ENFIELD — Mayor Scott Kaupin said the town could breathe a sigh of relief that Enfield Square Mall didn't submit plans for possible casino development by the 4 p.m. Friday deadline.
But Kaupin said he remained disturbed by the late changes in the conditions for submitting a proposal and by a string of emails he received that appeared to show one of the tribal partners suggesting the mall might want to submit a proposal as a place-holder, even without the town's participation.
On Thursday, in an interview with The Courant, Kaupin raised the possibility that the mall would submit a proposal without the town's approval. The joint tribal venture looking to build a third casino in the state had put out a request for proposals, due Nov. 6.
But on Friday afternoon the mayor said he spoke with a representative of Madison Marquette, Enfield Square Mall's owner, that morning and was assured that no proposal would be filed before the deadline.
MMCT Venture, the company formed by the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes to handle the casino project, said it had received proposals based in four towns, and Enfield was not among them. The four towns are East Hartford, East Windsor, Hartford and Windsor Locks. Kaupin said he was concerned because the original requests for proposals needed the towns to sign off and then, just days ago, the tribes said developers could submit incomplete proposals.The request for proposals called for both a municipal representative and the property owner to participate in the filing. On Oct. 30, on a website fielding questions regarding the request for proposals, MMCT Venture posted this statement:"MMCT acknowledges that the date of the municipal elections and the RFP deadline may not allow incoming elected officials sufficient time to participate in this stage of the process. All interested parties are encouraged to respond with a submission that is as complete as possible."One of the emails in the string that Kaupin received appeared to show one tribal official urging developers to review the updated question-and-answer page.The tribes, however, say they still want the support of the host town.When asked about the emails cited by Kaupin, Andrew Doba, a spokesman for the tribes' joint group on Friday pointed to a statement from Rodney Butler, a chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council, in that day's announcement of the casino proposals: "Our mission hasn't changed. We want this new facility to be located in a community that wants us there and values the jobs and revenue we'll bring."For weeks, Kaupin has said that the town was no longer part of the casino conversation, maintaining that there were too many unanswered questions and not enough time for Enfield to make a thoughtful consideration.Residents attending a community conversation on the topic said they didn't want to see a casino in town either.After speaking to mall management Friday morning, Kaupin said, "I expressed my concern with the process and that based on what we've been told through this entire process, through the casino and the legislature, that this was an effort that was supposed to be one that had community support and that a town would need to sign the RFP. I felt the corporation was changing the rules of the game and was not keeping in good spirits."To me, it raises a lot of concerns about how the state of Connecticut is going to deal with this corporation and allow for a casino to be located off of tribal land and to change the game plan at the 11th hour to encourage developers to submit without the support of a community," Kaupin said. "How will this play out for a host community once a casino is built and operating? What agreements are going to change mid-stream?"State Sen. John Kissel echoed Kaupin's concerns about the tribes' willingness to accept proposals by Friday's deadline that were lacking endorsements from towns."So much for home rule," he said in a press release Friday afternoon. "So much for rules at all. This is a sham, it is undemocratic, and frankly, it appears illegal. Taxpayers in north-central Connecticut and throughout the state can see what the tribes are doing."| < Prev | Next > |
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