The town’s casino deal with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe may be dead, now that tribal leaders are negotiating to buy a portion of the SouthCoast BioPark along Route 24 in Fall River.
“I’m very disappointed, but it doesn’t surprise me,” Middleboro Town Manager Charles Cristello said. “Where’s there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
Tribal leaders would not comment on the Fall River negotiations, the status of the land in Middleboro or whether they plan to amend their application before the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
While Middleboro officials would not go so far as to say the plans are dead, the tribe’s land-purchase talks are the strongest sign yet that its leaders might not honor a 2007 agreement to build its casino in town.
Reneging on the deal “undermines the credibility of the tribe,” said state Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton.
Gov. Deval Patrick and Gregory Bialecki, the state’s chief of housing and economic development, were not involved in [...]

Original post by Alice C. Elwell