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Glimpse into the past

September 3rd, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments

Here’s an interesting article from CapeNews.net. It is an analysis of the documents collected by Middleboro in response to the recent public records request by the Mashpee Wampanoag for any and all casino related materials.

Since I’m not one of the principles, I often conjecture about the state of the casino based on recent events and the history of the debacle. A number of things in this article jibe with that conjecture. It provides an interesting glimpse into the casino past and reveals little tidbits that give perspective on various events. For instance, many of us have been saying for literally years that the state of Massachusetts had zero interest in allowing a Middleboro casino. From the article:

Ms. Geoffroy on several occasions suggested in e-mails to Mr. Cristello and other town officials that the tribe was responding to state pressure for the tribe to move from Middleborough to a more urban area on the South Coast, pressure that state and tribe officials have previously denied was exerted.

But Ms. Geoffroy said her opinion was based on interactions with state officials, from the governor’s office and the legislature, who indicated that they would rather see the casino elsewhere.

In May 2010, Ms. Geoffroy wrote in an e-mail to town officials: “I think a lot of this is being structured by the State who wanted this in New Bedford or Fall River. The State wouldn’t play ball with them in Middleborough on the highway work.

I liked this quote from Ruth about why the tribe had made the public records request:

Ms. Geoffroy said she had no clear understanding of why the tribe would file the public records request, and pay the more than $3,000 associated with gathering and copying each of the documents, but she could speculate. “To be a pain,” she said.

Another interesting tidbit is this statement from Dennis Whittlesey:

In that same correspondence between attorneys, the town’s attorney, Dennis Whittlesey, notes that the plan has provoked unusually intense opposition in Middleborough. “Still, there is a frenzy which is real. (Ask me about the ‘$15,000 bribe’ reportedly paid to me several years ago when we next talk … or how [Selectman] Adam Bond is the ‘Manchurian Candidate’ sent to Middleborough years ago by the casino industry to burrow in and get elected to the Board of Selectmen.”

That “$15,000″ bribe thing is news to me. There was a lot of wacky conspiracy theory stuff floating around back then but I never heard that one. I think there are still people who think that Adam is a plant.
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I definitely found this to be a real interesting read.

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  1. Al
    September 3rd, 2010 at 21:47 | #1
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    So the Dispute resolution clause has been enacted. I wonder when that happened? This also explains why the BOS are having a meeting this Wednesday for an Executive session.
    We might actually be seeing a distant light at the end of this horrible tunnel.

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