About 600 people gathered outside Middleborough High School yesterday for a meeting on a proposed casino. (VINCE DEWITT FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)By Christine Wallgren, Globe Correspondent June 14, 2007
MIDDLEBOROUGH -- As residents voiced concerns about having a casino in town, selectmen voted last night to hire a lawyer well known in gaming circles to help them negotiate potential contracts with the Mashpee Wampanoags.
The presence of the lawyer, Dennis Whittlesey, at last night's meeting seemed to calm some residents, who were worried that the town was rushing into a pact without weighing citizen concerns.
Whittlesey applauded the town's attempt to work with the tribe.
"Frankly, once the land goes into trust, there is no obligation for the tribe to work with the community," he said. "It's a tremendous advantage to work on an agreement and walk together with the tribe to the secretary of the interior," who reviews applications to put land into federal trust and thereby remove it from state and local control.
Whittlesey, of the Washington, D.C. firm of Dickinson Wright, was invited to the meeting by Selectman Adam Bond. Whittlesey agreed to help fine-tune a recently produced draft agreement between the town and the tribe for a casino, a process he estimated would take about four weeks.
Officials did not indicate what he would be paid, but they recently got Town Meeting approval for $60,000 for casino-related negotiations... (Full Story)
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