Monday, July 26, 2004 | 9:24 a.m.
WALKERSVILLE, W.Va. -- The question before Lewis County is a simple one, but the answer may not be: Should voters decide whether developers can pursue a casino in the old Weston Hospital, or should they let the County Commission decide for them?
About 50 people turned out Thursday night at the first of three public hearings aimed at determining whether the issue will be put to a referendum this fall. To get the question on the November ballot, the Lewis County Commission would have to act by Aug. 24.
More than 40 people signed a sheet indicating they want the right to vote, while four said they did not. Only a handful of people spoke at the 20-minute gathering.
The Mountaineer Group LLC -- a group of brothers from Weston and their sons -- wants to turn the former psychiatric hospital and its vast campus into the Kinsley-Lloyd Resort, complete with a casino.
The Davis brothers say voters should decide for themselves whether to approve the $300 million project, which would include a golf course, an exhibition hall, a theater, a gated community, recreational vehicle areas, cabins and condominiums. In all, they say, the resort could employ 600 and attract 850,000 visitors per year.
With the casino, the project could eventually employ 1,200, said partner Lowell Davis, urging the commission to let a vote proceed and drawing hearty applause from the crowd.
"Our concern is not how the commission will vote but how they are suppressing the right to vote at the ballot box," he said. Resident John Ersman agreed, saying, "The only reason not to put it on the ballot is to be afraid of what the voters will choose."
Shelia Culver said she's undecided about the merits of gambling but not the principle in question. "I don't want the powers that be telling me what I think," she said. "I want the right to vote on that."
But anti-gambling forces worry about crime, gambling addiction, drugs and prostitution -- social costs they say outweigh any benefits from a casino.
Russell Furr of the West Virginia Ministerial Association and the Rev. Douglas Smailes of Walkersville United Methodist Church opposed a referendum, while a third clergyman said he would support it only if the County Commission could ensure the public would be fully informed about the project.
"This commission is obligated to give people all the facts before asking them to vote," said the Rev. Dennis Sparks, executive director of the West Virginia Council of Churches.
But Lewis County Commissioner Sam Hicks said educating the public is the responsibility of The Mountaineer Group, not the county.
"What you saw here tonight is all the information we have," he said, gesturing at two artist renderings on easels. Hicks said he questions whether the developers even have the financing they would need to complete the project.
"It's pretty hard for $300 million to drop out of the sky," he said. "We don't even know who their investors are." Hicks said he personally is undecided on the project.
"I see no problem with putting it on the ballot, but if 98 percent of the people don't want it on the ballot, that's how I'll vote," he said. "I look for it to be close."
Anti-gambling activist Mike Queen, hired by business groups and churches to fight the casino, said there's no need to put the project to a referendum. He said the commissioners can determine the project won't qualify under a state law that allows a casino to be established in an existing, 500-room historic hotel.
"Obviously, Weston State Hospital is not a hotel," he said.
Queen, who is working with the newly formed Lewis County Coalition Against Gambling Expansion, said the law was created to mean only one property in the state, The Greenbrier resort in Greenbrier County.
Voters there rejected a casino with table games, and Queen believes Lewis County voters would do the same if given the chance.
"Why put the community through all that?" he said.
The fight in Greenbrier County was emotional, and hard feelings still linger, he said.
If Lewis County voters have to decide the issue, "a small community will end up with bad feelings and neighbors not speaking to each other," he said. Queen also said he doubts the Mountaineer Group partners have the legal and architectural expertise, the resort management experience or the financial resources to make their concept a reality.
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