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Southland Greyhound Park gets go ahead to expand weekend hours Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The Arkansas Racing Commission on Tuesday approved a request by Southland Greyhound Park to stay open longer on the weekends. Barry Baldwin, retiring general manager of the West Memphis dog track, said the additional hours would only be for park's new gaming room and are needed because as many as 500 people are being sent home every Saturday and Sunday morning when the park closes at 2 a.m. "This is lost revenue," said Troy Keeping, who will take over for Baldwin when Baldwin officially retires later this year. Also Tuesday, the commission introduced Ron Oliver, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter's chief of staff and a former chairman of the state Democratic Party, as its next director. Last year, Southland completed a $40 million renovation that included a 110,000 square-foot addition with a gaming room, nightclub and bar, special events center and 280-seat buffet. More than 900 games of skill are operating at the park. Under the new hours, which the commission approved unanimously, the park's gaming room will open at 10 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and close at 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The opening and closing hours for the rest of the week, and for the dog track, will not change. The Legislature in 2005 approved a measure that authorized local-option elections in West Memphis and at Hot Springs, home of Oaklawn Park thoroughbred track, on whether to allow electronic games of skill at the tracks. Voters in both cities approved expanded gambling, and both elections were challenged in circuit court on grounds that county residents living outside the cities should have been allowed to vote in the elections. Circuit judges in Crittenden County, where West Memphis is located, and in Garland County, where Hot Springs is located, dismissed the lawsuits, declaring the law that authorized the elections constitutional. The conservative Arkansas Family Council later appealed the Garland County decision to the state Supreme Court, which has scheduled oral arguments for Sept. 13. Oaklawn has about 130 new games of skill, but it will be a while before patrons at the horse track see the rest, according to spokesman Terry Wallace. Oliver will become director of the Racing Commission on Aug. 1, replacing Shelby McCook, who retired earlier this year. Oliver's annual salary with the lieutenant governor's office is $66,002, and it will be about the same at the Racing Commission, said Kay Barnhill with the state Department of Finance and Administration. Oliver said after the meeting that he directed the Arkansas Burial Association from 1984-1990 and he has wanted to return to state government as a small agency director. "It's just a chance to run a small state agency that is of interest to me," Oliver said. |
