Thursday, 4:30 PM
Wampanoag and Middleborough to resume casino negotiations
By Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff
The town of Middleborough and a representative of the Mashpee Wampanoag plan to continue negotiations Friday over the tribe's plans for a resort casino in the rural town, the tribe said today.
The meeting was announced after relations between the two sides appeared to deteriorate over a draft proposal the town presented to the Cape Cod-based tribe last week. Middleborough demanded hundreds of millions of dollars upfront in exchange for supporting a casino. The Wampanoag rejected the proposal in a letter to town officials on Wednesday.
The tribe's lawyer, Larry Deitch, will represent the Wampanoag at the meeting, said Scott Ferson, a spokesman for the tribe.
"We were concerned the discussions were derailed, but that is not the case," he said.
Ferson said the tribe considers a tentative agreement reached between the tribe and the town in June to be the beginning point for discussion, an agreement much less generous to the town than the terms contained in a revised agreement drafted by the town this month.
Ferson said the tribe was willing to tweak that earlier agreement, which would pay the town $7 million a years, plus costs of infrastructure improvement, but would not overhaul the proposal.
"The tribe is committed to making a substantial contribution to the town, but not to buy it outright," he said, referring to the town's second proposal, which calls for the town to receive $7 million annually, plus 2 percent of annual gross gaming revenue, funding of extensive infrastructure changes, and salaries of some police officers and other town personnel.
Earlier today, Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston seized on an apparent rift between Middleborough and the Wampanoag and invited the tribe to build its gambling complex at the Suffolk Downs racetrack in East Boston. The Wampanoag would have to jump some significant hurdles to take up the mayor's offer, including the US Department of the Interior's 50-mile rule, which limits the Indian-owned casino to land within a 50-mile radius of the Wampanoag tribal land on Cape Cod.
