Riverhead gun dealer is asked his view on keeping Suffolk oTB bettors out, when casinos and ny state lottery operate ever day of the year?
Guns are like churches or constitutions
Lots of choices
Town of Riverhead to hold public hearing on banning firearm sales near Main Street
Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
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Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
The Riverhead Town Board voted to approve a resolution to hold a public hearing on whether the town should consider banning gun stores, ranges and gunsmiths from a section of Main Street.
Riverhead Town Council members unanimously agreed to hold the public hearing in two weeks about firearms zoning downtown.
According to the zoning and land development proposal, one of the reasons the ban is being considered is because they want to revitalize parts of downtown and gear it toward families and tourists. Some believe a firearms business would conflict with that.
Joseph Oliver, owner of JJ Armory, says he thought the money he spent to secure permits and a location for a gun store in downtown Riverhead were on their way to being signed off on by town officials.
"We then found out through the grapevine that the town wants to change zoning and make it so no gun stores can be on Main Street," Oliver says.
The proposal would ban gun dealers, firing ranges and gunsmiths from setting up shop in the DC 1 zoning district, which includes parts of East Main Street from past Ostrander Avenue to Griffing Avenue. This is where Oliver wants to put his store.
Oliver says his store would be very secure, secluded with no windows and nobody able to see inside.
"We thought it was going to be the safest and most secure place," Oliver says.
Before any ban is approved by the town, the public will voice their opinions about the issue on June 21 at Town Hall.
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