Battle lines are being drawn again in Gettysburg.
It’s economic development vs. historic preservation as philanthropist and former Conrail CEO David LeVan again tries to win a license for a casino on the outskirts of town.
A casino proposal four years ago was unsuccessful, in part because of heavy community opposition.
LeVan said he will submit a new proposal to the state Gaming Control Board by April 7.
His new slots and table games parlor would be much smaller than his proposal in 2006. It would be in an existing building and would be farther from town and closer to the Maryland border, where many prospective casino patrons live.
With pro-casino and no-casino camps disputing the most basic claims of the other, an undercurrent of division snakes through this historic area, which depends on more than a million visitors a year to its Civil War battlefield but which also has seen unemployment more than double in the last five years.
Yet public opinion was only part of the reason the 2006 proposal failed. The Gaming Control Board’s decision was not an up-or-down vote on the suitability of the Gettysburg project, but rather a more complicated selection of the “best projects” among five proposals from around the state competing for two licenses. The same is true this time, with at least four proposals competing for a single license.
This time, LeVan would refurbish the Eisenhower Hotel and Conference Center, about a mile’s drive south of the Gettysburg National Military Park.
The project would bring much-needed jobs to Adams County, LeVan said, and, if other casinos in Pennsylvania are a guide, provide millions to local government. That has prompted some who opposed the 2006 plan to change their minds this time.
It’s not enough, or necessarily true, said Susan Star Paddock, 65, a social worker who four years ago collected more than 65,000 signatures in opposition to the first plan as the leader of the group No Casino Gettysburg.
“We don’t think it’s economic development,” Paddock said. Any jobs created will be offset by jobs lost as businesses close because residents would be gambling their money instead of spending it elsewhere, she said.
Paddock also said a casino would repel the people the area relies upon for its livelihood: heritage tourists. She cited studies that indicate heritage tourists abhor commercialization of historical sites.
A consortium of preservation groups including the Civil War Preservation Trust and the National Parks Conservation Association has opposed the new plan, writing in a Jan. 26 letter to LeVan that “a gambling facility at Gettysburg unavoidably conflicts with the essential meaning of this place in American history.”
However, the crowds of visitors to the battlefield have been dwindling steadily for nearly a decade.
“We need to diversify tourism,” said Jeff Kline, 38, an Iraq war veteran and a spokesman for Pro Casino Adams County. “Folks here are in desperate need to see some change. People need jobs. Too many businesses have closed. … Too many attractions have closed. … We can’t keep going the way we are.”
Preservation is a red herring, said Kline, who noted that the Eisenhower Hotel does not sit on historically significant ground. As for heritage tourists, he said that a majority of them are already offended by Gettysburg and its souvenir shops and restaurants.
“Heritage tourists only stay on the battlefield; they don’t want to spend time in stores and restaurants,” Kline said. “They want it to look like 1863.”
Business owners are split on the idea of a casino.
Barbara Shultz, 43, who runs the Aces High hobby shop and bed-and-breakfast with her husband, Steve, said, “Other casinos advertise heavily in this area. I know they’re going to be advertising Gettysburg and casino in the same sentence in a 50-mile radius.”
Shultz said she has two teenage girls and “I tell them their reputation is so important.”
“That’s how I feel about our community,” she said. “We have to watch our reputation.”
Tommy Gilbert, 62, who runs a hobby shop on the other side of town, said entrepreneurs first made Gettysburg a successful tourist destination with a privately owned visitor center, wax museum and amusement park.
“They created a fanfare of things for tourists to enjoy in Gettysburg, but those things have slowly eroded away,” he said.
A casino would help “bring revenue back in, which we desperately need, and maybe some tax relief,” Gilbert said.
“We all want to preserve our battlefield,” said Gilbert, who noted that his great-great-grandfather was a drummer boy for Adams County Company K.
“Not everybody’s a heritage tourist; we have families that come here,” and they want other things to do, he said. “People that want to go to the battlefield will. There’s only one Gettysburg.”
A Hanover Evening Sun poll of Adams County residents in January found more than 42 percent in favor of the casino, with 35 percent opposed and 22 percent saying they had no opinion.
Gettysburg’s status as a Civil War shrine means opinions from elsewhere cannot be ignored.
This month, a group of re-enactors sitting at a table outside O’Rorkes Eatery and Spirits on Steinwehr Avenue had divergent views.
Samuel Martin, 56, of Shippensburg, said gambling holds no appeal for him, and a casino would have no impact on his activities at Gettysburg. His wife, Lisa, 48, noted a casino “might bring jobs in.”
Sean Lynch, of Alexandria, Va., said, “I grew up in Atlantic City. I know what kind of crime and trash that came with it. It would be the same here.”
Across the street, Pat Phillips, 64, of Greenbelt, Md., sat on a bench checking messages on her cell phone. Phillips said she has been coming to Gettysburg for 20 years. She said that she’s a gambler but that she would not go to a casino in Gettysburg.
“I love Gettysburg,” Phillips said. “I think this town really should stay historical.”
On the battlefield, opinions among tourists were sharper.
“Absolutely not! No!” shouted Kathy Tull, 54, of Marcus Hook, Delaware County, as she looked out over the field where Pickett made his charge. “This is sacred ground. … I don’t care if it’s going to be near the park or not.”
Tom Beck, 66, a city planner from Forest Grove, Ore., said, “This is a sacred place. I find casinos low-life, demeaning and commercial.”
“Desecration is a strong word,” said Ben Richardson, 20, of Havre de Grace, Md. “But history and gambling don’t really mix. … They shouldn’t, at least.”
Paddock, the leader of No Casino Gettysburg, takes strength from that sentiment and from past success as she musters for a new fight.
“We will not stand for it!” she said with fervor. “We will do everything in our power to ensure there will never be a casino in Gettysburg or close to it.”
By law, the Gaming Control Board is required to consider a variety of factors, with some emphasis on job creation and which project is likely to generate the most money for the state. The battle for the one “resort” casino license available might have less to do with public opinion and more to do with numbers.
LeVan said he expects the Gaming Control Board to see “the best numbers of any applicant” in Gettysburg. The Eisenhower Hotel, which has seen business drop by half over the last decade and had an average occupancy rate of 34 percent last year, will compete with posh resorts that draw more than 250,000 visitors a year, including Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Fayette County, whose patrons come primarily from the same Baltimore-Washington market Gettysburg is aiming for.
Many Gettysburg businesses are wary of enlisting too deeply in the coming fight.
Even such a die-hard as Gilbert said, “No matter what happens, we still have to get up in the morning and say, ‘Good morning, neighbor.’”
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