The town of Hillsboro in central Kansas does not have a movie theater. It doesn’t have a liquor store, though every now and again someone makes an attempt to reopen the mostly shuttered downtown bar. One of the city’s two grocery stores sells beer now, but that’s a recent development.

Yet the mostly Mennonite residents of Hillsboro next month will join their neighbors from across Marion County in voting on an unexpected proposal: a 300-room resort casino expected to draw gamblers from around the Midwest.

The idea has led to the creation of a countywide opposition group and a debate about how Marion County’s morals intersect with its economy.

“I think it’s really perceived that (a) casino is not legitimate money that you want in your community,” said Rod Jost, a longtime youth minister at Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church.

Ten miles down the road in Marion – which does have a liquor store – restaurant owner Linda Meier is among the few residents openly supporting next month’s vote.

On the left side of the table is former Wichita Mayor Bob Knight, who represents the Iowa Tribe in its efforts to build a casino in central Kansas. On the right side of the table are, from left, Marion County Commissioners Dan Holub, Bob Hein and Randy Dalke. The photo was taken at a standing-room-only meeting of the commission on Tuesday. Marion County residents will vote in a special election on whether to allow casino gambling.

Marion County, like most rural communities in Kansas, is getting older and losing population.

“I want my kids to grow up here,” Meier said. “And they’re all having to leave because there’s nothing to do here.”

Iowa Tribe

Marion County might seem an odd location for a casino, even without the large Mennonite population among its 13,000 residents. It sits an hour northeast of Wichita, but has no interstate highway to handle the tourists a resort would attract.

But when Sedgwick County commissioners in August put off a referendum on building the proposed casino – which would be operated by the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska – in the Wichita suburb of Park City, other central Kansas communities saw an opportunity.

Harvey County, just north of Wichita, will host a casino referendum next month. So will Sumner County.

And in mid-October, former Wichita Mayor Bob Knight, who represents the Iowa Tribe, visited the Marion County Commission to describe the economic possibilities a casino would create. The three-member commission unanimously agreed to host a referendum, which is seen as a necessary element to get state approval for the project.

“Our taxes are getting so high,” said Marion County Commission Chairman Bob Hein. “People are complaining because we had to go up on our mill levy – from what people are telling me, the sales tax that (a casino) would bring in would let us lower our mill levy for our people.”

That’s when trouble started.

More than 20 Marion County residents showed up at the next commission meeting to oppose the casino referendum. Commissioners agreed to reconsider their decision – and at Tuesday’s meeting, more than 40 community members showed up to complain. Only Knight spoke in favor of the project.

In the end, the commissioners agreed to go ahead with the mail-in vote, albeit with some reluctance.

“They felt it was important that not three (commissioners) make the decision, but the community as a whole,” said Carol Maggard, the county clerk.

Reasons to oppose

Gilbert Loewen is a businessman at Peabody in southern Marion County and a member of “Marion County Citizens for Prosperity,” a new anti-casino group.

Loewen said he believed a casino would bring crime and other problems for the children of Marion County.

“I believe what casinos bring with them – there might be some jobs, some economic advantages – there might also be disadvantages,” Loewen said. “I don’t see where we’re going to see any help from that for our kids.”

What’s more, Loewen is skeptical that the Iowa Tribe is even interested in Marion County. Next month’s election, he said, will be a waste of nearly $10,000 no matter the outcome.

“I believe Bob Knight is trying to have ammunition to go to Topeka,” Loewen said. “If he can get a number of counties to say they want this, he’ll get it in Sedgwick County.”

Such suspicions are widespread. Even Meier, the restaurant owner who wants a vote, shares them.

“We’re just a pawn to get it down in Wichita,” she said. “But it would be a whole lot more tax revenue than this county’s ever seen before, and that would be helpful to taxpayers.”

Knight rejected that idea, saying he was asked by the Marion County Commission to pitch his plan.

“I was invited to go up there and make a presentation,” he said. “I’m not playing anybody against anybody.”

He added: “I think it’s important to let citizens decide.”

Liquor vote

Last November, residents overwhelmingly approved liquor-by-the-drink for the first time – helped along by a majority of Hillsboro voters.

“I was shocked on that,” Hein said. “You just don’t know.”

And people on both sides of the debate know that many of their neighbors leave town during the day to earn money in Newton, Wichita and other larger towns.

With a casino, Meier said, “at least they’d have something close to drive to.”

“I think people should at least be open-minded about it,” she said. “I’m not saying it’s going to be the answer to anything.”

Hein agreed, saying that the casino would bring as many as 1,500 jobs to Marion County. He’d be happy to attract a manufacturer that hired just 25 people, he said.

“A lot of the younger people, there’s not jobs around,” he said. “It’s tough to land them.”

Loewen acknowledges the county is going through rough times. But he doesn’t see that as justification for a casino.

“Just because you can’t get it any other way doesn’t mean this is the way to get it,” he said. “Marion County has good people who do good work. Marion County’s got more to offer than what county commissioners say it has to offer.”