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Dusty Compton | Tuscaloosa News

Tables are empty at the Highway 43 Diner in

Eutaw on Friday. The diner is closing thismonth because of a drop in customers afterGreenetrack closed last month.

Comm unity jobs lost along withGreen etrack's electronic bingoBy Jason Morton Staff WriterPublished: Sunday, August 15, 2010 at 3:30 a.m.

EUTAW | Cynthia and J.C. Smith arehoping for one more week.

On Friday, they expect to open the doorsof their Highway 43 Diner for the lasttime.

Its a tough but necessary decision, J.C.

Smith said. After Greenetrack lost most of its customers when its electronic bingooperation was closed, so, too, have theSmiths lost theirs.

I didnt see it coming, J.C. Smith said of the raid on Greene-track lastmonth that effectively cut off the financial life blood of this poor Black Beltcounty. And after it happened, I was hoping Id just get some customers.But I didnt get any.

In fact, Smith can pinpoint the day business collapsed. Standing behind ahand-made closing soon sign hanging on the restaurant counter, he saidthe last time a healthy stream of customers came in was July 16, the day before a Greenetrack-organized rally against Gov. Bob Riley and his Task Force on Illegal Gambling took place in Montgomery.

Everybody went (to Montgomery), Smith said. Aint nobody been back.

Before the governors task force seized more than 850 electronic bingomachines from the facility during the first week of July, Greenetrack employed about 400 people and pumped millions of dollars into the localeconomy.

While paper bingo returned to Greenetrack on Friday, the elimination of the electronic bingo machines meant the loss of more than 350 jobs, along with the spending in the community by those employees and thethousands of out-of-county visitors drawn to the gambling facility. Alsolost are the contributions from Greenetrack to local charities, nonprofitsand governments, such as the annual $780,000 that went to the GreeneCounty School System.

In June, before electronic bingo was shut down, 429 people wereunemployed in Greene County, a jobless rate of about 14 percent,according to the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations.

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This is one of the poorest counties in the state ..., she said. And most of these people are (like) my family.

Your job (helps) not only to survive in this economical age, but to feelgood about yourself.

Former business owner Willis McGee is among the fortunate ones.

For months, he had been considering selling The Bait Shop, the longtimefixture on Tuscaloosa Street that he bought several years ago.

The loss of Greenetracks bingo machines and the potential customers they brought to town helped him make his decision.

At 53, McGee said hes seen good and bad times in Eutaw, where hes livedall his life. Right now, he said, its in desperate need of some help.

Greene County just hasnt thrived, McGee said. Thats not all because of the rise and fall of Greenetrack ... but this has hurt the community in theshort-term. Long run, I dont know whats going to happen.

But theres a lot less money floating around in the community, you cantell. These poor folks down here, they need something to bring people infrom out of town with money in their pockets.

Reach Jason Morton at [email protected] or205-722-0200.

Copyright 2010 TuscaloosaNews.com All rights reserved. Restricted use only.

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12-4 pltfs amend motion for prelim inj exh d

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