A small crowd sat before State Representative Al Williams and business owner Clay Sikes as the two discussed the pros and cons of a proposed casino in Midway.
The impromptu meeting happened Feb. 20 at Dorchester Academy where Williams assured the group that right now all of this was based on a big - if.
“This (casino) cannot be done unless the voters of Georgia vote at least three times,” he said. “First the state has to vote, then places that might be interested might have to vote and they have to have a referendum in local areas. This is so early in the process, it’s unbelievable.”
Williams said a story, written by Capitol Beat News Service writer Dave Williams, which was first published on Feb. 5 and showed a conceptual drawing of a gaming resort and casino in Midway, made it appear as if the casino was a done deal.
“Listen this hasn’t even been voted on in the General Assembly yet,” Williams said. He added that his intentions are to make sure that Liberty County is at least represented when the conversation represents economic progress.
Sikes said he can understand the need for more jobs and economic growth but said it was important to let Williams and others know there are several who oppose the proposed location of the casino.
“I think it is more about where than anything else,” he said. “Our question is the City of Midway the best place for this? Is the pristine Georgia Coast the best place for a casino? And quite a number of people don’t think that it is. It is very much like a zoning issue. I am a developer by trade, so I am pro-growth and I have been for 55 years. But in zoning issues we are forced to, when we are developing a product, to really understand the sensitivity of that project to that neighborhood. That is why we have a zoning board. They are sensitive to the citizens that these developments are going to be around. And the people that are in that room, in fairly large numbers today, are the neighborhood that this thing would be placed in. So, we just wanted to let Representative Williams know that if he wants to put a casino on the Georgia coast…we don’t want that in our back yard.”
Sikes continued to say that the proposed location doesn’t have the proper infrastructure in place to accommodate the anticipated capacity of visitors being reported, around 7,000 a day.
Williams said he wanted to address any possible misinformation. First of all, House Bill 30 must pass at the Legislative level.
“It has to have a Constitutional vote for a Constitutional Amendment...it needs 120 (votes) out of 180 in the state house,” Williams said. “Then it has to be placed on the ballot in 2022 and the citizens of Georgia would have to approve it or disapprove it.”
Williams said it would then be placed to a local vote in the County. And even if approved there would still be a lot of zoning and impact studies that would be required before breaking ground on any project.
Midway resident Tim Watson said he agreed there has been some misinformation.
“But I think some of the misinformation comes from your part,” he said. “For example, in the news interview with WTOC you said that 70 percent of the people in the state, and even more in Liberty County, were interested in voting on this topic. When you were at the County meeting you said that number was 60 percent...and when you say this is early in the development stage…I don’t think those guys drew those renderings last night. You said yourself this has been a coupe of years. Forgive me I have not been active in local politics but this whole casino thing woke me and many other people up to what’s going on that we should have been paying attention to.”
Watson said he felt like Williams should have been bringing information on the progress of the casino bill back to the community.
Williams responded by saying he had done numerous interviews and held discussion on the matter for the past two years.
Lifelong resident Sheila McGinley said a casino in Liberty County would bring gambling addiction, drugs, prostitution, and human trafficking to the area. She and others said it would displace wildlife and hurt their pristine coastal waterways.
Williams said the people of the community will have the last word.
“The people have the right to vote,” Williams said. “If they don’t want it they can vote it down. But we should not, as elected officials deny the people the right to vote when it is actually a question That affects a lot of people.”