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Officials await word on racing license
NEW CASTLE, Pa.
Lawrence County Commissioners have their eyes on Harrisburg amid indications that the Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commission could award a harness racing license to the former Valley View Downs racetrack/casino project this week or next.
“We are just sitting tight till we know something,” Commissioner Dan Vogler said at Tuesday’s commissioner’s meeting..
Vogler said he hopes to travel to Harrisburg as soon as notification comes of an expected emergency meeting of the commission to consider transferring the Valley View Downs harness racing license from former owners Indianapolis-based Centaur LLC, to American Harness Tracks LLC of Pittsburgh.
Centaur is in bankruptcy re-organization and the Valley View Downs project was purchased last year in a bankruptcy auction for $5.6 million by American Harness Tracks.
Awarding of the license would be a big step toward making the long-awaited project a reality.
However, even if American Harness Tracks obtains the harness racing license, they still must obtain a license from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in order to run the casino slot machines, which are a major component of the planned development.
If the meeting is set, Harness Racing Commission Chairman Roy Wilt may have to attend by phone, Vogler said.
Wilt is currently hospitalized after heart surgery but is needed to make a voting quorum.
The three-member board has a vacancy which cannot be filled until the state Legislature reconvenes in September, leaving only Wilt and member Richard Welsh.
Also Tuesday, Vogler reported that HB 1549 has been passed by both the Pennsylvania House and Senate and awaits only Governor Tom Corbett’s signature.
The bill would allow Lawrence County to remain a fifth-class county, despite loss of population in the last census which put it at 91,108, which is below the 95,000 minimum for fifth-class status.
One other county in Pennsylvania, Northumberland, is in the same situation.
The bill would drop the minimum population for a fifth-class county to 90,000 and a county would have to drop below that for two consecutive censuses to lose the designation.
Although the changes associated with the class change are minor, Lawrence County Commissioners had urged legislators to take such action, reluctant to have Lawrence designated a sixth-class county Jan. 1, as would happen without such legislative action.