Marquette plans to demolish historic properties for hotel

The village of Marquette is planning to demolish several historic properties to erect a hotel for the nearby Lady Luck Casino. One of the buildings to be demolished is the Town Hall. On the same footprint, an out-of-town developer plans to build a hotel that also will house the new town hall.

As this little town government is operated by individuals who are either current casino employees or current or former members of an entity directly affiliated with the casino, it is the closest thing to a “company town” I have ever seen. This symbiotic relationship is very amusing to watch. As the village prepares to tear down the fine Town Hall building, the village clerk publicly announced that the Lone Wolf Lounge space at the Lady Luck Casino would be available at no charge for council meetings.

This is a very interesting - conducting government meetings in a casino tavern!

The village's attorney might consider taking a close look at Iowa Code Chapter 99F.4, subparagraph 23. This is the Voluntary Exclusion Law of Iowa, where a gambler can voluntarily register to be excluded from entering all gambling facilities in the state for life. The point is, by the town holding its public council meetings within the Plastic House of Greed's saloon, it would thus create a violation of Iowa's open meetings law, Iowa Code Chapter 21. Basically they would be excluding all self-registered gamblers from attending the council proceedings.

Timothy Mason

McGregor