--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.
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> >>Posted by: "RWHANNU@...
> >>Date: Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:38 am ((PST))
>
> >>In case no one else has posted this news article:
>
>
>>_http://www.elkodail
tzel11.t
> xt
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Elko. Nevada!!! The town that cut off it's nose to spite it's
face!! Don't ever think that that gaming win in Elko County was
caused by an upsurge of business in Elko. The business people there
are the stupidest business people I have ever seen. Except for one.
Old Man McKlaskey. I don't know what his first name was. Everyone
just called him Old Man McKlaskey. Unfortunately, he's been dead for
a couple of years. But he lived a long life. 87 years, I think.
McKlaskey, a life long resident of Vancouver, Washington, was the
founder and majority owner of the Red Lion hotel chain. You can find
these upscale hotels throughout the Northwest.
He built five hotels and two casinos in Elko. He built his own
airline, Casino Express, from scratch. He was the biggest employer
in town. For years he brought in two flights, about 300 people, of
out-of-staters per day.
Besides blowing their money in the casino, they spent money all over
town. Then the idiot town leaders got greedy. They started jacking
up the hotel bed tax and airport head tax. Litle by little they kept
jacking the taxes up until they were at 4 times their former levels.
As if that wasn't enough, they had to go and make one more blunder.
They let one of the downtown casinos build a shuttle stop across the
street from the Red Lion in order to rob McKlaskey of his out-of-town
guests. One just had to walk across the street, pick up the phone
and a shuttle would arrive a few minutes later.
They finally pissed the old man off. He cut one of the flights, and
layed off 500 people. That's 500 jobs in a town of 20,000 people.
What was the towns response? They raised the taxes again!!!
Elko, Nevada has the best airport of any town of it size in the whole
country. It's a miniature McCarran. It comes complete with the
baggage carousels and everything. They should name it McKlaskey
International, since he payed for the whole thing. Unfortunately, it
has no air traffic today. Just one 19 seater arrives and leaves
everyday. It's one of the stupidest things I've ever seen.
When McKlaskey died, Wendover stole the airline from Elko. Of course
this caused another round of layoffs. Wendover just happens to be in
Elko County. Until 2006 Wendover was a depressed market. The State
of Utah had passed a law making it illegal to advertise any product
that was not legal in Utah. It was eventually found
unconstitutional. Wendover went back to advertising to it's biggest
market and business has been booming ever since.
Meanwhile Elko suffers from the consequences of it's actions. But,
if you happen to be passing through, stop by and check out the
airport. It's very nice.
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