Shorelines casino pays Belleville

By Stelios Pappas

BELLEVILLE – Shorelines casino delivered its first cheque to the city of Belleville on Monday.

The cheque for $575,749 was given to Mayor Taso Christopher during Monday night’s council meeting. Christopher said the money will be going toward city infrastructure and social programs. The casino on Bell Boulevard opened in January this year.

The municipal contribution agreement between Shorelines Casino, Belleville and the province is a legal commitment. Every three months the city will receive a payment from the casino. The first payment is 5.25 per cent of $65 million in slot revenue. The next time it will be three per cent of an expected $135 million in revenue. This is the same arrangement for every Ontario community hosting a casino or slot facility.

City council perviously voted to direct the revenue from Shorelines toward several funds. It will be 10 per cent to development infrastructure funds, five per cent to land acquisition, five per cent vehicle/equipment replacement, 65 per cent maintenance/rehabilitation of infrastructure, five per cent social infrastructure, five per cent economic development, and the final five per cent to disaster mitigation/contingency funding.

Monday night also had the Belleville Downtown Improvement Association gave a cheque for $200,000 toward new streetlights.