Build the casino in Hiawatha

The (Linn County gambling) vote is over. I don't know why a business, being built by private investors, needed us to vote for it. We didn't get to vote on a new library, buying a hotel, building a conference center, closing Second Avenue, or building a new fire station, public works building, NewBo Market, Czech museum, juvenile center, outside theater, or that large building on Edgewood Road and Ellis Boulevard. Tax money is going toward those projects.

Mayor Ron Corbett said (Feb. 20 Gazette story) he is going to tell casino owners that if it's going to be built downtown it should guarantee a certain number of rooms to be rented in the hotel and other demands. Why is the city telling the owners what they should do? Why does the city have to have its hands in everything? Is that why we don't have a water park, large zoo or amusement park?

Corbett also said that the casino will help prove that the taxpayers' large investment in the hotel and convention center was a good bet. Is he saying that if the casino isn't built the investment was a bad bet?

Steve Gray, you should build your casino in Hiawatha with a hotel and event center and maybe a water park.

Louis F. Van Marm

Cedar Rapids