 Right now. And just confirm that we have all of my fellow commissioners. Oh, there we are. I see everyone now. So what we'll do is just confirm our attendance. Commissioner Cameron. Good afternoon. I am present. Commissioner O'Brien. I am here. Thank you. Commissioner Zeneca. Here. Good afternoon, everybody. Commissioner Stevens. I'm here. Good afternoon. Great. Thank you. So, and, um, for the record, this, uh, hearing will be recorded. It will be conducted as you can see virtually. We are subject to the open meeting law and Governor Baker issued an executive order that gave us some relief during the pandemic to conduct our public meetings and hearings. So we're going to go through that. And then we're going to talk about the actual technology like this technology that we've actually been using since March 14th. So we appreciate that relief that was given. As I mentioned, it will be recorded. Um, I, um, Want to. Um, Point out that. Um, I think we're going to be on this public hearing going to. At least six o'clock. And we look forward to the discussion ahead. But first, on behalf of my fellow commissioners, I want to thank you all for joining us in, as I said, this virtual public hearing. This is a session is intended to provide. A public hearing. A public hearing. A public hearing of a category two gaming license. Currently held by playing the gaming and redevelopment LLC. Currently doing business as playing rich part casino. PPC's license. Is subject to renewal after five years of operations. The session will be mostly a listening session for me and my fellow commissioners. No votes. No comments. My fellow commissioners and I to gather information, engage public sentiment. Relative to the renewal application. Commission will be permitted to ask questions of the applicant. Before we hear presentations and comments from state and local elected and appointed officials. Other stakeholders and members of the general public. I would like to add that if we had been able to convene as a group. We would have likely conducted this hearing and playing the state of the art public safety and town hall complex. Funded in part through casino generated gaming revenues generated by PPC. And while the accommodations are very different in light of our adherence to the important COVID-19 guidelines. And I know they would not object very grateful to have such extensive virtual. Participation today. We thank each and every one of you who are attending and contributing to this public session. And to get started now, I'll turn to. Joe Delaney, who has served as our construct project manager, and is now currently overseeing community affairs on behalf of the MGC. I would like to thank Joe Delaney. And of course, his. Assistant. And project manager. Right hand, Mary Thurlow. Thank you, madam chair commissioners. Glad to be here today. Just before we get into the meat of the meeting, I'd like to just spend a couple of minutes. To give you a little bit of a chronology of how we got to where we are today. The planers, part casino requested a renewal of its category two gaming license for an additional five years. And then on February 13th, the gaming commission adopted some renewal procedures. For a category two gaming license. We issued a letter to planers part casino on February 28th. Where we outlined what those renewal procedures were. And also established a timeline for that process. And so that's what we did. Now, of course, on March 15th, 2020. The casinos in Massachusetts were closed. Due to COVID-19. And due to staff furloughs at plain Ridge Park. And just due to the sort of uncertain nature of everything that was going on. It was determined that keeping to that original license renewal schedule wouldn't be possible. So. It was a long process. And so that was the final. Preval of the application. Provides schedule for submission of the application materials. So by early June. Plain Ridge Park had submitted all of the required information for us to start moving forward in the review process. Now, at that point, the commission was deep in discussions on the proper protocols for reopening the casinos. And wanted to defer the discussions regarding the plain Ridge Park re licensing. So under mass general law. Chapter 30 a section 13. It stipulates. That a license will not expire if the applicant has made timely and sufficient application for renewal. But the awarding authority has not acted on that application. So on June 18th, the commission voted to determine that the application was timely and sufficient, which would then allow an orderly process to reopen the casinos and then consider plain Ridge Parks. Re licensing. So it has subsequent agenda setting meeting. The commission agreed on a schedule whereby the suitability portion of the application would be considered in July. And the public hearing and then subsequent public meeting to vote on the license renewal would take place after Labor Day. And on July 8th, 2020, the plain Ridge Park casino reopened to the public. On June 3rd, excuse me, July 30th, 2020, the game and commission held a public meeting to consider the suitability of individual qualifiers and entities, which were approved by the commission. On September 2nd, we issued the public notice for this meeting, which brings us to today. And as the chair mentioned, the primary purpose of this meeting is to receive a presentation by plain Ridge Park casino and to hear from the public. The commission will not deliberate on the matter or make any decisions today. The commission will reconvene on September 30th, 2020 to deliberate on the application and render a decision on the renewal of the license. So at this point, unless there are any questions of me, I'll turn it over to Lance George, vice president and general manager of plain Ridge Park casino to introduce his team. And to make a presentation. Thanks Joe. I think in order of logistics, I think we're trying to figure out or if we can share our screen for the presentation. I just shared a presentation. Can you let me know if you're able to see it? Yes, we're seeing it. Do you want to make it full screen? Yeah, there we go. Excellent. Thank you. Are we, Lance, we are able to see the screen. Are you able to hear us? Okay. I can. Okay. Just get myself. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you, Joe. Good afternoon, everyone. It's certainly great to be here on what is an exciting day for us. As we get started, I did want to take a moment to talk through our approach today. We'll hear from several property representatives who will be introduced throughout the presentation. Also joining us today from our corporate office is Aaron Chandling, a senior vice president of regional operations for Penn National. Each individual will talk briefly, initially providing some highlights related to their specific areas of responsibility over the first five years of operation. And then we'll transition into a broader comments comment period. And then we'll move on to the next five years. And then we'll move on to the next five years. And then we'll move on to the next five years during the next five years where it is potentially on the horizon for the industry. And so with those opening comments out of the way, let's jump right into the slides. There it is. Opening day just over five years ago. I guess five years and three months at this point. Amazing how time flies. Several familiar faces that you'll recognize in this photo of the company. We opened our doors just a few hours later sometime between noon and one, read by a lengthy line on what was a very warm day. I remember significant change over the course of our first five years of operation, the timeline combines some of the more meaningful capital improvements we've made to the property, as well as an indication of when the three additional casinos open in the area. Of course, there's a lot of changes. We have a lot of changes. We have a lot of changes. We have a lot of changes. We have a lot of changes in Massachusetts. And then the third, just over the border in Tilberton, Rhode Island. I won't go through the entire timeline in detail. However, at a high level, some of the more notable changes. Somehow. Shame on us. The property failed to open with a duck and donuts. That issue was remedied in December of 2016. Also when the property opened, the high limited area was sort of an afterthought. In July of 2018. In February of 19, we opened the smash burger, which has turned out to be an operational fit. And certainly well received by our customers. And then there are several dates highlighted related to racing. A couple of the more significant capital improvements in the form of a video display board, paddock renovation, a fencing project, as well as a remodel of the outdoor racing area. And so on the heels of those comments regarding racing, I think it's an appropriate time to turn it over to Steve O'Toole, our director of racing who will provide his thoughts on a few racing highlights over the first summer of our license. And then a quick peek into the next time. Thanks Lance. I'm actually joining the meeting under Jason Gittle. I know we look alike and you can't tell the difference between the two of us, but my, my video wasn't working. So just want to make sure you can see me and hear me under Jason's screen. Thanks Lance for turning it over to me. I'm actually, as Lance stated, we're looking back five years, but I'm actually going to look back six years or so. The racing industry in Massachusetts was in jeopardy of survival. And my slides are going to show the benefit of the, of the gaming license acquired by Penn National to the racing industry. However, at the same time, we had over a hundred employees and also the playing ball community would have suffered greatly the consequences of an intimate closure without gaining that award of the license. So what happened back then, and Plain Ridge was actually the largest taxpayer in the town of Plainville for over a dozen years. And what happened back then was that Penn, Penn National stepped in and they were awarded the applied for or were awarded the racing license for 2014, which contained 80 days that gave our employees and our horsemen some stability for the 2014 year as we were going into the license award. That was the license award year. Penn National actually guaranteed a purse account in 2014 of $2.5 million to the horsemen in the application for that 80 days. The purse account in 2013 was $1.85 million. So that was a guarantee that Penn National had made in that initial year of operating the racetrack. After the award of the class two gaming license and the casino opening, many of our employees transitioned nicely into the casino atmosphere. Our housekeeping people went to EVS. We had people go to facilities, security and food and beverage. The other things too, a lot of the folks got some new roles in finance slots and even ballet. My racing team, which I was very happy stayed intact. We had a few members, some managers and some new officials. And of course, some mutual clerks along the way. But the core racing folks are still with us. I'd like to look at the slide that's on the screen now and just explain a few things about that. Penn National, one of the 11 original applicants did not have a racing license under Mass General 128A and 128C. However, the statutory requirements under the Gaming Act were carried out. As you can see in years 2016, 2017, 2015, 16 and 17 where the gradual ramping up of racing days occurred. That was that story required. And then through the commission and the horseman, we realized that that was a little bit too many days to race and we settled on right around 110 days. You can see the growth of the purses in going from the guaranteed 2.5 million in 2014 all the way to almost $10 million last year, which is great for the people that participate here and work hard in the racing industry. Most importantly, I think that's happened in the past six years has been the impacts seen by the breeding program in Massachusetts. If racing had gone down in 213, 214, these people that have long-term investments in the industry where they set up their breeding and don't realize anything for a few years would have absolutely nowhere to go in 14 and 15 and 16 with the yearlings, the two-year-olds, their three-year-olds. But as you can see in the breeding purses, that ramped up well. And one of the nice things that's happened is we've had a couple new farms spring up in the area. The existing farms are staying in business and the existing farms are actually expanding to some extent. Our handle has also grown and has stabilized nicely. We introduced the spirit of Massachusetts Trot and the Clara Barton Pace over the course of the first five years. Our track has been in great shape and this year, which is actually looking ahead, I guess, but this year we set a world record in the spirit of Massachusetts Trot. Next month I will be applying on the annual basis for our racing license application for 2021. It will include 110 days of racing. That is part of a seven-year agreement that we have with our horsemen to race 110 days each year. That will also guarantee the spirit of Massachusetts Trot for those seven years as well as the Clara Barton Pace. One of the things that we have done in the past few years, and now going forward, we'll be able to do even more with the breeding program tripling in size. We'll be able to showcase more sire steak races and restricted events for those Massachusetts-owned and Massachusetts bred horses, which is really a great thing. The handle is, to continue to grow the handle, we have leaned on the USDA strategic wagering initiatives where they match certain incentives that we put out there to our racing customers here in Massachusetts as well as across the country with guaranteed pools of certain sizes on certain races and certain exotic wagers, as well as jackpot wages, which have really caught on. We have the Wicked High Five that we've been doing. We will continue to do that. We have had jackpots of $48,000 and $37,000. The $37,000 jackpot was hit right here in the building at Plain Ridge, and that's for a 20-cent wager. So it's a pretty good jackpot when we compare it to a 20-cent wager. This year, we've instituted a pick six. We have picked, in the previous wager that I mentioned, that's all within one race. The pick six is six races, and that's for 10 cents. That's been hit several times this year. This is the first year that we've offered that for $2,000 and $3,000 right now. The current fans are just a little bit more than $5,000. So the next time that that gets hit, that'll be the highest that we've paid out on that. As far as the customers and our customer relations, we have rewards cards to earn racing rewards through my choice, similar to what slot players get here at the property. And we also have done some handicapping contests, and we want to continue those contests. I think as the commission knows, we had a pretty aggressive schedule of about a dozen handicapping contests that was approved by the commission, but we weren't able to bring those to fruition this year due to the interruption, but we plan on doing that in the future. I'd like to turn it over now to our head of finance. She helps keep our racing on course financially and also handles the track in the purse account. Her department tracks it, pays out thousands of purse checks to our racing participants every year. We're really grateful for all their help. Our CFO, Dana Fort. Dana, if you could just start again. I couldn't quite hear you. My apologies. Is everything clear now? Much better. Thank you. Perfect. So thank you, Steve, for the introduction. A quick look at the past five years of financial performance. Since 2015, we've generated over 303 million in tax revenue for the state and over 68 million in tax revenue for the resource development fund. Another great success story for Plain Ridge is our partnership with the lottery. We've sold over 15 million in lottery tickets through the opening in 2015. In terms of reinvestment in our facility, we've spent over 7 million in capital expenditures. This includes the purchase of new slot machines, IT hardware and software, improvements to the barns and paddocks and racing, as well as updates to our various FMB outlets. We've met the goals for 2015 through 2019 as set out in our capital expenditure plan. On the bottom half of the slide, you'll see a chart that shows our diverse spend. Penn has made a commitment to diverse spend with a part of our diversity committee being dedicated to our procurement for Meebies, Veebies and Veebies. The commitment has given us the opportunity to build great partnerships with vendors in the Commonwealth and are reflected in these figures. From opening through the first quarter of 2020, we had a total of 29% of qualified spend go to diverse vendors on a goal of 21%. In each individual category, we also met or exceeded these goals. With that, I'll turn it over to our VP of HR, Kathy Lucas, to take a look at employment. Thank you, Dana. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Thank you. During the past five years, we focused on diversity, veterans, women and local talent recruitment. We have achieved this through hosting and attending numerous job fairs, offering recruitment bonuses and center programs and leveraging partnerships with colleges, veteran and diversity organizations. As you can see in the chart, we've exceeded all employment goals with the exception of local hires. Of our team members hired, 66% of our team members hired are from Massachusetts, despite our proximity to Rhode Island. To retain our talent, we have two development programs that help our team members exceed. The first is LEAP, the Leadership Excellence at Penn Program. It's designed for team members interested in building a career in the gaming industry. They gain an understanding of the whole senior operation, manage projects, attain management skills, and they can make a real contribution to our business. We had five team members participate and get promoted in this program since 2018. Our second development program is WLP. Women leading in Penn offers visible female executive and leadership role models. They champion growth and development for women at the property. They create organic mentorships to increase the number of women in leadership, specifically at the manager level on an annual basis. We have partnered with the women's expo, the Chamber of Commerce, and the women's link to bring together to provide opportunities for women to connect, support, and learn from each other's professional growth. Since 2018, we had 30 team members participate and of those, 11 team members got promoted from the program. Next slide, please. As we look forward, the areas of opportunity with PPC are ideal. We want our team members to work happy. We'll continue to focus on recruitment through diversity, veterans, women, and local talent opportunities, along with enhancing the LEAP program and the WLP program that currently exists. We have two exciting initiatives to share. First, Penn National Gaming announced a commitment of at least $1 million annually to support diversity initiatives. At PPC, we'll focus on financing a scholarship fund that helps our underrepresented team members and their children pursue higher education, as well as sponsoring students who need assistance to attend HBCU campus stores, increasing our recruitment efforts and supporting historically black colleges and universities. Family care for our team members is the second initiative. Supporting employee care needs increases productivity, decreases absenteeism, and helps working parents. We sought to find the right way to assist our team members and Care.com offers programs most desired, including child care at home or in daycare centers. The Care.com membership grants unlimited access to a network of caregivers to find ongoing care for children, adults, seniors, pets, and more. Care at work eases employee stress and reduces missed work days by providing high-quality backup care for children and adults during emergencies. Providing the Care.com membership and subsidizing the cost of emergency backup care programs at work allows our team members access to reliable solutions for their family care. Thank you, and I'm going to turn it over to Mike Wheeler, our vice president of operations. Thanks, Kathy. Can everybody hear me okay? Great. Moving ahead to the gaming look backs slide. In the five years since we've been open, we've had a gross win per unit of $418 per day. This is very strong as it compares to the national average of $217 per day. As a part of our property capital spend, we've purchased 180 new slot machines to keep our floor fresh for our patrons. In addition, as Lance mentioned in the introduction, in 2018, we listened to our Highlander players and built a brand new Highlander room and lounge to cater to our top tier guests. Next slide. As we look towards the future of gaming, there are some interesting things happening in the industry. First is the emergence of numerous gaming apps, like the My Choice Casino app, that offers the consumers alternative ways to place their casino and sports betting wagers. Next is some promising technology that's currently in the developmental stages that will allow casino patrons to place sports betting wagers directly from their slot machines while they're playing. And finally, the Hard Rock Casino in Atlantic City has recently debuted live, real money casino slots. It can be remotely accessed, viewed, and played in real time right from the player's home. This is interesting technology. It's brand new. You can see a picture of this gaming space at the Hard Rock on the right-hand side of this slide. Up next, our Director of Information Technology, Jason Giff. Hi, everybody, and thanks for giving me this brief opportunity to speak on behalf of the technology accomplishments at PPC. Everybody tends to think of IT accomplishments in terms of bytes and bits and security. I'm happy to report to the Commission that the past five years I've been looking back have been a pretty good collaborative effort between the PPC technology teams and the mass gaming commission teams, Katrina and her folks. We've been through several larger projects, and some of our successes include deploying the mass gaming commission system of record or a CMS system back in February of 2016. Why is this of note? It should be told that we did this while we were open, which is not the normal course of events between the commission's technology team and the property technology team. We were able to do it with very little interruption or disruption to our patrons, and we considered that a very big victory back then. In June of 2016, Plain Ridge Park launched a scientific game software suite called Pre-Commitment. Eventually, this program was branded Play My Way, and it's a responsible gaming initiative. The application allows the guest to set daily, weekly, and monthly gaming budgets. And I think looking back on the years, three years we've been running it, PPC as a licensee and the commission can really be happy with the interest and the participation level in that program. From a compliance perspective, PPC IT has been through 12 audits, both internal and external, four of which were sponsored by the gaming commission. We have come through. I'm happy to report without finding through those audits. And from a performance perspective, we've enjoyed a 99.5, 9% uptime of all of our financially significant and patron-effacing systems. We're proud of that statistic as it ranks among the highest in the Penn National property family. Next slide, please. Looking forward, the first three bullets are all tied together. The industry trends, we're going this way anyway, but certainly recent pandemic events would point us toward increased contactless, increased cashless, and increased mobile technology. Essentially the contactless product being the elimination of the need for a traditional player's club card. The cashless being the creation of a digital wallet for use across all of Plain Ridge Park's product families. And then the mobile products, you know, Penn National gaming wants to be able to offer its customers access to all its products outside the traditional brick and mortar casino locations. We are involved in opening a property in Morgantown, Pennsylvania, estimated to open back half of 2021. That will be the first of its kind in the Penn National family to deploy all three of those initiatives. Looking forward to that. We've all heard the term geofencing. A lot of folks tend to think of that as a limiting term and a limiting technology, something that would keep a restraints on use of technology and the Penn National team is pressing that in a different direction. Our approach is, it's all about knowing where your customer is, what they like to do the most and being able to offer personalized offers and engage the customer in a better way. So technology trends, looking forward the next five years include, those are some of the highlights. I think Michelle will talk a little bit of that. Michelle Collins is our next speaker. She's our vice president of marketing, Michelle. Thank you, Jason. As we move on to the next slide, we want to talk about all of our community contributions. From day one, Plain Ridge Park has been committed to supporting local charities in the community. Upon commencement of the casino, Plain Ridge donated revenues from our opening events to several local charities. Some of these include Plain Ridge Emergency Relief Fund, Personal Best Charity, the Turkey Brigade, Lenore's Pantry, and the Veterans Fund in Mansfield. This was the only beginning, this was just the beginning of the many great relationships we would build over the next five years, resulting in supporting over 100 charities within our local community. To date, we have donated over 700,000 in cash donations. In addition, Plain Ridge has sponsored various events, banquets, comedy shows, fund-readers, and charity drives at the property along both team members and our guests to participate in these great causes. Just a few of the highlights that we've done include the comedy supporting the New Hope Foundation, which creates communities free of violence and exploitation, the Dine-Around supporting Lenore's Pantry, and of course, Steve O'Toole's favorite, the Polar Plunge, where team members and their families literally plunge into the cold bitter water of Lake Pearl in early spring. As we move into 2020, we are excited about the new ways to give back. Our most recent initiative will allow guests to choose to round up their Tito ticket and select from four different charities during the transaction at the Ticket Redemption Unit. In addition, in honor of today being National Backpack Day, Plain Ridge is currently hosting a backpack drive that will support the North Attleboro school systems. On this next slide, it highlights the important partnerships and relationships established through the last five years. Our continued focus has been to partner with key players that allow us to leverage our proximity to some of the largest attractions in Massachusetts and New England. Because Plain Ridge has limited amenities, it was very important to us to create an experience for our guests. We were able to accomplish this through various cross-marketing efforts with Fenway, Nessun, Patriot Place, Rentham Outlets, and TPC Boston. Whether it was a gift card giveaway, a concert package, or a VIP experience to a New England sporting event, we were able to create an unforgettable experience for all of our guests. These relationships have allowed us to expand the value of My Choice Loyalty card, creating New England experiences, not only for our local guests, but also for the My Choice database, bringing customers from the Midwest to the West Coast. Other highlights that are important to mention in our continued support is with Game Sense and their effort to ensure to continue to play responsibly. Game Sense staff and knowledge was crucial during the launch of Play My Way in 2016. Their assistance in educating staff and guests on how to use this innovative budgeting tool made the transition seamless, particularly because we were the first and only casino to offer to guests. We continue to work closely with Game Sense on efforts around Responsible Gambling Week and other initiatives showing our support. And in fact, this week happens to be Responsible Gambling Education Week, so we are working together and all of the staff is walking around with the t-shirts supporting this effort. Another great partner has been the Massachusetts Lottery. Over the last several years, we ran a promotion called Winning Wednesdays. Through this cross-marketing opportunity, we were able to offer something to our guests we knew they would love, and also to promote the latest and greatest scratch tickets available from the Mass Lottery. A few other highlights include us acquiring Pinnacle, Margaritaville, and Guicetown. These acquisitions expanded our portfolio to over 40 properties across the United States. Following the acquisition, Penn Properties adopted the My Choice Loyalty card, which brought new benefits to our guests that we couldn't previously offer, including converting MyCash into free slot play directly at the slot machine. As we approach the next five years, Plainage will continue to work with all the various sponsorships, as well as identify more cross-marketing opportunities. The continued support and relationships from local chambers and tourism will be important to continue to identify synergies and develop programs to promote tourism in Massachusetts. We want to create robust programs that encourage visitation from border to border within the state, as well as gaining back any lost revenue from out of state. In January of this year, Penn announced an agreement with Barstool Sports, a leading digital sports media company. Barstool is a well-known brand with deep roots in sports betting, which will enable us to attract a new younger demographic. Over the next few months, properties will also be launching a My Choice app for our card holders. This is what Jason Gittle was speaking of earlier. This will allow us to target our My Choice guests so that they are receiving the offers that they prefer. We can communicate quickly and they can keep track of everything directly from their mobile device. In addition, we will be introducing a flipbook this month that will eventually replace the need to send direct mail pieces for those guests who prefer digital or contact-free offers. Over the next few months, we look forward to working with the town of Foxboro on the Economic Development Fund that was recently passed and to support the local towns. As we head into the next five years, our focus will continue to support the great partnerships we have built as well as identify new ones. This concludes the presentation, so now we would like to open up to any questions. We could take down the PowerPoint. That's great. Thank you. Okay. So at this point, we will open up for questions from the commission first, and then after that is done, we will open up to the public. Okay. Excellent. Commissioner, can I have a, if you have a question, good commissioners and guys, see your hand. Let me get started. Thank you. Madam Chair, and thank you to the team at Penn for this great overview. If I could go back briefly to the, one of the first slides, we don't have to get there, but where Steve O'Toole talked about the handle, that, you know, the years, the numbers in the years, the handle stabilized a little bit, even though the purses grew a little bit more. If you could speak a little bit more about what you see going forward for the next five years. We've talked about, you've talked about how competition from the other two casinos in Massachusetts might have an effect on, on those purses by way of the revenues. What do you expect to see for the next five years for the racing? Thank you commissioner for the question. The, as you can see on the slide, if you have a copy of the slide in front of you, in 2014 where we raced 80 days, our handle, our total handle was $7.6 billion and that grew as the days grew. And now we extend as you know, as you actually noted, we stabilized at 110 days and around $20 million in handle each year. That's actually pretty good for, for right now and for the caliber of horses that we're racing right now. I always would love to see that handle a little bit higher and the Lance would appreciate that as well on the bottom line. But as these purses grow and we have more and more competitive horses coming and better quality horses coming, I think we have the opportunity to, to really showcase that as well as those, those gimmick wages that we've been doing with the jackpots and everything. Those have seemed to have paid off. We started that in, in late 2017, carried it through 18 and 19. Those seem to have really captured, not just here at Plain Ridge, but across the country that seems to have captured the imagination of a lot of the betters. And I know it doesn't sound like it's a big wager. It's 10 and 20 cent wagers, but no one bets five horses just once in one scenario. And they tend to spend about, you know, four or five, six dollars per wager using all different combinations and all the different ways that they, that they go. So we're hoping to work as I, as I mentioned before, the USTA has a lot of programs out there that really help with guaranteed pools and things like that. And we've been a little bit creative with the jackpots and we continue to do that. And our pick six is starting to grow now. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. Just one, one quick, one more quick question for miss Lucas. The, in your presentation, Kathy, you are mentioned some great diversity initiatives for those at the property level or at the company level. Great question there. They're both. So for the company level, the $1 million commitment. Where the at least $1 million commitment will cover scholarships, also participation in local organizations that are looking at equity and freedom. And then finally diversity amongst minority businesses at the property level here at PPC. I spoke to the scholarship support for our team members and their families. And then also a commitment to getting locals to experience the HBCU universities. We don't have any here in the market. So getting them there on the campus tours will allow us to support that. Thank you. Commissioner Cameron. Yes. I just really had a comment. Not a question. And that is, you know, listening to the presentation. It really does remind me of that. National really has been a good partner. They have been charitable. It's nice. They've been responsive to the. To their patrons. Talking about some of the changes they've made, whether that be food. Preferences or. High limit. Slots play. Really. I think the women. Leadership program has been effective. And the other mentoring program. So I just, they have been responsive to the needs of the commission, frankly. And I just wanted to comment that the presentation just reminds us of all of those things. And they have been good for the Commonwealth, frankly. So thank you. For that presentation and the good work over the years. Thank you. Commissioner Stevens or commissioner. Brian. Thank you, madam. Jump in just a couple of quick questions. First to Michelle. And I think she answered this, but if she can just clarify it for me, if she was going through the timeline. You talked about a number of sponsorships, relationships that you started and thinking of, you know, the Fenway concert series and a few others. And I think you might have stated that some of those partnerships and sponsorships are ongoing. Can you. Give me an idea of whether that's the case. And when you talk about some of those, they're still ongoing kind of a percentage wise. And I think you might have stated that. I think that's the case. I think that's the case of whether that's the case. And when you talk about some of those, they're still ongoing kind of a percentage wise, even of those relationships that you continue to maintain. The majority are ongoing. And if they're not currently ongoing, it's really just because we're waiting to find out what happens with the sporting events. So we're going to be doing the Fenway concert series again. We're going to be doing the Fenway concert series again. And then we're going to have a really new partnership where we can bring our players over to do golf outings. We're still with rent them outlets, still with Patriot play. So we have continued those relationships. Again, it's just that we've had to kind of tweak them a little bit, giving the time that we're in. Sure. The other question, Michelle, just real quick. As you know, the commission through the community mitigation plan was applied for and use some reserve money by Fox pro, but obviously includes plain bill and rent them. Just curious as to whether you've seen the plan, whether you've had some thoughts on it, or any comments you want to share as you, as you guys look ahead to the next five years, if the licenses renew. Yeah, sure. I've been in contact with Christina Papas. I think that's how you say your name who is working on the plan right now and creating the different avenues of it. So we've been meeting periodically over the last few months since, since I, we came back to work and she's been sharing the idea she has. She kind of bounced them off of me and, and we're making sure that we're including all the different areas so that they have input. Okay. Thank you very much. Sure. Commissioner Brian, do you have a question? I don't have a question, more a comment that obviously this is the prior promise probably put together at a time that where we thought we were going to be dealing with this before we went into shutdown and modified conditions on reopening, but I did want to also comment on the responsiveness that the licensee has shown in terms of reopening the creativity and the relationship with us as regulators in terms of the give and take in doing getting them open, but also acknowledging our responsibility under that. I think Derby day was a good example of finding creative ways to keep going, but keep going in a manner that's safe. So it's not something that's covered in this presentation, but I did also want to give a nod to the efforts that they've been doing in that regard. Just a comment. More than a question. I'll just add this really the same comment is that I wanted to understand in this venue. My appreciation for the collaborative relationship that PPC demonstrated throughout the difficult moments of both closing down in sort of a fast responsible fashion and then really working with us as partners to ensure a safe and sustainable reopening. And to commissioner of Brian's point, you exhibited really a sense of understanding of our responsibility as regulator. And you put in place the tools that allowed you to comply with our standards and yet really operate open and operate successfully. And for that, we congratulate you. I also just want to note that really when I, when I look back at your employment numbers in terms of the goals that were established, you know, they, you exceeded them all and they were rigorous goals. You was it one exception. And just to be, to note, you know, it's a 30, we had a 35% goal for local hire. 31% was achieved in at a time when unemployment was very, very low. So it was a tough, it was tough to reach out. I think you, you know, as operations continue to ramp up in the public health metric shift, you'll have new opportunities for hiring. So I don't need for you to answer this now, but we look forward to, to when we do reconvene in the future for our further licensing overview hearing, you know, what your hopes are for achieving again high standards on diversity. And as well as Massachusetts and local hire, we, you know, I must say, when you look at your numbers, 303 million revenues been generated for the tax purposes for the benefit of the Commonwealth. I think that actually is just short of 50% of the tax revenues that have been generated all together. So as we reflect on the expanded gaming act as an economic development bill, and we see those revenues who have, you have accomplished that piece as well as we see these employment numbers. We know that you were very mindful about the underlying goal of the expanded gaming act. So I look forward to hearing what, you know, what you will, how you will address the challenges going ahead as members of employees ramp up. And you continue to work toward those goals. But again, I would just echo Commissioner Cameron's and Commissioner O'Brien's comments that you have been very collaborative partners. And congratulations on the past successes. And I also fully appreciate the, the technological goals that you're hopeful can be implemented in the future. So with that, Joe, do we, how do you, what's our next step? Unless commissioners do you have anything else that you want to add? Okay. And again, we will have the ability to ask more nuanced questions in our full commission meeting on the re-licensure steps going forward. This is a chance for us to hear from others. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, chair. So going forward now, we're going to open this up to public input. And what we're planning on doing is going in the following order, legislators first host community representative second surrounding community representatives third and impacted live entertainment venues, other organizations. And finally, the general public. We do have a list of about I think 24 people, 23 or 24 people who have registered to speak. So we'd ask folks to please keep their comments to five minutes or less, if at all possible, just in interest of time. And I do have one request if, if it pleases the chair, Bill Keegan from the town manager from Foxborough has another commitment and he is asked to be taken out of order. So since we're actually running a couple of minutes ahead, I thought we could, I see him on the screen here. I thought we could get him right in so he can get to his other appointment. So thank you. Thank you very much. If it pleases the committee, I'll be happy to proceed now. Just want to say thank you to the commission for allowing me the opportunity to speak this afternoon in support of playing with Park Casino. We feel that they have been a terrific partner for the community of Foxborough. And so they've actually served as an anchor for route one on both ends of the spectrum. So we have, we have Foxborough. We have Gillette Stadium at one end. We also have, you know, the Plainville Casino at the other end. And we have Rentham Village in between. So we've worked very collaboratively with, with Foxborough, with, with Plainville, Rentham and the Casino to actually work on a, on a plan that will actually help market this region as a tourism destination for obvious reasons, because of the things that go on here in this region. So we appreciate the fact that the commission actually funded a study, which was finalized, I think the, the first phase of the study was completed by June 30th. We're not working on the second phase of that right now, which is to help market the region and to put information on websites, et cetera, to give the, the era more exposure. We think it's a key piece of the regional economy. And we were grateful for the fact that we have a collaborative relationship with Plainridge and with our communities that surround us and helping to make this region a very successful economic area and an economic engine for this part of the portion of the state. So we just say thank you. And I, and I'll conclude my comments with that. We just want to say thank you for the opportunity to speak and for the appreciation of the Plainridge-Casino partnership. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Mr. Keegan. So next up, we have the state legislators. Senator Rauch also does have an early conflict. So we decided to take our senators first. So I guess we'll lead off with Senator Rauch and then followed by, followed by Senator Feeney, who I think I've seen both on the screen at this point. So Senator Rauch. Thank you so much. I also just saw Senator Feeney's face pop up. My friend and colleague in the Senate and, and office mate, at least when we were in offices. And thank you again for inviting me to testify today. I am here to support the relicensure of Plainridge-Park-Casino. As you know, and as you've heard during today's hearing, Plainridge is a really critical part of our community's economic infrastructure, especially for the host community of Plainville. Plainville, excuse me, Plainridge also supports the surrounding communities with jobs and economic development, including several of the towns in my district, not only Plainville, but also North Adelboro, Rentham, Franklin, and the city of Adelboro. The economic impact also stretches to additional parts of my district due to the support that Plainridge provides for the standard bred horsing industries. Many of the horse farms in my district are supported by the park's operation. And the presence of Plainridge strengthens these additional local economies as well. Further, public revenue generated from Plainridge-Park is very important. Plainville was able to build a completely new town hall and public safety building because of Plainridge. And I have to tell you on a personal note, it's beautiful, absolutely beautiful, stunning. The whole complex is just phenomenal. The library is right there. It's really, it's really fantastic. And that was all made possible because of Plainridge. And further, the revenue that might otherwise go out of state stays right here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because of Plainridge. So I just want to offer my, again, my support for a relicensure. And I want to thank the commission and all of our commissioners for your thorough review of the relicensing process. I very much appreciate your time today. Thank you so much for having me and thank you for taking me out of turn. Thank you, Senator. I guess next we will go on to Senator Feeney. Great. Just thank you, Senator. We appreciate your remarks very much. Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you again for having me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. And I want to thank you, Madam chair and to your staff and through you to the rest of the commissioners. I know it has been a challenging few months for everybody. And I can't imagine the amount of work that you've had to do. You know, to ensure a safe reopening and to make sure that we had a thriving, you know, gaming environment over these last few months. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all the work that you've been doing. We just heard from Senator Rauch who actually represents a lot within the borders of my district. I will tell you that I really want to take this opportunity to perhaps give a little bit of a regional perspective. Just like we heard from town manager Bill Keegan, a good friend and colleague. And often my testimony in full support of relicensing for Plain Ridge Park. As a legislator who focuses intently on job creation and economic development in and around my district, it must be noted that over the last five years, Plain Ridge Park has been one of the largest sources of new activities in the greater out of our region. And I see Jack Lang from our chamber of commerce is on here as well. And I think he can testify to that fact that there has been an enormous amount of job growth because of Plain Ridge Park. In fact, I'm joining you today at my house here in Foxboro in the heart of the nine cities and towns that I represent and where many of the Plain Ridge employees call home. In addition to jobs though, Madam chair, members of the commission, other meaningful economic benefits of Plain Ridge have been materialized over the years. While a lot of those negative impacts that were predicted by some never did materialize. As a local legislative delegation, we have been discussing master plans for the entire area. And I think we heard a little bit about this earlier, including transportation, cohesive branding and marketing strategies, tourism revenue and a host of other issues. All of these potential plans though include Plain Ridge Park casino, which is vital to generating direct trips to Plain Ridge Park. Plain Ridge Park has been one of the most well known as well surrounding restaurants, hotels, businesses and other venues. And beyond the positive economic activity that we enjoy with the success of Plain Ridge. I can tell you firsthand how important the facility is to its local charities and the staff, how supportive the staff has been to local charities. There are countless amount of times I've been to charitable functions and banquets and fundraisers. And I think we've heard from local organizations that have been supported by Plain Ridge and other ways. As you may know, Madam chair and I know we've been promising kind of a racing modernization bill for a while. And I promise you we will get to that point, but the racing industry is one that is close to my heart for many reasons. Chief among them is a sustainability of our agricultural industry. Senator Roush testified to the fact that many of the farms that lie within her district job opportunities on both sides and the preservation of open space in our communities. Prior to Plain Ridge horse racing in all its forms was on life support. Now we have a thriving standard bread industry and related mass bread breeding program that is a direct result of Plain Ridge's support for racing. We cannot let that die. And it's vital that the good work and positive impact to our local businesses, neighboring communities, the racing industry and its workers that has been realized as a result of Plain Ridge Poccasino continues, but also thrives. There is no doubt that this pandemic will have profound and lasting impacts on millions of Massachusetts citizens and the way business has been done. Plain Ridge is likely to be extremely affected, which is a source of great concern to me in the area delegation. However, I can tell you, and I think you all testified to this a moment ago, that they have been forthright, honest and transparent with the legislative delegation as they have with the regulatory body as they try and forge a path through the most recent challenge. From local staff to Penn National Executives, they have kept me informed and engaged and should be an example for businesses in every sector. Madam Chair, I know that the commission and the legislature cannot control the public health environment that has become an enormous challenge for Plain Ridge and all the other gaming establishments. What we can do, however, is to ensure that we are putting Plain Ridge, a known and trusted entity in the best position to succeed in the months and years ahead. And though this probably is a little bit out of scope for today's hearing, Madam Chair, I think it's important to note that Plain Ridge already competes with one hand tied behind its back as the gaming landscape in our region has changed in recent years. As we compete for players in revenue that crosses our border, each state of it is a twin river or a Newport grant. It is not lost to me that any long-term strategy for continued success at PPC must include expanded opportunities in the fall and table games. And while I'm optimistic that sports betting will be helpful to Plain Ridge, if we can get that done in the legislature sometime soon, we see the need to expand its competitive resources in order to protect Massachusetts jobs and revenues. So with that, Madam Chair and members of the commission, presuming that Plain Ridge is re-licensed, which again, I fully support, I look forward to working with all of you in the weeks and months ahead to maximize the benefits that can be realized by the legislature's vision years ago and by your expert stewardship since day one. So thank you again for the opportunity to testify and support Plain Ridge today. And thank you again for all the work that you're doing on behalf of the Commonwealth in extremely difficult and challenging times. Thanks so much. Thank you, Senator. And thank you. We look forward to seeing you in person hopefully the next time sooner than later. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Okay, so we're two for two. That's good. This is going to be the most challenging part of our hearing. So we're going to move on to house members. I am not. Seeing. Names of most of these folks. I'm going to have to see if, you know, if they're calling in. Representative Roy is here. Okay. Yeah. All right. So first on my list. I, it's representative. She on the line. Okay. Did you have a phone number? Are you expecting her to appear? I do know that representative Roy also has a little bit of a time issues. So representative Roy, I just want to make sure you're okay. In terms of our timing. Are we all right? Joe's still on that. Yeah. Okay. Good. Okay. Madam chair. It might be helpful to remind folks on the, on the phone. If they hit, if they hit, if they hit, if they hit, if they hit, if they hit, if they hit, if they hit, if they hit, if they hit, if they hit, if they hit, if they hit, if they hit, if they hit star six to unmute. Because they may not remember they have to unmute. Right. Because it's helpful for everyone else to mute. And so if you want to unmute tri star six. That usually works. Okay. I think we should go on to the next. Okay. Well, well, since we have representative Roy here, why don't we start there? That makes it a little easier. Excellent choice. I, Thank you. Thank you. I solidly affirm that decision. Madam Chair and members of the commission, I want to thank you for the opportunity to be here today in support of the relicensing of the Plain Ridge Park Casino. And I'd really like to echo the sincere thoughts of my colleagues and local officials. Indeed, every community around the casino has benefited beyond direct new employment as a result of economic activity that Plain Ridge drives to local hotels, restaurants, and retail venues. In my district, Franklin, we have over 30 residents who are employed at Plain Ridge. And we have seen many businesses, including a brand new hotel that is being constructed in the middle of this pandemic. And these types of businesses have opened their doors in order to serve patrons from Plain Ridge Park. And Plain Ridge, as Senator Feeney pointed out, has been a great neighbor, supporting many charitable entities and stepping up to the plate to help out. The facility has also contributed to some great infrastructure improvements in the area. And I know that Senator Rausch pointed out the public safety facility, but the roadways around that facility have been greatly improved. And finally, I wanna state that the impact on the racing industry itself cannot be overstated. Prior to Plain Ridge, it was on life support. And now, five years later, we have a thriving standard bread breeding program that is directly because of this facility support for racing. And the breeding program is a lifeline to many farm owners in my district. I didn't even know we had as many forced breeders in my district until Plain Ridge came into being. And these folks would otherwise be unable to continue to support themselves and their families in the agricultural industry. The success is also preserving some vast stretches of precious open space in our area. And seeing this racing industry stabilize and now thrive again is a benefit to everyone in the Commonwealth. And it's very much attributable to the foresight of the legislature, Speaker DeLeo, and of course, your work on the commission. The negative impact that was predicted by opponents so many years ago is simply not materialized. We haven't seen any increases in crime or traffic accidents or other negative social problems. It's vital that the good work and the good things that have happened as a result of the Plain Ridge opening continue and so I'm here today to offer my support for the re-licensing of this asset to our community. I also want to somewhat highlight something that Senator Feeney touched upon and we know that the pandemic has and will continue to have profound and lasting impacts on millions of Massachusetts citizens. And Plain Ridge is also likely to be extremely affected by this pandemic which is a great concern to all of us in the delegation. I know the commission has little control of how effectively Plain Ridge will be able to compete in this new environment, but it would be remiss of me to not mention it. This is a regional gaming market that's ever changing and extremely competitive and we have intense competition from two casinos right over the Southern border in Rhode Island and as Senator Feeney pointed out, Plain Ridge is already competing with one hand tied behind its back and it's the only casino in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that's actively fighting against businesses on its border. We certainly anticipate that Rhode Island is gonna try to recover jobs and revenue by aggressively competing against Plain Ridge. So we'll need to address that issue at some point. We're optimistic that sports betting will be helpful to Plain Ridge and we're looking to expand all competitive resources to protect Massachusetts jobs and Massachusetts revenues. So presuming that Plain Ridge is re-licensed, we look forward to working with you on this issue. And again, thank you for the opportunity to be here. I'm happy to provide any additional information in support of the re-licensing of Plain Ridge. Thank you so much. Thank you, Representative. Thank you so much for appearing. Thank you. Hello, everyone. This is Representative Correa. Oh, thank you. Excellent. You're up. Oh, thank you very much. I didn't wanna presume. Thank you. Thank you, Representative. First of all, thank you so much for the legislators who have spoken before me all very profound and we certainly share the best wishes about Plain Ridge Park and everything that it has to offer. I represent all of the town of North Attleboro, one precinct in Attleboro and two in Mansfield. And we have been a tremendous beneficiary as having the largest number of employees at Plain Ridge Park from North Attleboro, which is just an amazing thing. And I'm very, very grateful for it. Every community around the casino has definitely benefited and the negative impact that was predicted by opponents has really never been realized. There are no increases of crime, traffic accidents. There's nothing negative that we can say about Plain Ridge. You've heard most of this before, but I can't tell you the impact that the racing has had on all of the hay farms and the horse breeders, which are very prevalent in our area. And if Plain Ridge hadn't materialized, all of those places would have gone out of business or moved away. And it is such a benefit to our area to have all of this open space and this wonderful activity going on. You know, prior to Plain Ridge, as you heard, the town of Plainville probably had so many difficulties at the time. And you have provided so much benefit to the town. And I can't tell you the impact the charitable giving has had. I did hear Michelle mention some of them. They are presently doing a backpack drive, which is benefiting foster children as many of them have been wiped out of homes during this pandemic. And this charitable endeavor to supply them with some new clothes and new school supplies and backpacks is just an amazing thing. And I am so grateful to have been able to have this partnership with Plain Ridge, who have been so willing to take some of these programs on. I certainly look forward to them being re-licensed. And as you have already heard, expanding some of the things that they do, certainly the sports betting. And I am eagerly, as well as my colleagues, looking forward perhaps to the table games and being able to be a real competitor with the gambling casinos and so forth which are south of Boston and other states. So I commend them for everything they've done over the past five years. And I thank the commissioners for their wisdom in giving them the ability to do that and certainly hope you will continue their great service and presence in our communities. It has been nothing but good. And they have my high praise for how they've conducted themselves and how they've contributed to the area. And I appreciate the opportunity to be able to tell you just what an impact they've had on our area. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Corrier. Thank you so much. Yes, thank you. So why don't I give you the next sort of three in a row just so people know where they are if they're on deck or whatever. So the next up I have is Representative Barrows and then after that Representative Howitt and then after that Representative Dooley. So if Representative Barrows is on the line and he has star six to unmute if you're on the phone. Okay, well, why don't we full circle back I guess. Representative Howitt, Representative Dooley. Yes, I'm here. Thank you very much. Can you hear me? Thank you. Yes. Thank God Howitt and Barrows aren't here because there wouldn't be anything left to say after following the other legislators. Thank you very much for having me on and obviously I'm speaking strongly in support of the licensed renewal. I actually represent Plainville along with surrounding communities, Rentham, Norfolk, Millis, Medtilde, and Walpole. I don't want to reiterate what everyone else has already said about our sports book and table games and what the advantages financially to our community but what I wanted to kind of touch on is what a great partner Plain Ridge has been to the town of Plainville. Throughout their five years being here, they have done a ton of community service projects whether it's sponsoring the King Philip graduation night ceremonies and the sleepover to keep kids safe and off the streets and things along those lines to providing a food drive every year, doing contributions around Thanksgiving and around Christmas to local charity and they've done all of this without being asked. They reach out to me, they reach out to the town and say, what can we do to help? We've heard about this issue. We know we have this opportunity. What can we do? Please let us know and that has really been a great partner and even during this pandemic, obviously they were in a really tough bind and like most people were and they went, even though they didn't need to make the payments as quickly as they did and to get caught up, they came to the town and said, what can we do? We know you guys are struggling. We're able to do this right now. I know we have this as our plan. We wanna pay, get caught up earlier to make sure that the town is better off going into the fall, to make sure that they're able to bring some teachers back, make sure that we're able to continue to pay for our public safety building. During the middle of the pandemic, while they were completely shut down, they, I held a, I partnered with various farmers of America and did milk giveaways throughout across the state and Plain Ridge opened up their parking lot and their staff came out and helped man this for me. They actually catered breakfast for all the volunteers and the National Guard troops who were giving milk away and were able to give away 2,500 gallons of milk to people within the community. So those are the sort of things that they're able to do and they've done consistently. Whenever there's a need, they step up and they're there and so they're really a good neighbor and a good partner and a good friend and I think that is crucial and I think that is what we want out of our businesses that they're not just businesses, plop down within our community and using our resources. They're also a, they're truly a member of the community. As everyone has stated, we have a tremendous amount of employees that actually live in my communities that work at Plain Ridge and it is a very, very positive environment. And I guess the other area I'd like to speak on is I'm also serving on the Plain Bill fire department. And so from a public safety standpoint, I can say besides the fact that they've provided a tremendous amount of money and other supplies and things along those lines for our new public safety building, there hasn't been any of the negative impacts. We have, we're not having all the doom and gloom projections that were some of the naysayers talked about beforehand. So it has been very, very positive. We have members of Plain Ridge Fire there. Basically 24 hours a day when they're open, doing EMT support. And obviously whenever the track is going, we have members there providing medical support for race day as well. And they've just been really, really good. I mean, whatever we need, whatever they can do to help, they're very proactive. We meet with their leadership constantly and they say, all right, what are we doing good? What are we doing bad? What can we improve upon? What are your thoughts? And they really, they truly take it to heart as opposed to a lot of other companies that just kind of give lip service. So I would say my takeaway from it all and what I'd like you to really understand is what a valuable member of our community they have become. And so I would, for no other reason, there's a million other reasons which all the other legislators will talk about. But I think that from a personal nature, from the willingness to be a good steward and a good partner and a good friend and a good, actual true member of our community, that's so important on, and it crosses so many different levels. And I know many people who were originally opposed to it that have been pleasantly surprised and are like, you know what? I didn't think it would be good. It has been great. And they go above and beyond. So thank you very much. And thank you. We appreciate your comments. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. So we had two other representatives on our list that we were not expecting to be here again. I just wanna make sure that, because we don't have everybody on video that they indeed are not here. So we had representative Hawkins and representative Soder or either one on the line. And Josh, should we also go back to representative Barrows and representative Hallett? And again, star six should unmute you. We don't have. And if there are any other representatives or senators who may have patched in would be happy to hear from you at this point. Okay, I guess none appearing. So the next segment is hearing from host community representatives from the town of Plainville. We have with us. Is somebody trying to be heard? Okay, so we have with us the chair of the board of selectman, Brian Kelly, the town administrator, Jennifer Thompson, chief of police, James Alfred and the chief of the fire department, Justin Alexander. I guess we'll start with the chair of the board of selectman, Brian Kelly and I will turn it over to you, Brian and you can just lead into your other folks. Thank you very much. Thank you, madam chair and members of the commission for your time today and for the opportunity to testify in support of the relicensing of our friends and partners at Plain Ridge Park. Five years ago, this commission made a very wise decision when you awarded Penn National Gaming Commonwealth's first casino license. It's hard to believe that it's been five years already and a big reason it's hard to believe it's been five years is because of how much positive activity and what a positive addition they've been to our community. Time flies when you're having fun here in Plainville. There hasn't been any negative impact to our town, our county or our community since the grand opening in 2015. And as you will hear shortly from our public safety leaders here in Plainville, there has been virtually zero negative impact to Plainville during this time. Prior to the casino being approved, there are many opponents touting a massive social disruption, fears of traffic crime and decreased home values seem to cloud the judgment of many at that time. Traffic at this busy intersection on Route 495 is better today as a result of the improvements paid by the casino to mitigate impacts than it was before the casino opened. Public safety has seen virtually no impact and property values are at all time highs. As was mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, revenue generated from our host community agreement has allowed us to build and bond a new state of the art municipal complex being able to complete a project of this magnitude without requiring an increase in the residential commercial tax rates is almost unheard of. And I believe it to be the first in the Commonwealth. What has happened during the last five years in Plainville as a result of your decision has been nothing but positive for our town and truly a gift. Hundreds of new jobs have been created, a legacy industry in the Commonwealth, horse and harness racing has been revitalized, bringing not just economic growth of farms, suppliers and vendors, but preserving a vast amount of open space that benefits every resident of Massachusetts. Millions in tax dollars in economic activity have been injected into the region and just as importantly, millions have been repatriated from Rhode Island. Plain Ridge, especially prior to the pandemic's impact has evolved into a major entertainment destination source in the region that has sought to bring thousands of patrons to our hotels, restaurants and retail venues. Plainville and our surrounding communities all directly benefit from the additional local tax receipts as a result of this increased economic activity. There's no understatement to say that your decision five years ago truly was game changing. We want to acknowledge that, not only was your decision wise, but that your stewardship of this industry and the partnership that exists between the town of Plainville, the Massachusetts Game Commission and Penn National Plain Ridge is what truly made this work. There is no ambiguity here. Your standards are rigorous, our expectations are high and this operator meets this operator and this property meet and exceed them both. This is why it is with great enthusiasm that we all collectively urge you to once again, validate that decision and hope that you will re-license this facility. Before I close, I'd like to make you aware of our concern for the future. I fully understand that much of our future concern is beyond the direct control of the commission at this time. However, it's not often as a town you get this opportunity and I'd like to clearly communicate the potential future issues that are keeping us up at night. We know that this pandemic has ravaged so many lives and that so much of our economy has been impacted. It is bound all through the future in ways that we cannot anticipate, but also in some ways that we can't anticipate. For example, we know that the race will be on to restore jobs and recover revenue once the local economy is able to fully reopen and current safety protocols become unnecessary. The Commonwealth will seek to do that and so will our neighboring states of Rhode Island and Connecticut. From where we sit on the Rhode Island border, our eyes are just as much on what Twin River is doing and is allowed to do, whereas they are on what Plain Ridge is doing and more to the point what it's not allowed to do. It is to the credit of everyone involved that Plain Ridge has been as successful as it has been while being limited by law in its competitive resources that are at its disposal. It's the only casino in the Commonwealth that is fighting a two-front war on the border. We understand that the laws that set this industry here in Massachusetts were written this way and everyone knew the rules before we all got started, but the world has changed a lot since then and will be changing even more in the months and years ahead as everyone struggles to recover from a pandemic. When things are finally in place to fully reopen, it would be ideal if we were in a position to create even more jobs, repatriate even more revenue from Rhode Island and be at a level of competitive footing by direct competition to the South. Plainville's beautiful new municipal complex that was built without an additional taxpayer dollar that was paid for through a bond that was entered into, which was predicated on some very conservative financial forecast of Plain Ridge's performance. Given the increased competition from the South, margins being compressed and the impact from the pandemic loss of revenue, it's been more severe that we kind of even could have predicted. If the full reopening is met with a whimper rather than a roar, our community might may find itself in a very perilous financial predicament given the bond that we've entered into. We know that much of this is behind your control today, but we did want to take the opportunity during this public forum to communicate our fears and concerns about being able to compete in the future with respect to current laws, regulations, and guidelines that are in place. We have world-class partners in Penn National Gamer who have had such a positive impact on our community. We humbly ask for your support and approval of the current license renewal, and we hope that when the time is right to expand, we have your support there as well. Thank you all very much for your support to this point and your time today and your continued support for the future growth of our local economy here in Norfolk County. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Thank you. So Jennifer Thompson, town administrator is next. Thank you. Thank you, Joe. And thank you, Madam Chair and members of the commission. It's great to see all of you, although I do look forward to seeing you in person once again at our beautiful town hall. So I look forward to the day that we can have you back there and hold our meetings there. I'd like to echo some of Selectman Kelly's comments and that he made during his testimony today and reiterate what an important role that Plain Ridge has played in terms of not only the town of Plainville's economic development, but also its impact on the region as a whole in terms of growth in businesses and employment. You'll hear later this evening from members of our surrounding communities on how Plain Ridge has helped to stimulate tourism, employment and the economy in our region and how the gaming commission's decision to issue the first gaming license in the state to Penn National has had a tremendous impact, a positive impact on Plainville, on the region, the state and the, on our region of the state and the Commonwealth as a whole. As was mentioned by Mr. Kelly, our host community agreement has provided funding to make debt and interest payments on our brand new state of the art municipal complex, which many of you have visited five years ago. Our police officers, our firefighters, our town hall employees were performing their duties in incredibly challenging working conditions. The former town hall and public safety buildings had been used long beyond their useful life and employees worked in facilities without adequate heat, air conditioning, proper ventilation, we had issues with plumbing and significant constraints in terms of proper office space, adequate storage for the town's vital records and available space for public meetings. Both buildings were not handicapped accessible, which caused significant challenges for both our disabled and our senior residents. Thanks to the gaming commission in Penn National, our new facilities have completely transformed the town center districts and have provided our employees with appropriate workspaces and the resources that they need to perform their jobs. These buildings have become even more critical during the pandemic. Often over the last several months, we have all paused and thought to ourselves, how could we have even functioned in the old buildings, especially during this time? And how could we have provided our employees in the old buildings with safe social distancing and protection during this challenging time? So we've thought a lot over the last few months about how fortunate we are to be in the buildings that we're at, especially during the pandemic. Members of our community have been able to meet in beautiful and spacious meeting rooms, which have provided a chance for residents to become more active and involved in local government. And none of this would have been possible without a major tax increase in plain bill if it had not been for Plain Ridge and the gaming commission issuing Penn National license to operate in the town of Plainville. I would also be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the efforts and generosity of the gaming commission in providing us with public safety equipment and funding for regional tourism and marketing efforts through the gaming mitigation fund. And I would also like to acknowledge that Plain Ridge and Penn National has been an incredible partner in terms of reopening and how safely and responsible they have been and have worked collaboratively with our Board of Health and Public Safety folks to reopen safely during the pandemic. You will hear shortly from our public safety chiefs about how positive our relationship has been with Plain Ridge. But before I end my comments, I really want to provide some real world context in terms of our relationship with Plain Ridge and Penn National. We are a country and world experience experienced something that we could have hardly ever imagined. A pandemic that would impact all of our lives and result in a temporary closure of Plain Ridge until July. As we've mentioned several times throughout the discussion today, the payments on our newly constructed municipal complex come directly from the host community payments from Plain Ridge. Under this agreement, given this tremendous impact on Penn National's revenue since they were completely closed, our company could have easily made the argument that they would not be able to honor the required monthly payments to the town. In fact, did the complete opposite. Penn National reached out to us very early during the shutdown, assured us that they would still provide the town with the much needed revenue, especially given the dire financial situation that the town was in. They met collaboratively with Penn National and they assured us that they understood how devastating it would be if the town could not make the payments on the municipal complex and they would work with us to make up the payments. Not only did Penn National keep their word and honor these promises, but they also want the extra mile. Although we had agreed to allow them to delay certain payments for several months, they stepped up in June and made the town whole well before the schedule that we had anticipated and agreed upon. To say this was appreciated by the town during one of its most difficult financial times would be an understatement. We often hear, and I think Commissioner Cameron alluded to this earlier, the need for public and private partnerships to make government work better. With my 24 years of municipal service, I have no greater example of this type of positive partnership than the one between Penn National, the town of Plainville and the gaming commission. We respectfully ask that you grant Penn National their license renewal and help us keep them competitive so that we can continue with this incredibly positive relationship. Thank you very much for your time and your consideration today. And I think next up will be Chief Alfred, our police chief. Yes, up next Chief of Police James Alfred. And thank you, Jennifer. We appreciate your input. Good afternoon, Chief. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and fellow commissioners. And thank you for the opportunity to also testify today in support of the licensing language bar casino. As mentioned, we reached the five, over the five-year mark of the opening of Plainville. And as the chief, I'm happy to report that Plainbridge continues to have little impact on our community as it relates to criminal activity or additional traffic issues. Five years ago, Commissioner Cameron, myself and the area of chiefs began a dialogue on how to measure any potential impacts to both Plainville and the surrounding communities. The contract of an independent analyst was discussed with Commissioner Cameron who saw the benefit of such a project in order to be able to measure increases or decreases of activity in Plainville and the surrounding communities. The analytical work by Christopher Bruce in the area of crime trends and traffic analysis has been a tremendous, ongoing, transparent resource to be able to study any potential impacts that have been a result of the opening of Plainbridge Park. I believe the executive summary that Christopher did last year stated that there was really, he was unable to make any clear relationship of increases in crimes as it related to Plainbridge Casino, either in Plainville or the community. I think Christopher Bruce has done an excellent job on that project through the last five years. And we continue to have an effective presence at Plainbridge with both state and local police on the gaming task force. We also have a uniform Plainville officer at the facility on a daily basis. I would also like to recognize Captain Brian Connors and Lieutenant Mike Scanlon and especially Brian Connors who I've worked with since the very beginning. You know, we were the first to open and this was on the ground for us. And they're both great supervisors, but also we believe in teamwork and I think we've worked really well together. You know, as the chief of police, something I keep my ear open for is the fear of crime. I'm in the community and I can tell you that not from one resident or even patrons that anyone's ever approached me saying that they felt that anything had changed in Plainville when the casino opened a lot, that anyone was afraid of an increase in crime but perceived increase in crime. We also have a great working relationship with all levels of Penn National Management at Plainbridge. They do a great job at pre-planning events and we're always included in those planning meetings for any type of events at Plainbridge and while the police. As mentioned by our town officials, the host community agreement with Penn National which enabled the town to be able to build a beautiful municipal complex which includes a public safety facility in town hall that will serve the town for generations in the future. I can't ever imagine that we would ever outgrow this facility. The building has made the job much safer for our offices and we're able to provide a community space when needed for any type of small community event. We can now host training classes, we have proper holding facilities, proper ventilation and that's key. Let me say that if we were in our old building, we had two officers that contracted COVID-19. Had we been in that old police station, we would not have had the ventilation and I believe we probably would have lost half the police department as a result of them contracting COVID-19. So we're blessed to have this building when they did contract that because again, only two offices were affected by that. We now have weather protection for our fleet, modern evidence room, evidence processing area. In short, we're able to improve every function we need to perform on a daily basis in our new facility. I'd also like to thank the commission for the grant funding program offered each year. This is a tremendous benefit, not only to Plainville, but to the surrounding communities as a way to obtain additional equipment and support for their particular projects. And once again, thank you for your time today and your continued support. Thank you, Chief. Thank you very much. Good to see you. Thank you. Okay, thank you. And next up is Justin Alexander, Chief of the Fire Department. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Christian, it's great to see you again in this virtual setting. The last time I saw you, we were down in our public safety building that everybody's talking about. You know, a lot, when you go last, I guess a lot's already been said. So I thought maybe I would take us back five years. I remember sitting in the big hall when the vote was had and we got the license. And I say we, Plainville and Penn. And I remember driving home, going down the expressway thinking boy, five years, that's a long time from now. I can't imagine where we'll be. And here I am in my office, you know, and that's thanks to the commission, that's thanks to the work that Penn has done. You know, we have a fire truck that can get in the garage. That was an issue we came up with and the commission helped us out with that. And Penn was a huge supporter to get us that radio as a cardiac monitor. We wouldn't be what we are today without everything that's happened. And it's been all positive. We haven't had any issues with that. And we were the first, you know, Penn came to Massachusetts and had to deal with the town of Plainville and the way the state is. And I'll tell you, true professionals, I, you know, Lance and I, we had many a meeting and we were able to sort out any issues we had prior to the opening and it's been smooth sailing since we still have great collaboration and go forward. And any issues we have come up with over the last five years have never had to be escalated even beyond my level, usually handled even below my level, Lance's level because the staff we have both at Plain, at Plain Ridge and the Plainville fire department in the town are outstanding. So with the fact that we're here and there's been so much positive and so little negative, no negative, I give my full support to Penn National Gaming and Plain Ridge Park, Cristino, to their renewal. And I hope you feel the same way when you vote. Thank you, Chief. Okay, so that concludes the host community representative. So now we'll move on to the surrounding communities. We've already heard from Bill Keegan, the Foxbrook town manager. So next up we have Jamie Helen, Franklin town manager. And then after that, Rachel Benson, the ransom director of planning and economic development. So Mr. Helen. Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Madam Chair, I remember the submission of your time today and opportunity to speak about this very important economic development issue for our area. We support the renewal of this license to help maintain the region's economic impact in our area. As many of you know, Franklin greatly benefits from this facility to maintain what we kind of call the still over economic activity that Franklin has enjoyed from the Plain Ridge Park. You know, we're just in the air couple exits down 495. I'd like to bring to the attention of the commission the perspective of communities along this area. The Plain Ridge Park facility has been a true source of economic development for all of us. Plain Ridge has become one of our region's largest employers, including well over 30 employees here just in my community that I represent. Also important to vendor contract and many relationships in each one of those communities. As many of you know, Plain, all the surrounding communities, including Franklin, share regional dispatch center, public safety, and we also share many other services. All the town managers have an excellent working relationship together, and we try to support one another as much as possible. There's also a major entertainment destination source in the region that has brought thousands of patrons to our hotels, restaurants, and retail venues, which has brought Frank, so an additional local faculty from all that economic activity. In fact, prior to COVID-19, all our local hotels were seeing an excess of 80, 85% occupancy. We certainly hope to get back there someday. Large part of that occupancy is due to the Plain Ridge Casino. As we kind of frequently say here in Franklin, we are the largest community in the region, but we do see a lot of spillover activity. The Great Woods Amphitheater, Gillette Stadium, hockey tournament in Malboro, and Plain Ridge Casino is really been the latest amenity in the area to be able to showcase that economic activity here in Franklin. Franklin just recently permitted, in fact, a fourth hotel about a year ago in town partly due to that demand, used by Hilton, which is about half built in the current time, and hopefully once we make it to COVID, they will be able to finish that project. The town of Franklin, these hotels bring in a significant source of revenue in hotel and motel taxes, which the town appropriates each year towards its roads and infrastructure just off the interstates on many of our major roads in the community. So finally, it's critical to maintain our competitive advantage for communities that border the state of Rhode Island, maintain good jobs, positive economic activity for our hotels, restaurants, and consumer economy in Franklin. Overall, with two major exits here in Franklin off 495 and a thriving commercial sector around those exits, more people come to Franklin each day than leave Franklin, and a major part of that is certainly Cleveland's Plain Ridge, New York City. By supporting this license renewal, it's just a small thing the Commonwealth can do to assist us in ensuring our business activity thrives here in town, especially as we hope to climb out of this COVID era. So thank you very much for your time today, and we urge you to use this license. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for having me with me. Thank you, Mr. Allen. Thank you. So next up, we have Rachel Benson, Rentham Director of Planning and Economic Development. I think I saw her online earlier. I am, and the sun is coming right through my window. Beautiful day. Thank you all for having us here. This is my first time. So I'll go, I'm not gonna repeat what everybody else has already said, all good things. So what I'm gonna go, so is just go into a little bit more about the tourism and marketing strategy that we used some of the grant money for, which actually came from Frank, from Foxboro, which is, you know, says a lot as well that they used that grant to help also Plain Ridge, but the surrounding communities as well. And so that to me says a lot about how, you know, this is really a part of all of our towns and we all sort of welcome each other. So I've 18,000 residents. Our three towns manage over 20 million visitors each year. And we each have our own destination, Rentham Premium Outlets, of course, Plain Ridge Casino, and Foxboro's Gillette Stadium and Patriot Police, along with supercharged electric go-karts, who knew? With Plain Ridge, all these other developments have come up, including the expansion of Patriot Place and the shopping there, but also dining, open space, recreation, arts and culture. And as Jamie was talking about lodging, we've just opened up one that's in both Plainville and Rentham, right down the street from, to make this a multi-day type of destination, as opposed to just one day, coming in on a bus and leaving the same day. We want people to make this a multi-stay trip. And we also saw with those two new, in casinos opening in Rhode Island, we did see the need for this marketing and tourism study because, you know, Plain Ridge has a lot to, a lot to do in this area, jobs, housing, development, the spillover that you wouldn't even think of, you know, is immense. And I think that's all I'm gonna say now, because. Thank you, and we understand that probably many of your sentiments have been stated, so we appreciate the extra value that you just added and it was distinctly different. So thank you so much. Chao. Okay, so next up are the, is the Impacted Live Entertainment Venues, and we have Troy Sybelles, president and CEO of Hanover Theater to speak next. Chairing the Worcester Performing, excuse me, the Massachusetts Performing Arts Center Coalition, we are a group of theaters that did some interfacing with all of the casinos prior to their licensing back a number of years ago, including with Penn National. And our concerns at the time were really based around the history of live, excuse me, of resort casinos bringing in performances that really heavily impact nonprofit and municipally owned performing arts centers. We signed a very friendly letter of agreement at that time with Penn National and are happy to say that we haven't seen any negative impact at all from the casino. And from us, I think maybe no negative impact is a very positive thing. We are happy for the relationship. And in fact, the Penn National's been really great about being open to the idea of discussing potential co-marketing opportunities. We've sort of committed in good faith to discuss some of those things recently, but our venues right now are in turmoil, needless to say due to the pandemic. So it's not a great time for us to have detailed conversations about that, but we're anxious to do so and are confident that the facility will open and have those conversations with us as we are able to. But we are grateful for the relationship we have had. I will be frank and say frustrating conflict with the other two casinos. And so we are grateful not to have that in Plain Ridge and anxious to see them continue and grow and succeed. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so sort of for lack of a better category, we're calling the next group other organizations. And the first person we have up is Jack Lank, president of the United Regional Chamber of Commerce. And why don't I give you just the next couple so that they know that they're on deck. We have Raymond Campbell, after that president of the Standard Bread, owners of Massachusetts, George Pinedo, Lancaster Packaging, regional sales manager, and then Mary Ann Campi Asano, M-A-C Graphics. So with that, Jack, I will turn it over to you. All right, good afternoon, everybody. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you for letting me speak today. On behalf of myself and the board of directors of the United Regional Chamber of Commerce, we are in full support of renewing this license. We are the largest business organization in the region. We cover the 16 communities that surround Plainville. We started working with Plain Ridge Park Casino long before five years ago when they opened up their doors. They sent their team up and we were able to work together to introduce them to a lot of the facilities in the area. And these are some of the same partnerships that they share today. We've had significant growth because of Plain Ridge Park Casino and all the folks that they have brought together as employees and as well as patrons. They are one of the larger employers in our area, which we significantly appreciate, especially during these crazy times. There is millions of revenue that is generated for the state and also for the local communities that we all depend on. This staff supports and volunteers at most of the charities in the area. They lend their expertise on the different board of directors to help us all keep on the right track. The racing side has been very significant in keeping over 150 families in our area employed and with all the hay farms, the grain, the tack, everything, the horse farms in our area, they would have all gone away if it wasn't for Penn National and Plain Ridge Park Casino. As far as diversity, they have been very, very important to us. They support our wind network, our women's impact network. As a matter of fact, we had the very first women's expo and Commissioner Cameron was very kind enough to come and be our guest speaker that day and Plain Ridge Park Casino and their team put on a tremendous day for, we have well over 100 attendees of local business owners here in the area. With some of that growth, as you've heard from some of the town managers in the area, we actually have four hotels ready to be completed because of the number of folks that are visiting our area. I also am lucky enough to sit on the Convention of Visitors Bureau for Southeast Massachusetts and they're a big part of tourism and bringing many, many thousands of people to our area every month. All I can ask is that you give them consideration. We would be lost if Plain Ridge Park Casino was not able to renew their license. And on behalf of my Board of Directors, myself and the entire membership, we truly appreciate everything that Plain Ridge Park has done for us, the support that they have given not only to my organization, but to all of the other nonprofits in the area, the employees that they employ every single day. So we just ask that you consider renewing your license and thank you for your time today. Thank you, Mr. Lane. Okay, so next up we have Raymond Campbell, President of the Standard Bread Owners of Massachusetts. To know, every year, the Commission is provided with an update of the Standard Bread Reading Program. And earlier today in Steve McCool's presentation, he pointed out many of the highlights in growth and opportunities for Massachusetts Standard Bread Horse Breeders and farm owners. It's very difficult to see that any of this growth would have been positive or possible without Plain Ridge Park. With the stability for breeders of having a place to raise their horses, the growth in the mass breeding program has been moving in a positive direction. With more mass bread horses now of racing age, Plain Ridge Park has been offering more restricted races, which will even allows more opportunities for mass bread horses to race. Another area that Plain Ridge Park has been a good partner is in the cooperation of staff members to help with whatever they can. Paul Verret, the race secretary, has been more than willing to help in pretty much any way he can. From scheduling race days, being flexible on race days, and the scheduling of them and creating more opportunities for mass bread horses to race in these restricted races. In the paddock on race days, right before the paddock judge is a valuable asset and in making sure everything runs smoothly. Steve O'Toole, the director of racing, works very closely with the breeders program and is always willing to help. I'd also like to highlight the working relationship between Dr. Alex Leiphorn and the staff at Plain Ridge Park. They work very closely with us, the breeders, to keep things moving forward. In closing, the partnership with Plain Ridge Park is a very positive element in the growth of standard bread breeding in Massachusetts. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, thanks. So up next, we have George Pinedo, Lancaster packaging regional sales manager. Good afternoon, how's everybody? Well, thank you. Good. Our company, Lancaster packaging, is a minority and woman owned small business and we have been doing business with Plain Ridge Park since the opening. They gave us a shot at bidding on their janitorial supply and we went in, gave it our best shot and to our surprise, we actually won 25 of the items, which is kind of something that is not seen because normally they want everything wrapped up into one bundle, but Plain Ridge Park was able to give us a shot at just giving X amount of product. And that was huge for us because what it did was it allowed us to go out and do other RFQs and bids throughout the state and New England with the items that we had bid on from Plain Ridge, only because what that did was it gave us better pricing. And that's kind of unheard of for a small business to be able to say, wow, they actually gave us a shot being able to bid X amount of product instead of the whole bid, which was very big. And our relationship just went forward from there. We also have a side of the house that does purchasing services. And when they became aware of that, they gave us the opportunity to bid on some items from local businesses that didn't have their mass gaming licenses. So we went out and we would buy the product and sell it to Plain Ridge. And it was a toolful thing. Not only were we able to sell it to them, but the local business was able to sell it to us. So that also was a great thing to see. Not only because they could have gone elsewhere, some other part of the country and gotten that from people who have a license and so on and so forth, but they wanted to keep it within the region. And that was one thing that I was very impressed with when we would sit down with the purchasing people and talk to them. They always wanted to keep the buying within the region as much as possible. And again, that is just something we don't see too much from other corporates around. And when we started doing business with them on the purchasing services side, we started to learn more about the casino business. And that gave us a hands up on the other two casinos in Massachusetts, which we've also done business with. And if we lose Plain Ridge, it would be a sad day, I think for all of us. Only because to be honest with you, I just, I see them as a type of small casino that you will go in and talk to, and they're ready to receive you in. And they're very friendly. And I'll tell you what, if I had a vote and somehow, some way, I would vote yes with no problem whatsoever. So basically, that's all I have to say. And I guess it's been a great relationship for the last five years of them. And it's just, I don't see how we cannot allow a business like that to flourish within the Massachusetts area. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. And next up, we have Marianne Camposano from NAC Graphics. Thank you very much. It's, and you did a very good job pronouncing my name. It's Camposano, but it's a long one. I want to thank you all for the opportunity to speak in favor of Plain Ridge Park casino today. Back Graphics is a certified woman owned business with a global approach. Drawing on my experience at the Boston Globe and Arnold Worldwide, we opened in 2012. Working only with agency trained creative teams, we were able to deliver professional branding projects. And the entire process is managed by a team that works to exceed expectations on time and within budget. This thinking and performance allows us to reach many markets at one time with the unique ability to respond quickly and efficiently to unexpected and immediate situations that might arise in some businesses. And we're happy to say that we've been able to pull off a few miracles when necessary. We greet the customer at the entrance to Plain Ridge Park casino on the Boulevard banner with our outdoor banners and the signage at the racetrack. Once they're inside the building, the messaging is reinforced from window clings, elevator and floor graphics, wall murals, back drops, canvas prints, cafe barriers, t-shirts and pens. Oh, and also in the restrooms. My personal pride is the flyover mural at Flutie's Restaurant. That was fun. Anyway, this is brand consistency at its best on so many platforms. And Plain Ridge, working with Plain Ridge to achieve that has been a great experience. The back of the house is another area where we have worked with Plain Ridge to reinforce both positive and safety related messages to their valued staff. In a nutshell, we offer the creative power in industry connections with full service agents. See, with the personal service and attention to detail, you can only get from a small business. Plain Ridge Park casino has opened so many avenues for us. They've given us the opportunity to stretch ourselves in both methods and materials. Even before they opened, we were able to work closely, very closely with Michelle Collins to create an environment of diversity and support to the staff. We appreciated the opportunity and the confidence shown by Michelle to our company by having us create, print, and install these inspirational messages. Excuse me. But it isn't just the products and services that we've provided to them that has helped grow our business. We have been afforded the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with their diverse and professional staff on a number of challenging projects. We don't feel that we have ever had to work in a vacuum. Our input is received and heard and the result is that we have solved the challenge together. Plain Ridge has had the confidence in our abilities to allow these solutions to be reached and we're very grateful for that. This in turn has allowed us to gain experience and confidence that we bring to our other clients. So it isn't just Mac graphics that benefits from this company. Their presence is far reaching. From our little company in Massachusetts to our other valued clients and to our vendors, Plain Ridge has made a very big difference in a very good way. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak on the value that Plain Ridge Park Casino brings to the community. And I just wanna say that they're a great addition. I've loved working with them for probably about six years now. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so that finishes up the other organization's category and now it's on to the general public where we have three Plainville residents have registered with us to speak. And the first one is Luke Travis. Good afternoon. Thank you commissioners for inviting me to speak. My name's Luke Travis. I live at 101 Pleasant Street in Plainville, probably about a mile and a half from the casino. I've been a resident of Plainville since 1994. I'm a local conveyancing attorney practicing primarily in Bristol County. And I also hold a couple of roles here in town. I've been the town moderator for about six or seven years but my most important role I think to myself is I've been on the permanent building committee in town since about 2016. So when the casino was first approved, one of the first town meeting votes that was taken relative to that after it's approved was to designate that our community host agreement funds would be dedicated to a capital account not to be used for operating expenses but only for capital expenditures. And that has turned out to be the best vote that the town has probably taken in its history. We've leveraged that account to be able to purchase a very large open space piece of land on the western side of town that was going to be a large residential development but fortunately for the town it was in chapter and the developer had to operate to the town first. And typically when a town is offered that situation they have to slightly decline. In our case we were able to execute on that and purchase that property and we use that capital account to do so. That was minor however compared to the new town hall public safety complex that we now have in town. That was a $36 million project. I've been on that committee like I said since 2016 and if it wasn't for the casino and the capital account none of that would have happened. We were operating out of basically facilities that were built at the turn of the last century the century before. And really our fire and police in town hall was not operating up to anything that was modern and standard. We are now and we service our community very well with those facilities. I'm sure some of the commissioners were there at the ribbon cutting. And it's turned out to be really a gem of the town. It's really come into a lot of muse in this pandemic in terms of the public safety and what they've been able to use with that facility. So I can't speak strongly enough about the casino. I don't go there a lot, but I've probably been there half a dozen times. I enjoy myself when I'm there. And I think it's a terrific facility. There was a lot of concern in our town about traffic and I get off that exit twice a day every day. And I have never had a problem getting to my home. It's just been a seamless transition in terms of that. And it's added nothing but benefit for our town. So that's my contribution. I'm glad you asked me to speak today. And are there any questions I'd be happy to. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Travis. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. So next up we have Tim Mullen, also a playing bill resident. Mr. Mullen, you're on mute now. Let me see if I can help. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you, Madam Chair and commissioners. And thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak. My name is Tim Mullen. I'm a game and control board supplement. I am a playing bill resident for the past 30 years. I'm also the current chairman of the finance committee. I am a vice president at citizens bank working out of Rhode Island. Plain Ridge Park has really been a great place socially. I don't want to repeat a lot that has been said, but it's really a great place for our community. It's an excellent entertainment venue, hosting events and options, whether it be restaurants or music or racing events, all positive feedback that I have heard from residents. The presentation on what they give to local charities is absolutely great. Economically, it's been stated, but we're certainly blessed to have the benefits like a new town hall and public safety buildings. Many of my friends and fellow residents have jobs there. And I think the important thing is that they really seem to like their jobs there. They're good jobs and a good company to work for. So I would just say, I would echo what representative Dooley said that Plain Ridge is now a big part of what really defines Plainville now and residents are proud to have Plain Ridge as part of that town. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mullen. Yes, thank you. And last on our list of folks who was registered is Kathy Parker, also a Plainville resident. I should say last but not least. Hello, and thank you so much for allowing me to speak to you today. My name is Kathleen Parker. I'm a 45 year resident in the town of Plainville. I retired in 2018 after a 38 years career as Plainville's treasurer collector. I was a supporter of the casino from the very beginning. I wanna say very proudly. In fact, I wrote a letter to this commission back in 2013 to endorse the transfer of the host community fee from our way to Penn National. I consistently spoke to the community about the benefits that I believe the host community agreement would guarantee to the taxpayers. And I truly believe that those benefits have been realized. Previous speakers have spoken to those, the main points of that agreement. But I just want to reiterate one point. And I think Jennifer made it. When COVID hit, we all know the casino and the track were left without a revenue stream suffering along with everyone else. But they held true to their commitment to the town. They made us whole so that when we closed the books or they closed the books on June 30th, a terrible year was a little less terrible. So today I wanna state emphatically that I continue to support the casino. And I hope for a positive vote when the commission looks at the renewal so that they can continue to operate Plain, which part casino. So today what I wanna do is talk about some benefits our community has realized that go beyond that host community agreement. And I'll highlight just a few things to illustrate how residents of Plainfield are positively impacted on a daily basis. The night before the casino opened to the public, I attended the soft opening. The proceeds from that evening's betting were distributed to local nonprofits that operated in at least four communities. The town administrator at the time, Joe Fernandes, and I had the honor of suggesting the Plainville nonprofit that would receive those funds. We chose the Plainville Emergency Relief Fund. The fund was established some 30 years ago with a grant from the now defunct Plainville United Way and is dedicated to helping Plainville residents who find themselves in an emergency and have nowhere else to turn. The fund is governed by a board of directors who have the authority to make grants. We've helped countless people over the years. And because of the money we received from Plain Lynch Park, we will continue that work for many years to count. I also work with Plainville's living bread food pantry, another recipient of the casino's generosity. The Plainville has received cash grants and has benefited from food drives sponsored by Plain Lynch Park. As the pressures of COVID grew, you can imagine the experience received an uptick in need. Currently, we serve 45 families weekly and are planning to distribute between 80 and 90 turkeys at Thanksgiving. Plain Lynch Park has always been, and I suspect will continue to be, a loyal friend. Also, you've heard from various people about how important the track is from the community into the host community, the farm community in Plainville. I don't think that can be overstated. And more importantly, I wanted to reiterate something again from a personal standpoint of a resident of Plainville. Luke mentioned the large track of land that was purchased by, with the host community fees, we call it Hawkins Woods. In order to get to Hawkins Woods, you drive through the west part of town, through the open fields, the paddocks, the calming and restorative power that we see with those grazing horses, sunlight dancing on that beautiful grass as we go into those woods. It simply can't be overstated. Plainville residents understand every time we're able to take that trip through that west side of town, not have it congested with subdivisions, just how lucky we are to partner with Plainville Park Casino. So these are just a few examples of how the Casino has supported our community in very quiet ways. They do not look for publicity, although they deserve to be acknowledged for their generosity. Let these comments be that acknowledgement. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Parker. Chell? Okay, I guess what I wanted to do was give folks, that wraps up our list of speakers, but first I wanted to give anyone, if there's anyone that registered for this that we missed, if you wanted to speak at this point. All right, I see Mr. Corey raising his hand, Joe. Do you see Mr. Corey? Martin. Hi, Madam Chair. Yes. Good afternoon. Go right ahead, Mr. Corey. How are you? I'm fine, thank you. And I had put it in a request back in June with regards to the licensed renewals. So thank you very much for recognizing me. And I can't think of a better person to follow than Cathy Parker in the lyrical way that she expressed an open field with horses dancing in open space. And the wonderful contribution that Plain Ridge Park racetrack has made with the horse farms and that ancillary businesses that have thrived since a harness horse racing has exploded at the track in Plainville. And I'm happy to say today that we are withdrawing our request for the delay of the renewal of the license. And I will not repeat the things that other commentators have so eloquently said today. Senator Feeney, ticking off the various statistics, our partner, Steve O'Toole, going through the expansion of the breeding programs. Ray Campbell, Ditto, we're so happy with the intercession of the gaming commission back in June where there did not seem to be any, excuse me, any hope or likelihood of live racing starting up again at Plainville with your help and guidance getting live racing without spectators back up and running. And one point that I think is important to note that folks involved in this industry spend anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000 a year on keeping a horse. So there's added financial pressure on the people who love harness racing and who have chosen to make their livelihood not working behind a desk. And this is certainly an attraction that goes along hand in hand with the casino as a place that people wanna come to that no other casino in Connecticut or in the surrounding area can have as a draw for patrons. So we're very happy to have the seven year contract agreement in place with PNG. I'm happy to be here today to say that we're withdrawing our request for the delay in the renewal of the license. And we're very happy to have the collaborative working relationship as partners with the Gaming Commission and with PNG moving forward and hope that we can continue to race with COVID protocols safely at the track. And I'm happy to take any questions that you may have. Mr. Corey, thank you. And thank you for clarifying your position today. That's very helpful. Thank you so much. Any questions for Mr. Corey in light of the fact that he had had that request, made that request to us earlier commissioners? Any questions for him? I think everybody looks all set. Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Corey. I appreciate it very much. Thank you. Joe. Okay, again, I guess we just wanna find out if there's anyone out here that has not commented or didn't register and who might like to speak at this point? Just remember to unmute if you're on a phone. Star six. Oh, Chris Desprey raised his hand. It's what I'm seeing. Is that accurate? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate it. Oh, thank you. And again, my apologies to anyone if we're somehow missing it. Hello, good afternoon, Joe. Good afternoon. I appreciate the opportunity to weigh in. I had recently run for a position in town, although unsuccessful, I was able to speak to over 300 residents in town. And one of my questions that I would ask in conversations was what they thought about Plain Ridge. And not one negative response was given to me out of 300 residents. And although that might not seem like a big sample, to me it spoke volumes of the positivity of the residents here in Plainville about the casino and how much we appreciate them as neighbors and partners. And that's all I really wanted to give is the opportunity to maybe speak on behalf of the 300 people that I did meet while I was running. And thank you very much for the time. Commissioners, did you want to comment on Mr. Peretz? I think that's a unique candidate. You've come back after taking such care to get solicit information from your constituents. And even though you may not have won the race, you brought back your feedback to us. And so we thank you for that. Thank you. OK, if anyone else wants to raise their hand or give a shout, Joe, and I appreciate any of my fellow commissioners looking to see if they see anyone trying to get our attention. We do have, at one point, we had, I think, a hundred individuals. We have 73 now. We may have had more. I'm not seeing any activity. Joe? No, I don't see anything. I keep scrolling back and forth at this point. So I'm not saying anything. But I think what we can do is we need to leave this hearing open until 6 o'clock. So I'll just stay planted right here in my chair, looking at the screen, seeing if anyone wants to opine. And I think we did want to give Lance George just a last bite at the Apple for any wrap up that he might have or anything. Yeah, let's just see if we have one more person. I, oh, OK, never mind. That was from the internal. So sorry. OK, Lance, I'm sorry. My apologies, Joe. Yeah, no problem. Yeah, I thought we had put on the schedule an opportunity for Lance if there was any rebuttal necessary or any wrap up necessary. So I think we can probably turn it over to him at this point. And then I'll just stay on the line. And everybody can kind of stand by and if we can maybe reconvene it, I don't know, 10 minutes of six or thereabouts. Right, if my fellow commissioners, if you could just maybe block yourselves out and mute yourselves, but stay in the vicinity so we could give a shout. I see Karen has joined us who will help. And I guess I would really ask gaming commission staff who don't need to be on the call. If everybody sort of jumps off of it, we'll see pretty much everybody who's sort of waiting. If that makes sense. But not before we hear from Lance. Sure, not a lot after today's testimony. I do worry, but I can only take it backwards. It was certainly encouraging to hear the good work that's been done. I would tell you that this property and this company was and is keenly aware of what the expectations were from the legislature with the passage of the enabling legislation. It's not lost on us. And I do hope that after today's testimony, you guys can see just how hard we work to hold up our end of the bargain. It doesn't just happen. And so I guess that's my second one I want to touch on. I do want to thank this team at this property for the tremendous work, I think, as we went through this deck. We were short on just one goal. Tremendous work. Tremendous work all around by this group. And then shifting gears a little bit, I do think certainly as I listen to the testimony, the magnitude of what it is that this has been able to accomplish. I guess this property has been able to accomplish. Certainly we recognize the financial benefits to the town, to the state. But after hearing from so many folks today, it goes well beyond that. And it's great to hear, I think, day in and day out that gets lost because you're doing your job. We're interacting with the commission, with our customers, with the employees. But to hear so many folks talk who are well outside of that group and the positive impact that this property has had, whether individually, as a non-profit, as a town, it feels good. It certainly does. We have worked very hard. Couldn't be happier with how things unfolded today and the good words that we heard from so many folks. Thank you, Lance. Thank you so much. OK, so we will not formally conclude today's meeting or hearing. We will have Joe stand guard. And I think Karen, to you, intend to maybe text any commissioner if they hear from someone else. We invite the public, if anyone is still listening to, and they want to get their comments together to come and bring those comments forward. We will stay, our meeting will stay open until 6. And at this point, I think on behalf of all my commissioners, we just wish to thank everyone who did make an appearance and take the time to be so thoughtful and to contribute insights to really help us in our process. So thank you. And to the entire PPAC team, excellent presentation, very clear, very helpful. And we congratulate you on today's commentary. You should be working out. OK, so if you'll excuse us, I guess this is somewhat different, but we'll block ourselves out. And we'll stay tuned for about we can be in at 10 of 6, please, unless we're invited to come back earlier for comments. And I will stand by. OK, Joe, I'll stand by with you. So if anyone pops up, we can text or call each other. And then we can circle back to grab the commissioners back onto the meeting. Yep, sounds good. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. We have not heard from any other members of the interested public. None have appeared since you folks left. I guess we'll put out one more call and ask if there's anybody else who's on the phone or on the video today if they wanted to comment on the PPC license. We have 35 people still on, which I am pleased with. And then we'll just remind folks that they would have to press star six, which seemed to work today for some people nicely. Yeah, we only have a looks like a couple of folks on the phone at this point. Almost everybody else is on video. Yeah, so that's good. But I guess we'll just hang around for five more minutes and take a motion to close. Yeah. 58, Joe, and we've got all the commissioners. I'm not seeing Commissioner O'Brien yet. Oh, I did something weird here. I hope we'll double check, Joe, on any interested party. Yeah, any last chance, I guess, here for comments. Well done to you and Mary. Thank you. Thank you. Here we are. My watch is telling me to please, but I should stand up and breathe. Gail, we were talking about the sunset. Are you able to see it out your window? I do have a window right here. I think I missed the one you were talking about last night, though I did not. Yeah, I just wondered in terms of your positioning and climate and. Yeah, no, I can catch it from certain windows, but I didn't see it last night. So out of the back of the house is where I can see it. Yeah. You'll go, I must have missed a good one, right? Yeah, although, you know, what I'm hearing is it was maybe an influence of air pollution. Yeah, yeah. Awful. So we're at six. And I think that that's the window we need to close by. But I want to confirm with Joe that we're all set. I want to spend my time. And just before we close that, you know, appreciation to all who have stayed on, including so many members of PPC. So Joe. I think we're all set. Put out a last call just a couple of minutes ago. I've heard nothing back. So I think we're good to go. Lance, thank you so much to you and your team. Thank you. And I suspect that we'll be reconvening with members of the same team. And we expect or anticipating in a couple of weeks, correct, Joe? That is correct. All right. Well, thank you. With that, I do need to have a motion to adjourn officially. Madam Chair, I move that we close the meeting and adjourn the session. Second. Thank you, commissioners. We'll call vote. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Zunica. Aye. And Commissioner Stemmins. Aye. And I vote yes, 5-0 on the record. Thank you so much, everyone. And thank you to all who participated today. If you're still here, we greatly appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Bye-bye. Stay safe.