Proposed Foxwoods casino outlined

Republished from MidHudson News

LIBERTY – The Liberty Town Board played host to the developers of a proposed Foxwoods Resorts Casino and Muss Development at the Liberty High School Monday night. Town Hall would not have accommodated the over 300 attendees at the meeting.

Jeff Kay, of Muss Development; Scott Butera, president of Foxwoods; Josh Muss, of Muss Development; and Sal Semola, president of Foxwoods Catskills, spent an hour explaining their development plan for a casino resort at Grossinger’s.

They are moving forward with the process of submitting an application for the approval to open a casino in Region One of New York State.

As part of that process Foxwoods must show local support – 83 percent of voters in Liberty supported Proposal One on last November’s ballot, perform an environmental impact study, and have a proposal submitted and approved by the state deadline. The deadline looks to be in June, according to Kay.

The development plan includes swimming, boating, and shops with local products. The casino resort would be more than simply a casino; it would be a first-class resort destination, said Kay.

“It’s supposed to be a destination resort, but it has to be a resort that lives and breathes with the local community, and frankly all of Sullivan County,” Kay said.

Sullivan County Legislature Chairman Scott Samuelson thought the presentation was very good and honest. There is a lot of work still to be done.

“I think these are the people who live here and they have questions,” Samuelson said. “They were fine, and I like the fact that they are very comfortable with them [Foxwoods].”

Town of Liberty resident Allen Eckers originally felt the casino was not a good idea, but he thought Foxwoods had their information together and had a good proposal.

“We need jobs and we need development to cause jobs,” Eckers said. “And so only good things I see out of this.”

If the project is approved, construction could start in the fall of 2014.

More information about the project can be found at www.foxwoodscatskills.com.