Casino company courts Tiverton voters; faces questions

Posted 7/14/15

TIVERTON — Twin River Worldwide Holdings (Twin River), the people who want to bring a "convenience casino" to Tiverton, is getting ready for a big date with the Tiverton Town Council sometime this fall, probably in October.

Its goal is to pave …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Casino company courts Tiverton voters; faces questions

Posted

TIVERTON — Twin River Worldwide Holdings (Twin River), the people who want to bring a "convenience casino" to Tiverton, is getting ready for a big date with the Tiverton Town Council sometime this fall, probably in October.

Its goal is to pave the way for what the company hopes will be a vote in November 2016 of Tiverton residents that favors the construction of a casino on a 45 acre site near the Fall River border.

To get to that vote, Twin River needs the Town Council's support in placing the matter on the presidential-year 2016 fall ballot.

"This project will not go forward unless the voters of Tiverton approve it," Twin River Chairman John E. Taylor Jr. told a small gathering of mostly Tiverton residents last Wednesday night in Li'l Bear Sports Pub on Main Road.

Also needed, Mr. Taylor told the group, will be a favorable vote from all the voters in the state.

To prepare for the town council meeting, and the town and statewide vote, Twin River is in the midst of a full-scale campaign to publicize its plans and garner support from town residents.

To that end, Twin River has been conducting a series of what it is calling "neighborhood forums" throughout town, in restaurants (such as L'il Bear) and in private homes, to meet and talk with Tiverton residents.

"We've spoken to about 475 people so far," at 20 meetings, Mr. Taylor said. By the end of September, he said, Twin River expects to have conducted about 40 such meetings.

It plans several larger group meetings, called charettes, in September.

In attendance last Wednesday, at what Twin River is calling the "neighborhood forum" at L'il Bear, were 19 citizens (11 men and 9 women) from the community.

Seated at four round tables, on which were bowls of salted snack food, all were easily over 30 years old or older. Some appeared to be familiar with casinos, and a few acknowledged being past or present employees of Newport Grand.

Twin River is seeking to buy Newport Grand, and move its operations to Tiverton.

Also present at last Wednesday's "neighborhood forum" were eight representatives from Twin River. They included Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Vice President for Corporate Development Glenn A. Carlin, the general manager for its casinos, two staff from its public affairs office, and two architects from JCJ Architecture.

Mr. Taylor's comments were brief (about 10 minutes long). For nearly an hour thereafter he responded to wide-ranging questions.

"We're in the final stages of closing on the Newport Grand," Mr. Taylor told the group. "We'll close within the next week or so."

He noted that some in the audience Wednesday night work at the Newport Grand.

If the Tiverton casino is built, he said, "the first 160 jobs will go to the employees of the Newport Grand."

"We want to make sure this is about jobs in Rhode Island," Mr. Taylor said, responding to another queston. "Eighty percent of our work force is from Rhode Island and we want to keep it that way."

Including benefits and gratuities, he said, the average worker will earn $50,000-$55,000.

"What we're planning to build is a place where people come for a couple of hours and then leave," he said.

"It's a convenience casino, where it's easy for people to get in and out easily," he said. "So traffic is an issue where we're spending a lot of time."

A man in the audience referred to Country View Estates — "there's a lot of homes back there" — who will enter Stafford Road/William Canning Boulevard from Hurst Lane, exactly at the proposed entrance road to the casino.

"By November we'll have a plan to address that issue," Mr. Taylor said, and referred to a round-about put in place in Lincoln that he said worked well, despite the casino's early opposition.

There will be one main entrance and secondary and tertiary entrances, Mr. Taylor said.

"I think it's good for Tiverton," said one man during the meeting who seemed to have some familiarity with casinos. "I think they should go ahead with it. It's a perfect area."

At one point a representative from Twin River said, "most of our customers now come from southeastern Massachusetts."

"Will there be a smoking area," asked one woman.

"We don't know if Tiverton will have smoking areas," Mr. Taylor said.

About the upcoming meeting with the town council, Mr. Taylor said, "we'll provide a video to show what it's going to look like. It will be part of the presentation we'll make to the town council."

Might the casino, if it is built, seek to expand, Mr. Taylor was asked.

"I think we're going to be constrained by the land. There's a lot of wetlands," he said.

What about entertainment, someone asked. "One thing we know won't happen is an entertainment center. We don't have the space for that," Mr. Taylor said.

"Any plans for a parking garage," a person asked. "The more trees you leave up the more you'll please half the town."

"At this point, we don't see structure parking," Mr. Taylor said.

"How do you feel about a small hotel?" asked another guest.

"We haven't spoken to those people who are developing the mall," Mr. Taylor said.

"The people in this town who are against the mall will be against the casino," said a man. ""Once the mall thing is done, they're going to be right after you."

"This casino is a great idea. We need relief from taxes," the same man said. "People want it to be a farm and a small community."

"There's going to be real problems changing the comp plan," a woman said. There's going to be a lot of legal issues."

As the meeting broke up around 7:15 p.m. (it had started shortly after 6), one couple said they thought the casino had a better chance of being approved than the mall.

People who want more information about the casino proposal or the "neighborhood forums" are referred to the proposed casino's website at: www.thetivertonproposal.com.

convenience casino, Twin River Casino

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.