Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2003 | 9:09 a.m.
ATLANTIC CITY -- As victories go, it's a small one. But after enduring the noisy, smelly neighbor next door for so long, retired dentist Bertram Kreger will have to take it.
Kreger, 77, lives in a condominium directly across Providence Avenue from the Atlantic City Hilton casino's transportation center. For most of the last 10 years, he has been complaining to anyone who will listen -- and some who won't -- about the noise and fumes from buses that use it.
Last week, the state Department of Environmental Protection cited the Hilton for violating air pollution laws by allowing buses to idle too long in the transportation center bays.
The citation was a welcome bit of news for Kreger and his Seabreeze Condominiums neighbors, who say living next to the bus terminal subjects them to wall-shaking noise, diesel exhaust and dirt that permeate the entire 52-unit complex.
"It's like sleeping in a smoke pit," said Kreger, an Elkins Park, Pa., resident who vacations here. "It's like an ashtray, only an ashtray would be cleaner."
"The diesel particulate matter that floats around is hard to believe, and the action of the politicians -- state and city -- is beyond belief. As the mayor told me: The casinos pay 73 percent of the city taxes. There's the answer. Because of that, we are forced to live with these conditions."
Since the first casino opened 25 years ago, Atlantic City has struggled to balance the competing interests of people who live here and the towering casinos that provide its economic lifeblood.
But when disagreements break out between a property owner and the casino next door -- be they over noise, traffic, air pollution or land -- the casino usually wins.
Kreger has been especially unlucky: He owned his condominium before the casino was built and opened in 1980 as the Golden Nugget. He and others challenged plans for the location of the bus terminal, but they were assured the fumes would be addressed.
They weren't, he says.
And the casino industry's success with low-rolling senior citizens has turned Atlantic City into a bus mecca, with 800 motor coaches a day bringing gamblers to the slot machines and blackjack tables.
To get there, they navigate business districts and residential neighborhoods, leaving carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and other toxins in their wake.
The coexistence is especially uneasy on Providence Avenue, a 30-foot wide street that hums with incoming casino buses, trucks backed up waiting to make deliveries, idling cars that await casino employees getting out of work and Hilton security vehicles on patrol.
By the South Jersey Transportation Authority's count, the Hilton averaged about 77 buses a day in 2002.
But that counts each bus as one arrival; in fact, each one arrives, drops its passengers, leaves to park at an off-site location for a few hours and then returns to pick up the gamblers and take them home.
By law, buses are allowed to idle in the garage for only three minutes after discharging their last passenger.
Responding to complaints by Kreger, state inspectors were sent to the terminal Wednesday and saw two of seven buses there idle for too long, according to Lisa Jackson, DEP's assistant commissioner of enforcement.
The casino was issued a notice of violation and given one week to respond with a plan to address the problem, she said.
"The DEP will make a decision whether to fine them based on what they get back to us with. We do intend to be out there inspecting," Jackson said.
The penalty for a first offense is $200; $400 for a second offense; $1,000 for a third offense, and $3,000 for a fourth offense.
"We believe there's things the Hilton can do to change their operations to alleviate this. Buses are integral to their operations. They bring in employees and they bring in customers. But we need them to be more conscious of the environmental impacts they're having," Jackson said.
Park Place Entertainment Corp. of Las Vegas, which owns the casino, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. But lawyer Noah Bronkesh, who represents the Hilton, said the casino was doing nothing wrong.
"There are cars, buses and trucks in urban settings and that's an urban setting," Bronkesh said. "You can go to Philadelphia or Newark or New York City or Atlantic City and there are motor vehicles that use the streets and facilities that are there. It's part of living in that kind of urban area. You're not living on a farm in the country."
Kreger, who has assiduously lobbied city, county and state officials for relief, isn't giving up. He keeps the dates, times and details of every telephone call and letter relating to the problem in a "Seabreeze-Hilton Diary" at his desk.
Move out? He wouldn't think of it.
"Just because the score's 25 to 3, you don't pick up your bat and ball and go home. I just can't swallow the fact that nobody can do anything about it," he said.
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