7.
Good evening dear hearts and welcome to the show I'm Norman Johnson good to have you
along on this Wednesday evening tonight show is called whoa or go we're going to be talking
about the possibility of perimutual wagering in Nacogloches County you'll be voting on that
issue and many other things on the November 3rd ballot we have both proponents of perimutual
wagering and opponents of wagering and you will have a chance to ask questions directly
of them just in case you want to you write slow we want to go ahead and give you the
number to call tonight five six four eight three eight six five six four eight three
eight six and last week we had a few problems getting to the calls we're going to be much
more streamlined tonight so feel free to give us a call when our guests come on I'd like
to introduce to you my blessing bride Lill and we always call this first segment doches
doings and we talk about some things that's coming up in our community in the week to
come I guess we kick off the halloween season out of the lamp light theater right that's
right it's going to be like your life yes I'm looking forward to that I am to the lamp
light is is one of my homes away from homes as you well know they're going to have in
the lobby they'll have the decorations in there for halloween there'll be spider webs
and also there they have a real coffin that you can have your picture taken in taken in
if you'd like to wait a minute you got to get in the coffin and in the coffin and you
may have your picture taken you need to probably bring your own camera to do that yeah a lot
of people have said I look dead on this show anyway I guess it'll make much difference
you know we can get a picture and compare yeah I always enjoy all the lamp light productions
I've said that I've seen a lot of community theaters and this is the best one I've ever
seen anywhere at any time and I hope people will go out and enjoy this this fun play when
does it run it begins opening night is Friday night this this Friday night the 24th it'll
be at 8 o'clock Saturday night at 8 there will be one matinee on this one at 3 o'clock
this Sunday and then also next Friday night at 8 and Saturday night at 8 and we have got
political forums all over the place have oh yes we do Monday 5 high theta business fraternity
will be sponsoring a forum on paramutual wagering at 7 p.m. in the grand ballroom at the university
center and the public is invited to that okay great and then also on Tuesday October 27th
in the free speech area at sfa the student government association will be sponsoring
a student vote voters speak out all candidates from the following races will attend there
will be a tax assessor commissioner precinct one commissioner precinct three district attorney
district judge and it will be from 11 30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and also invited our jingshaw bill
hailey and jerry johnson have you voted yet I haven't yet I want to remind everybody that
early voting is going on right now through November the 30th you never know when you
might get involved and can't vote on election day so I hope everybody will go out take advantage
of that red ribbon week is coming up everybody call the nakadotius community coalition and
get a red ribbon to wear it to show that you support the fight against drug abuse it's
trivia quiz time tonight I'm going to be giving away a twenty five dollar detail job for your
automobile from my friend Greg Denon down at eight affordable detail and all you have
to do is to be the first to have the right answer and call us at five six four eight
three eight six tonight's question we just talked about the lamp light theater who is
the director of the lamp light theater who is the director of the lamp light theater
give us a call quickly at five six four eight three eight six and run a free detail job
from a affordable detail and we're going to take a short commercial break when we come
back we'll have our guest and talk about paramutual wagering we'll be right back after this word
from some of the folks that make this broadcast possible people working closely together in
the office become a team and finding qualified replacements can really be time consuming
with one of our staff had a long term illness for don't you temporary took care of everything
saving us valuable time for don't you temporary sense someone who fit right in they handle
payroll costs like workers compensation and unemployment insurance also I really recommend
for don't you temporary to anyone who's thinking of hiring office help hi I'm Garth Brooks
wait a minute you're not Garth Brooks yes I know aren't you Danny Merrill that's right
I'm Danny Merrill aren't you a DJ that's right nine to noon weekdays at KJ 103 no no no no
get it right it's nine to noon weekdays with Danny Merrill on 12 in a row country KJ 103
and I'll play a lot of Garth Brooks Ariel Blanc gold medal Los Angeles 1986 Ariel Rouge
as you know wines are recognized by the medals they receive and as you'd expect the same premium
de-alcoholized wines served at the Nobel Prize ceremonies in Oslo Norway is now a part of
fine dining at Capelli's Ariel wines maintain the flavor and bouquet of fine premium wine
but without the alcohol the perfect compliment to a meal at Capelli's a taste of something
special Capelli's North Street Macadoshes
going out of town are you licensed man gonna do a little shopping is there an emergency
man did you ever think you could probably get just what you're looking for right here
at home yes ma'am just your signature who knows you may even save more than time thank
you now and you drop your foot next time stop and shop here we've got it roll or go will
we or will we not have paramutual racing or gambling on horse racing in Macadoshes
County again as we talk to both the proponents and opponents of wagering you will have an
opportunity to call your questions in in fact you can start calling any time now at five
six four eight three eight six I would like for you to meet Cindy Davidson Cindy is representing
the Piney Woods Economic Development Association which as I understand it is an organization
that has been formed specifically to bring about paramutual wagering why are we doing
this for economic development Macadoshes needs a boost a shot in the arm and its economy
and this is a group of citizens who believe that this is an industry that can bring jobs
to East Texas and help our economy and academic and how will it do that well for one thing
the track itself employees if we compare it to the other similar tracks in Bandera and
Parker County's it will employ over 400 employees just at the track itself that's not including
the trainers and their employees and the other horse brewers that will come to the areas
and the restaurants and the hotels and other businesses that will benefit upon from the
tourists that come into town 400 employees 400 just at the track itself just a minute
and say that we do have a winner in the trivia quiz so congratulations to whoever you are
if you'll come by the radio station tomorrow nine ten North Street you have won yourself
a detailed job from a affordable detail 400 employees now what about side jobs like in
restaurants motels have you done any kind of projections on that well that's that's
hard to predict because that depends on the individual businesses that we have available
in the academic not to mention the development of new businesses that will come in when you're
looking at having twenty five hundred tourists a day in town those tourists are not just
going to come to the track spend their day and go home many of them will be spending
the night many of them will eat in local restaurants and they'll shop in local businesses
while they're here we have a reputation for being the oldest town in Texas and having
the charming antique shops and the various businesses downtown we've really come a long
way in developing our downtown businesses in the last few years and this will give a
boost to that also okay now as I understand it this will be a class two track is that
correct class two track is mostly well the Texas Racing Commission has three classes
of tracks one two and three one being the largest two being the middle sized class three tracks
are a county run and don't run very many days class two track is what we have in Texas right
now there are no class one tracks currently they're in the process of issuing class one
permits right now but the operating tracks now are class two and class three tracks now
do we know yet how many racing days we would have now I know this gets kind of complicated
because physically we have a track out there I guess legally we don't because the track
does not have an owner is that correct well that's correct and that's why it's such a
shame that that track has been sitting out there vacant for five years at the time that
this issue was voted on five years ago we had the only track in existence in Texas up
ready to go we missed a window of opportunity back then we don't want to miss that window
of opportunity right now the racing we did not vote it in last time do you have any idea
what went wrong in that election for me well for one thing it was a low voter turnout election
and I don't think it necessarily reflected the views of the of the entire county because
there were not a lot of other issues on that ballot other than some constitutional amendments
it was not a high voter turnout election and also they were voting on the statewide option
at that time which of course Louisiana was fighting against because Louisiana didn't
want Texas to get racing okay back to what I asked a little while ago I don't think
I gave you a chance to answer it as far as do we know how many racing days we'll have
the racing commission statute classifies 60 racing days for class 2 tracks a minimum
of race 60 racing days each individual track applies to the racing commission each year
on an individual basis for its number of racing days and the racing commission takes in numerous
factors in deciding those racing days the ones that are currently running right now
have been running about 120 days but the lowest number that we could have is 60 is that correct
yes and it could we have at least that many and it could go up to maybe 120 days okay
I'm going to try to pre guess what the opponents will be saying later in the show when they
come on let's talk about I'm sure they're going to say if I've been reading the ads
correctly that this is going to bring in organized crime prostitution on and on and on how would
you react to that well the Texas Racing Commission has very stringent guidelines on who can operate
a racetrack who can own a racetrack who can even be out there on the premises at a racetrack
and anybody that goes back to the horse barns or works in any of his offices or anything
has to go through a stringent FBI and national crime check background check I've got to ask
do you know if anybody is in the process of trying to purchase the track they have had
people look at the track they have had people speculate about buying it and then you know
turning it into a track after the election of course the track will sell for more once
the election passes because it's it's automatically worth more once parametric wagering passes
and there are plenty of people out there wanting to get into the business it's a growing industry
and business leaders who are in that industry are always ready to jump in on investment
opportunity like this this is an existing facility already there they're not going to
have to start from the ground up like they would have to at any other place where new
track is going in have you had a chance to talk to people in other areas where there
is wagering on horse racing now right we visited with both people in bandera county
trinity county parker county where trinity meadows is the business owners there they've
all seen seen tremendous impact on their businesses they have nothing but good things to say about
racing the law enforcement officers in those towns have not seen any of the what they had
expected to be increases in crime in fact the dps crime index show that they've had decreases
in crime in those areas are there any other factors that would cause a person to perhaps
vote for wagering other than economic i can't think of a better reason than economic i mean
that affects all of us everybody yes everybody's affected by the economic growth in a community
have you been able to get much of a feel of the community this is going to be one of those
what we call quote controversial races on the ballot what kind of feedback are you getting
we've gotten very positive feedback like i say we're talking primarily the business
owners and business owners they can see what the impact of additional visitors to town
will do and the development of vacant land of commercial property it will just have a
tremendous economic impact in any business owner can see that now you have the endorsement
of the neckadouches county chamber of commerce i believe how did that come right well that
came about usual for a chamber to endorse something yes but they surveyed their membership
and they are representing the business community and when they surveyed their membership and
saw such an overwhelming response in favor of the racing issue they felt that they had
to make that public and reflect that that's how the community felt what happens to the
pineywoods track facility if it didn't vote in this time well it will sit out there and
continue decreasing in value which means the value keeps going down on our property tax
rolls and that affects all of us the bank may or may not be able to find a buyer for
it it's hard to make a track that size operators as just a training facility if you don't have
the paramutual wagering come in that's one side of the issue that's the go when we come
back from the break we'll have the woe side of the issue and we'll talk to the opponents
of this issue when we return right after this word from some of the folks that make our
show possible all right yes i know that's right i'm danie merrill aren't you a dj
that's right nine to noon weekdays of kj-103 no no no no get it right it's nine to noon
weekdays with danie merrill on twelve in a row country kj-103 and i'll play a lot of
gaurd brooks the advice i would give on hiring office workers is to let fedonia temporaries
handle it they can place people on a temporary basis or full time and if someone doesn't
fit in there's no firing or rehiring just call fedonia temporaries for replacement and
paying a weekly bill is a lot easier than handling all those payroll requirements fedonia temporaries
does that for you and all other people are pre-screened and tested so that saves time
and money i think calling fedonia temporaries just makes good business sense arielle blunk
gold medal los angeles 1986 arielle ruse as you know wines are recognized by the medals
they receive and as you'd expect the same premium de-alcoholized wine served at the
nobel prize ceremonies in oslo norway is now a part of fine dining at capelli's arielle
wines maintain the flavor and bouquet of fine premium wine but without the alcohol the perfect
compliment to amela capelli's a taste of something special capelli's north street macadoshes
going out of town are you a licensed man gonna do a little shopping is there an emergency
man did you ever think you could probably get just what you're looking for right here
at home yes ma'am just your signature who knows you may even save more than time thank
you ma'am and you drive triple next time stop at the shop here we've got it welcome back
to our show tonight we are discussing the issue of paramutual wagering on horse racing
in macadoshes county again you can call in your questions to my guest five six four eight
three eight six is the number we just heard from cindy davidson who is the spokesperson
for the pine woods economic development association joining me now is george middlebrooks who is
the spokesperson for citizens who care did i get that right you did that norman there
are so many groups these days i can't keep all that you know in my mind obviously your
group thinks it would be a bad idea to have wagering we do and i appreciate you using
the terminology wagering or gambling on your show tonight so many times around macadoshes
we've seen signs that say yes vote for horse racing in the issue in horse racing of course
it's illegal always has been but what we're voting to do is change the law to make something
that's been illegal gambling illegal so we're concerned that we get all the answers that
question we are living in a time of some fairly tough economic times there's no big mistake
about that cindy was just saying that wagering at the track at pine woods down could bring
in possibly four hundred jobs what's wrong with that well i appreciate first of all i've
said this publicly pine woods economic development and all of us are for economic development
and their concern and their motive for that is pure and i appreciate that and none of
us are trying to knock jobs but i think that as every time gambling has been put on the
issue for voting on the issue has been taken away from that even the proponents of and
the industry say that you can never get gambling passed you have to make the issue jobs they've
used bandera race track bandera downs as example i personally talk several times to them and
to their one of their spokespersons down there they tell me they have about thirty to forty
full time jobs up to three hundred jobs on a part time basis of the track mostly on weekends
and about a seasonally half the year even though thirty jobs or forty jobs is not something
to say no to we need those kind of jobs but there are other side of the issue that we
need to look at okay what are some of the other well first of all in order for panty
woods downs to be an effective in our in our economy it has to be a viable program we've
got to be able to first someone has to come in here and get a license to race which the
texas racing commission regulates in cindy said maybe hard to do that somebody's going
to have to come up with an investment four five six million dollars to bring that track
just up to they don't understand that that track doesn't have the kind of barns it needs
at the track surface is going to have to be rebuilt the stands are all going to have to
be rebuilt it's almost like starting from scratch they've got something to start with
a parking lot and some rails but they're even going to have to be changed but many people
like randy malls from douse 40 news expert in the area that writes on racing is said
that he's not sure that the track could even make it and david freeman from the director
of the texas racing commission said he wasn't sure that a class two track and make it in
acadoches i even talked with the some folks at bandera downs who didn't want to be identified
and they said they were concerned that when a class one track came to san Antonio they
and set themselves would not be in business so i think it's bad for us to pass something
possibly might not even go anyway okay let's assume that we that voters pass the paramutual
waging wagering issue and nobody buys piney woods down then is the issue mute i think
the issue would be muted in that case except that i believe there will be somebody that
comes along and tries to put it down i don't think they'd be this much push for it if there
were not some people in the wings who thought it was a viable option to do the problem norm
has been in many cases when a track comes in it's very close very marginal other tracks
in texas are not really making money they turn to several things first of all they turn
to a tax abatement get free taxes for five years or ten years the second thing that
really i think our tax payers ought to think about is how many tracks have been supported
the bond money right now dallas for a dallas footwear san Antonio houston all had class
one tracks approved and all those facilities were being were were were given licenses based
upon some public funds being put in there we need to expect if this issue passes that
we'll be seeing another issue of public bond money to help support the track one of the
things i was going to ask cindy and we ran out of time that's one of the things of getting
used to doing a 30 minute show once a week as opposed to the radio show two hours every
day i was going to ask her i know that her group has said that this would also be a boost
to the agriculture industry to uh to horsemen and ranchers and that sort of thing um would
that not be true well norm i think if there was a viable racing industry but if you understand
that the major races are going to be conducted in dallas houston san tony and shreeport and
i talked to a gentleman that has some horses that train at pine woods downs out here now
he's recently moving his horses and he said that you know their horses need to be close
to those racetracks arkansas dallas forward so from that standpoint i don't think it will
be that big a boom to our local area all right let's go into uh some other issues with regard
to uh wagering uh sendy talk primarily about the economical boost to the county i've noticed
in a lot of uh your advertising and your literature you talk about uh the moral issue from the
standpoint uh i saw an ad today uh i think it was labeled uh do you need a job and then
it listed all kinds of jobs that were going to be listed uh be available you could be
a drug dealer or prostitute or all kinds of things is there a basis for that at any of
the tracks first of all norm uh the issue of morality has been brought up not by my
group or by me personally uh the issue to me is not one of morality but one of reality
what's going to happen i don't care how anybody in acadoches thinks morally on race gambling
there are many people have come to us and said hey i go to louisiana downs and i gamble
i don't see anything wrong with it but i don't want horse racing the effect that gambling
has in my community so morality is not an issue there was an ad placed in there and
i'm not in that department about those kind of jobs but uh the real issue is not uh the
kind of jobs it will bring but the detrimental effects that it will have on our county and
i'd be glad to discuss some of those uh another thing that i wanted to ask both of us and
i ran out of time and that was uh if anybody has talked to any of the law law enforcement
people uh is law enforcement supporting this uh i'm looking off camera at sunday have you
all talked to some law enforcement people have you gotten any encouragement yeah um
they're just going by what the law enforcement people in other counties okay the answer in
case you couldn't hear that was that uh uh they're going primarily from from other areas
where there is wagering at tracks now uh do any of the law enforcement people in this
area support your position norm they do a number of law enforcement people some of them
because of the political climate and races going on have said to us we can't come out
publicly and now and say it but we know that there's going to be a problem there not liberty
to say who those people are if you go back and look at the director of the fbi the director
of the texas department of public safety the uh texas attorney general all of them have
said and made a statement numerous occasions when gambling is legalized illegal gambling
is going to come into place one of the problems of statistics we've been using and been hearing
around the state about crime is the fact it takes a while of that crime to work through
the system once people begin to get in the habit of crime a lot of the crime is why i
call a crime and crime to support a gambling habit and we're just we have just really
begun racing in texas the the problem with gambling is going to continue on when we vote
for paramutual gambling in agadoches county it's not like voting for a district judge
if you don't like him you can vote him out in a few years you're voting for something
that's going to be hard to overturn in the future and the effects are going to be with
us for a long time be like voting for a president and he was going to be your president for
a long time he said a little while ago we talked about the jobs she said it could bring
in up to 400 jobs your groups has possibly 30 40 jobs whatever amount of jobs there are
their group is proposing something that to some degree of the other would boost the economy
of the area is there alternate ways of boosting our economic position in agadoches county
well first of all our position is we're not we're not in a position of develop economic
development we're here opposing paramutual gambling we don't think that norm what i
think we need to do in agadoches is support the industry that we already have our biggest
industry is a steven f austin state university the difference between the university and
gambling in a university you've got a product the product is the students and the minds
and the lives of those young people that come to agadoches to be impressed and learn and
go out around the country the product of gambling it has none you go and you gamble and you're
automatically going to lose twenty twenty five percent of what you have there's no product
is a as a focus of gambling one of my main concerns is those students eighteen nineteen
twenty up to twenty one years old who come to agadoches for the first time their parents
in him here for education and put them in an environment where they can only gamble illegally
our job is we need to do something that supports our university in that system we're trying
to teach young people our school how to make a little education get an education how to
support themselves how to add to their community gambling the only product the gambling teaches
is that you can go and try to make a little money real easy and that's a that's diametrically
opposed to what we're trying to teach our students and we've got a lot of impact and
input from parents of the university students all right again we're out of time boy it goes
by when you're having fun doesn't it the public forum on this on the campuses went again
it's Monday nine October twenty six this coming Monday night it's seven o'clock in the grand
ballroom again I would like to thank Cindy and George for being with us we want this
show to be a community forum where we can present all sides of the issues and give you
an opportunity to cast wise votes and make wise decisions on things that affect Nacogdoches
and Nacogdoches County next week one of the more exciting races on the ballot will be
that for a district attorney of Nacogdoches County between the incumbent Republican Mike
Graham and his challenger Democrat Tim James and they will both be with us next Wednesday
at eight thirty and you will have an opportunity again to ask questions directly of them don't
forget that early voting is going on right now you can vote through November the thirtieth
it's very important that you vote extremely important always on the radio show you have
a right to complain all you want to about government as long as you vote but if you
don't vote my feeling is that you just ought to keep your mouth shut for the next two to
four years or until the next election so please exercise your right to vote hey we've got
to go again we thank you for joining us we'll see you back here next Wednesday evening
at eight thirty and tomorrow at seven a.m. on talk radio key until then bless your house
dear hearts I appreciate you
you
