Milford Casino Opponents Elected as Town Meeting Members

Milford casino opponents have elected as many as 12 people as Town Meeting members, part of an effort to stop the casino development should it move ahead to a member vote.

The Town Meeting would vote on a rezoning, which would be required for the property. A rezoning vote requires a two-thirds majority, according to town officials.

Casino-Free Milford asked its volunteers to run for Town Meeting this year as write-in candidates with the purpose of stopping the casino development.

"This was just one part of our strategy," said Geri Eddins, a spokeswoman for the organization.

Eddins identified 12 Casino-Free Milford volunteers as among the write-in candidates who would seem to have been elected, based on preliminary vote totals. In all, 75 people appear to have been elected to Town Meeting.

Casino-Free Milford will need to determine how many of the existing Town Meeting members, and those re-elected to their seats Tuesday, are opposed to the development, she said.

Eddins herself was elected as a member representing Precinct 7, based on preliminary results.

Town Clerk Amy Hennessy Neves said she is verifying that the write-in candidates elected to Town Meeting are registered voters in Milford, and that they live in the correct precinct. She said she expected to verify the election results by Thursday afternoon.

A casino rezoning would reach Town Meeting only if the town voters, in a general referendum, approve the request. Milford Selectmen would be the first to vote on the project, if it gets to that point, by negotiating a host community agreement with the casino applicant.

The Town Meeting vote on a rezoning would give the opponents an opportunity to block it. "That's what we're hoping," Eddins said. The Casino Free Milford group learned about the casino application, and organized with a Milford focus, after the deadline had passed for candidates to get their names on the town election ballot.

now called Foxwoods Massachusetts.

featuring 4,725 slots, 125 game tables, and 350 hotel rooms, for a site east of I-495 and north of Route 16.