A Prosperity couple went before the Raleigh County Commission Tuesday to protest a possible video lottery outlet only 42 feet from their home, warning it could spawn violence and pull property values down across the neighborhood.

Since the property in dispute was zoned commercial some years ago, commission attorney Bill Roop advised Marie Clay that the county is powerless to block the property from being turned into a video gambling establishment at 454 Prosperity Road.

“Legally, we could not change the rules in midstream,” he said. “We looked at the map. It is marked commercial property.”

However, Roop reminded Clay and her husband that the ultimate say is held by the state Alcohol Beverage Control Administration since any slot machine place must hold a liquor license in order to permit gambling.

“There’s still a check and balance to this,” Roop said. “We’re not past that point.”

While county commissions cannot forbid video poker establishments from springing up, Roop said, they are allowed under law to regulate where they are located.

Mindful of that, the commission has prepared a new ordinance to be aired at an Aug. 21 public hearing to regulate such businesses as to location within a residential area.

Roop said the issue has never surfaced because the vast majority of commercial property lies beyond residential areas.

“We have to control it through zoning, where it’s located,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to do with a zoning ordinance.”

“Can you imagine what it’s going to do to our property values?” Clay asked. “They’re going to come down.”

Her husband, Walt, spoke of violence that has been associated with such concerns since video poker parlors were allowed in a law pushed by former Gov. Bob Wise to fund the Promise Scholarship program.

“We’ve got 11 grandchildren,” Clay told the commission. “A stray bullet coming from that place could hit any one of them. I’m just scared of the violence that I know that kind of place brings.”

Marie Clay said the proposed parlor is 303 feet from Greater Beckley Christian School and 42 feet from her front door. Upon learning of the intentions to set up a video poker parlor on property owned by Dwight McKinney, she said 208 residents signed a petition in opposition in less than a day, adding, “We can have three times that amount.” It wasn’t clear just who planned to open the video parlor.

An elderly woman across the street from the proposed business, upon learning of the impending video poker parlor, sat on her porch and sobbed, Clay said.

“We are behind you,” Commissioner John Aliff said. “We do support you. We can only do so much. It’s (video joints) kind of like rabbits — they keep coming.”

Clay complained that members of the state’s congressional delegation offered no help, so she turned to the county commission.

“With all due respect,” she said, “if it was going beside one of your houses here, somebody would be helping us here. If there is a God in heaven, this won’t go through.”

— E-mail:

mannix@register-herald.com