Norfolk Daily News

Wednesday – May 14, 2008

Voters favor bringing keno to Norfolk, and that came as a bit of a surprise to Norfolk Mayor Gordon Adams.

“Based on what we had been told from the previous surveys, I guess we were a little surprised it would pass,” Adams said Wednesday morning.

And rather easily, too.

In Tuesday’s primary election, 2,633 people voted in favor of the keno issue, while 1,878 voted against it. That’s a margin of 58 percent to 42 percent.

“I guess, personally, I’m not a gambler, I don’t have any particular strong support for this,” Adams added. “But since there is so much gambling anyway, I think it’s reasonable for the city to reap some of the benefits from it.”

Randy Gates, city finance director, also was surprised — and pleased — by the keno results.

“I personally think that this is a good thing,” Gates said. “We have a lot of recreational needs, and the city, in general, is trying to keep property taxes down.”

When city council members decided to put the keno issue on the ballot, it was decided that the city’s portion of the revenue initially would be earmarked for recreation needs.

Gary Miller, interim city administrator, said Norfolk voters made an excellent choice.

“It’s a wonderful thing,” Miller said. “They will see some improvements in their parks.”

Keno was put to the vote several years ago, Gates said, but failed decisively.

“I speculate people realize we have pressing recreation needs that are going to cost a significant amount of money,” Gates said.

Adams agreed.

“I think the perception is that there are parks and recreation needs. I think they can see the need for this (keno revenue) as opposed to trying to raise the money with taxes,” Adams said.

The city’s share of keno revenue — once operating — will go toward recreation and park improvements in Norfolk for at least four years.

While it’s difficult to predict how much would be raised in Norfolk from keno, city staff have come up with an estimate of $400,000 annually, or $17 per capita, in looking at what has been raised elsewhere.

The revenue will come in handy in light of a new master plan that outlines $6.48 million in possible improvements at Memorial Field and Ta-ha-zouka Park, plus an aquatics center. But the plan includes no mention of how to pay for them.

Now that the issue has passed, the mayor and council will request proposals from keno operators and pick an operator based on the best proposal received. Gates said it will more than likely be on the June city council agenda.

The operator will select a main location in Norfolk. There may be satellite sites, too, where players can make wagers. But number selection will be at the main location.

Neither Adams nor Gates think keno will cause too much of a gambling problem in Norfolk.

“Any problems it would create would be very minimal,” Gates said. “If somebody wants to play keno, I’m sure they’re playing it already in other communities.”

Adams agreed.

“There’s so much gambling available, I can’t see that keno will make any substantial impact on the problems,” Adams said. “I think it was an interesting vote. I’m pleased we did put it on (the ballot) and let the public have its say. That’s a democratic process that worked.”