01:24 PM EDT on Wednesday, April 26, 2006

BY BENJAMIN N. GEDAN
Journal Staff Writer

WEST WARWICK -- Drawing cheers and applause from a packed banquet hall, Harrah's Entertainment's senior vice president, Jan L. Jones, last night rejected Donald Trump's call for competitive bidding on a casino venture, saying Trump had been absent during the years Harrah's negotiated with lawmakers and tweaked its proposal to assuage community concerns.

Referring to a full-page ad Trump published in yesterday's Providence Journal -- featuring his smiling face and signature -- Jones suggested the bidding process had already passed Trump by.

"We have been going through a competitive bidding process for the last eight years. We have been at the legislature. We have put our money where our mouth is," said Jones, a former mayor of Las Vegas. "It's very easy to come at the end and say, 'Oh, I'm serious.'"

Her comments came at the start of a three-hour community meeting Harrah's held last night at the West Valley Inn, on Blossom Street.The event, the most elaborate and detailed presentation the company has offered to townspeople, drew nearly 700 people, most of whom appeared to favor the casino Harrah's wants to build in West Warwick's industrial park.

People munching on ham sandwiches and pastries applauded the Narragansett Indian Tribe's chief sachem, Matthew Thomas, when he entered the ballroom and again when he approached the lectern to speak.

By 7 p.m., volunteer John Santilli Jr., 64, had distributed 800 blue T-shirts promoting the casino, and Harrah's bumper stickers were scattered across the 55 tables. Townspeople who criticized the casino were jeered.

"This is like a rally," Town Council member Peter F. Calci Jr., a casino opponent, said before the event. "It's a pro-casino crowd."

For weeks, the event was advertised as a public forum, with Harrah's officials emphasizing their interest in community input. But Jones did not call for questions until nine speakers had lectured for more than two hours.

Townspeople were squirming as Sebastian Sinclair, president of Maine-based Christiansen Capital Advisors, detailed the methodology of a study of the casino's potential economic impact. And there was only scattered applause when Suzanne Couture, of the Friedmutter Group, a Las Vegas design firm, recalled her childhood in West Warwick.

"Give me a bow and arrow so I can shoot myself," said one man, standing in the back of the hall.

In the presentations, however, Harrah's officials and consultants took great pains to emphasize design modifications they said were made in response to community concerns.

Rob Shaeffer, a Friedmutter Group designer, said the proposed hotel tower had been lowered 60 feet, to 160 feet. The nine-story parking garage, he said, would be farther away from houses than initially planned and would be enclosed in walls that would block headlights and muffle the sound of honking horns and screeching tires.

The casino building itself would be separated from nearby houses by wetlands and a pine grove, Shaeffer said. And the Harrah's sign would include no neon or chaser lights.

"We're doing this as a direct response to the concerns we've heard from council members," Shaeffer said, pausing his slide show at a screen with the heading, "You spoke, we listened!".

Despite uncertainty surrounding casino-enabling legislation in the General Assembly, Harrah's plans appeared thoroughly developed. In the lobby, people were given employment questionnaires and local merchants were asked to pitch their services.

Still, perhaps in response to Trump's efforts in Johnston, Jones last night promised to hold additional community meetings in West Warwick to solicit input on the casino design.

The crowd had noticeably thinned by the end of the formal presentation. But several speakers were not shy about offering their perspectives.

"There are very negative things this project could bring upon us," said Kim Dyer, 45, of West Warwick, warning of skyrocketing crime and plummeting property values in the neighborhood abutting the proposed casino site. "This is a very residential area."

Mark Bourget, 36, who also lives near the industrial park, agreed. "Is there anyone," he asked rhetorically, "who wants a casino built within a half-mile of their home?"