passes on Tuesday, the next step will be for the county to choose one of five gambling corporations that have submitted applications to operate the casino. Larry Bird, the basketball legend and hometown hero who owns a house in French Lick, is among the investors in one of the groups. He's said he would donate his profits to charity.

Richard Lankford, 78, said people caught up in the nostalgia of the town's gambling past forget that it was elitist, and that only the rich were allowed inside a gambling casino known as "the brown building." In 1949 then-Gov. Henry F. Schricker signed an order ending the illegal but officially tolerated practice of gambling.

"I don't think it's the answer. Everybody says it's the answer. You don't base your economic development on gambling. When the government bases its economic development on gambling, you're in bad shape," Lankford said.

Denbo says that although the casino might attract people to the area, it's just a part of what will be offered. He said a casino operator would be selected that's willing to put money into the community -- including millions to upgrade the French Lick Springs Resort and some of the $75 million-plus needed to complete the restoration of the West Baden Springs Hotel.

For Hannah Birkhimer, the issue is bigger than the money and the jobs. She worries that the younger generation will be left to deal with crime and other negative aspects a casino might bring.

"It's something that will divide friends and families so much," she said. "What's going to happen when it comes here? Will there be more turmoil? It's really sad."