CUBA, N.Y. — A new business created near Cuba Lake will be ready to open next month, but the Cuba Police Department is still working on ways to handle issues the chief believes will stem from having more business by the lake.
The new business, a Seneca Nation of Indians-owned gaming center, will lead to traffic issues for the community, Cuba police chief Dustin Burch said.
While construction of the new gaming facility is being conducted, the chief is working on a plan to address the potential traffic problem.
Since March, Seneca Construction Management Corp. crews have been constructing a 90-by-50 building on the Oil Springs Territory, a 1-square-mile area on the southwest shore of Cuba Lake.
The structure neighbors the Seneca One Stop store on North Cuba Lake Road, and it is scheduled to open for business July 4.
“The facility is on schedule to open on time. The new employees begin their training on Monday and will go live the day we open,” said Judy Farmer, the gaming site’s administrator. “Security will start working on site next week. Construction is moving right along with no major worries at this time.”
The under-construction building, will serve as a Seneca Nation Gaming & Entertainment facility, housing more than 150 electronic games.
Burch feels that even though this isn’t a full-scale casino, the games there will still draw in crowds seven days a week.
“With there being 150-plus (gaming) machines in the new facility, there’s going to be more people in the area. We are anticipating a huge influx of traffic near and around the lake once it opens,” said the chief, noting their are four roads in the Cuba area that lead to the gaming facility site.
“I’m concerned because we already have a large number of complaints of speeding around the lake, and we don’t quite have the manpower to handle additional traffic. Plus we still have to address our other emergency calls.”
The chief has yet to meet with the Senecas to express his concerns. He said a meeting was supposed to transpire last week, but the Senecas had to postpone it due to scheduling conflicts.
The chief said he hopes the Senecas will provide some financial assistance so the police department can assign enough patrols to handle any issues — not just traffic — that may occur around the lake due to increased activity from the gaming center.
While waiting to meet with the Seneca Nation, Burch said he is also considering the use of money the department has from a Selective Traffic Enforcement Program grant to fund the cost to have one officer dedicated to handling traffic at the Cuba Lake site. Still, he said, even that funding is only a few thousand dollars.
“We’ll have enough funding for one officer to patrol the lake for a four-, six- or eight-hour block, while another officer will have to handle all of our other calls,” said the chief, adding he realizes that might not be enough manpower to handle the influx of traffic, but it’s the best he can do with his 15-officer staff. “In a perfect world, we’d have a bigger budget, but that’s not the case here. We have to deal with this issue with the resources we have.”
In addition to dedicating patrols to that location, the chief said he’s looking for grants to help fund the purchase of solar power radar boards, which would be placed around the lake to track motorist speed. He said he’ll likely make a request for the State Department of Transportation to conduct another traffic study once operations at the gaming center are underway.
“We can’t replace personnel, so we have to look at other options to control traffic,” he said. “I hope to have more information once I meet with the Seneca Nation representatives.”
Burch believes there will be a meeting with the Seneca Nation toward the end of this week or next week.
