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Council members say another company will mean more of the traffic, parking and river woes that the city faces now.
By MATTHEW WAITE
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 9, 2001
PORT RICHEY -- News that there may be more than one gambling boat company cruising out of Port Richey has stirred up concerns that greeted the first boat in 1995.
A majority of Port Richey City Council members said Monday that they had three major concerns if another gambling boat is coming to Port Richey: car traffic coming in and out of the waterfront area, the already scarce parking in that area, and the effect more heavy boat traffic could have on the river.
"I'm not happy about the traffic situation now," council member Joe Menicola said Monday. "The way I see it, it's a wait-and-see situation."
The second gambling boat could be coming because a feud between SunCruz Casinos LLC, the owner of the boats that sailed from Port Richey before September, and Paradise of Port Richey, the company that runs the boats and owns the docks the boats tie to.
SunCruz sued Paradise in U.S. District Court in Tampa on Friday, claiming Paradise took items off their boats to help run another gambling boat. Paradise said they owned the items.
Paradise continues to sail from Port Richey on a leased boat.
Executives at SunCruz said they want to lease land on the Port Richey waterfront for their boats, most likely at Joshua's Landing, owned by former Port Richey City Council member Ron Barnett.
Barnett did not return a telephone message from the Times on Monday.
In 1995, when Pair-A-Dice, the predecessor to the SunCruz/Paradise alliance, began sailing gambling boats, the city and the company sparred over parking, traffic and, over the years, damage to the river bottom.
Those same concerns were raised by Mayor Eloise Taylor and council members Phyllis Grae and Menicola. The three said they haven't heard much about another boat, other than what they read in the paper.
But the idea of another boat has them concerned.
"Traffic, of course, is always a problem," Grae said. "The waterway is always a problem. That whole place is congested as it is."
Taylor said riverfront property owners complain now that the river needs to be dredged, and more big boats may do more harm.
"All of those (concerns) need to be addressed before we go very far down the line," Taylor said.
- Staff writer Matthew Waite can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is waite@sptimes.com.