Boyd gets earful on new Henderson casino

A plan for a new hotel-casino in Henderson came under fire from residents Monday night in a meeting at the Henderson Convention Center.

The Boyd Gaming Group organized the meeting to get input from Henderson residents on a proposed hotel-casino at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Lake Mead Drive, just across Eastern from where a 139-bed hospital will be built.

The Boyd executives ended up getting plenty of feedback from a group of about 150 citizens, who for the most part were against the project.

"If we wanted to live by a casino, we would have bought homes near a casino," Jennifer Orme said after Boyd executives had finished a slide presentation on the proposed resort. "We are trying to raise our kids, and we don't want the increase in traffic that a casino will bring."

Boyd Gaming has not finalized the purchase of the land, and the proposal has not yet come before the City Council, said Boyd spokesman Rob Stillwell.

"These are preliminary plans that we want to show the public and get feedback from them," Stillwell said. "We wanted to be able to address issues like access and the levels of the parking garages with the public."

The early design of the resort includes a 60-lane bowling center, a nine-story, 210-room hotel tower, a 16-theater movie complex, a food court, restaurants and two covered parking garages.

The yet to be named project, which is about half the size of the Sunset Station hotel-casino, is expected to come before the City Council within the year, Stillwell said.

When it does there will be opposition, said Todd Orme.

"We've talked to dozens of families about this casino in the last week, and 100 percent of them are against it," Orme said. "I don't know if the council will approve it, but the council members we've talked to are against it."

The Ormes used the meeting to take down phone numbers from other citizens against the project in an effort to organize before bringing their complaints before the City Council.

Bruce Cumbers, the vice president and assistant general manager of Sam's Town, a Boyd property on Boulder Highway, said the Henderson project is designed to be compatible with the area and be an entertainment complex to service the community.

Most of those gathered appreciated the company hosting the meeting, but were still very much against the project.

Lloyd Reisner vowed to fight it.

"In my opinion it's inappropriate, and my wish is that the City Council and the mayor stay with their policy and keep the area residential," said Reisner.

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