Reporter – Leigh Hester – As Planning Director Erris Dunston stood to address the Council on the issue, she said, “We are here to do a little good business.” To her knowledge, she said, the gaming centers have been good citizens within the community, and City Manager Ray Griffin agreed that the businesses have indeed been a boon to the city, with each “cafe” paying $2000 to the city just to be open for business, and $1000 per gaming console located on the premises.
Each gaming center and each console must be individually permitted by the city, and each center must allocate 50 square feet of space per gaming console. Additionally, the internet “cafes” must be located more than 750 feet from any school, daycare, or church.
Council member Peace-Jenkins said during the meeting that when the “cafes” initially wanted to open, the council was very much against the idea. “It’s amazing how money changes everything,” she said, just before the unanimous vote.
$22,500 of the money brought in from the organizations will be used by the City of Henderson to partially finance a pay raise for city employees.
The City Council, in its expected genius–has just let us know they intend to keep approving a less desirable enterprise–which encourages idle people to sit on their backsides.
It is my opinion that if they keep on this tack–just to make money, we’ll never look like a community worthy of consideration by prosperous companies to locate here.
It’s too late Prudence. If we are going to have gambling, then it should be nice, fancy casinos like Las Vegas. Instead, we get seedy sweepstakes parlors. Good grief. Those that make the decisions in this town always tend to go for the slum in every decision they make. They go for the lowest goal instead of reaching for something good, they grovel in the mud.
I have never been in a internet cafe, I have better things to do than give my money away. Look for some robberies to happen at these joints.