Great Wolf Resort is Hungry for Perryville, Cecil County, and Maryland Money

Yesterday I started a little light reading- the new ordinance for the development of the Wolf Lodge Resort here. The wolf is hungry!  (Perryville proposed Ordinance)  This is to be presented to the Council formally on Jan. 8 (council meeting 7-9) and could actually be approved in as little as 60 days.  What?  You haven’t received notice of this or seen any postings for your input/questions?  Well, sure you have- it’s posted right on the town’s website (minimum notice requirement).  Or have you been a tad busy lately?
A little bait and switch here from the original announcement out of town hall on Dec.17.(Announcement here).  The ordinance now calls for a minimum of 200 rooms while the announcement states 450-600. The projected cost is now $10 million more.

Funny, discussions with the Wolf never show up on Perryville Councils’ minutes or the county Economic Development Office.  What happened to Open Meeting Laws???  If all this is such a great opportunity, why did the Mayor or Econ. Director ever even mention meeting with them and engaging in serious discussions?  Ethically legal (there are Regs regarding this)?

BTW, Thinking you may be able to utilize that fun water park?  Not unless you’re a guest.

No mention of pay requirements or even requiring workers residing in the town or even the county.  Originally stating that 450-600 jobs would be created it’s now down to 200 payroll jobs,  This could mean all part-timers at minimum wage with no benefits.  Remember, the hotel will likely be half-occupied for a good portion of the year.

Still sounding like a howling good deal?  There’s more. We give them $ to pay their property AND hotel tax for 25 years.  Uh,.. that’s our $ we’re paying them.  So don’t be thinking about any extra monies going for? Schools, fire dept., police, roads, infrastructure, salaries, anything else you can think of- like park improvements, facilities for teens, seniors, etc., etc, etc.

But it gets even better (for the Wolf).  We pay for all infrastructure and initial utility costs and any future billings.  Think electrical, cable, water, sewer, gas, and whatever else I’ve forgotten or they have forgotten because there is even a clause about that. There are even more grants for construction, real estate and personal purchases, property improvements, public improvements, and even remodeling.

And all these deals hold even if the project gets sold to another owner. And even more incentives can be asked for and approved.  Like—- in order to graduate from high school you must volunteer your time/labor there and all residents must volunteer to help with snow removal.

Every year these giveaways will show up in the town budget: minus, minus, minus.  This is OUR money we’re giving away by the bucketful without even knowing the actual costs beforehand.  For what???

I do believe the Great Wolf employed his minions to write this ordinance up to his satisfaction while the presenters are offering it as a “take it or leave it” deal.

What say you, oh residents of Perryville and Cecil County because the clock is ticking.  After the initial presentation, the Council could vote within six days and then 20 days later it’s a done deal.  Time is a-wasting.  Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up.

Say what?  Are we all nuts?

This is the best our elected & unelected officials can do for us? Please, get the word out!! Now!!!

All hail, the Great Wolf.

Secret Meetings in Perryville? Oh, My! Part 1

Interesting article:https://www.medamd.com/news/great-wolf-lodge-sets-sights-on-perryville/

         Mayor of Perryville Robert Ashby Jr. says, “I’ve been working hard to bring excitement
         to our Town…meetings and conversations I can finally  talk about. This is a great opportunity 
             for all of us.

Mayor Asby via Cecil Whig.

The Mayor has meetings and conversations regarding town business that he can NOW talk about?  Isn’t that the purpose of Open Meeting Regs?  Like to mention that you’ve been negotiating deals for the town; otherwise we may begin to feel left out. Making it sound like a done deal- heck who even needs a council when we have a Mayor?

Familiar with ex-parte Regs?  Don’t believe secretly participating like this is allowed, no matter how “exciting” the Mayor found it.  Hey, Lucy, you have some ‘splainin’ to do!


       “Cecil County Economic Development Director Chris Moyer credits the town for making
        the initial contact with Great Wolf Resorts (GWR) and says, “we will continue to partner
        with Perryville and GWR staff to ensure this project becomes an economic anchor for
       Cecil County and a driver for the County’s tourism industry.”

And: “When you’re driving south [on 95], you’ll be able to look up on that hill and see this lodge.  [Y’’all know that hill, right?] It will bring more people into our restaurants; it will bring more people to access our county.’

Course, lowering the $8 toll on the Hatem Bridge would also greatly increase access to the county.

And he used as evidence...? ? because it’s just not true.  It never happened in Ledyyard, Ct., home to Foxwoods Casino and it’s extensive resort.  And it likely won’t happen here either.  In fact, the Mashantucket Pequot resort (on reservation property) employs less than 10% of it workers from the town and the town still relies on property owners for funding with few large businesses. THE pay there is lousy too with workers trying to organize.

The purpose of a resort is for visitors to spend their $ and time there.  What a shock! That’s how they ..like...stay in business.  And the resort just ain’t doing that well now.  
Here is Mr. Moyer’s pic.  I’d give you a County link but 2 of them are broken and the working one has no pic, much less any info.

 Cecil County has already decided this is great for the town, so what more do we need to know? They’re already partnering with the town to ensure this project.  When did this happen? Not in any local minutes I saw.  We hardly need elected town officials at all. Yet, County officials seem To ignore us when it comes to spending $ here. 

Cecil County of course, will be contributing more to the volunteer fire dept. for more and better equipment and we will acquire an actual paid fire department? They had their hands full at the Owens Landing fire where 18 units were completely destroyed in 3 hours- undermanned, ill-equipped, and ill-prepared.  Don’t misunderstand me, they were quite brave and did the best they could.  It was fortunate this time that no human lives were lost this time (I miss my kitty!) But a resort?

Where is the water coming from and the sewers. Water run-off? Police? Any guarantee that locals will be hired?  Pay requirements, benefits?  Sounds actually like more warehousing jobs- low pay and part-time.  These are only some of the questions that shoul be asked.
Now maybe the Great Wolf project is the greatest thing since sliced bread but?   Stay tuned for this ongoing saga.

The Great Wolf Lodge is coming to Perryville because they REALLY, REALLY like us!

Or do they?

Great Wolf Lodge- new savior for Perryville, Md. Maybe. Kinda. Sorta.

Click on above link.

Sorry the the local rag, aka “The Cecil Whig”, so heartily endorsed based on local politicians’ hype with few facts.  If it sounds too good to be true...
Evidently El Paso has a few questions.

Reputation of this company- not so good.  More for another day.

Great Wolf Lodge proposal could take a bite out of taxpayers, along with the benefits.

Nah, we might be dumb but we ain’t stupid.

I welcome thoughtful comments.  Want to be a Contributor? On most any topic.  You don’t even have to agree with me.