By Laura Lane, Hoosier Times
FRENCH LICK - Unlike the gamblers that will descend on French Lick's new casino come November, most Springs Valley business owners aren't taking a lot of chances when it comes to expanding.
Instead, many are taking a wait-and-see attitude.
"Nobody knows what the casino will bring. The casino managers don't even know what to expect," said Julie McCracken, a manager at French Lick Winery. "It's like looking into a crystal ball."
The winery started small back in 1995, and moved into a 27,000-square-foot leased space inside the vacated Kimball Piano Co. factory in January 2005. For 30 years, starting in 1961, the piano plant employed hundreds of area residents.
The wine business is good, McCracken said. Production has grown accordingly.
And there is room for expansion. "We're going to wait and see what happens," she said.
So are a lot of others.
And then there are business owners such as Jerry Fuhs, owner of the Wilstem Ranch, Beechwood Dinner & Guest House and other ventures, who have big plans. Fuhs is getting ready to break ground on the state's largest indoor water park, to be just a few blocks from the casino.
French Lick Town Council President Barry Wininger said most small business owners have spent the past few years just trying to keep their doors open. The town's major manufacturing plants have closed down, leaving people unemployed and businesses struggling to survive.
"Our smaller businesses have had to be conservative in the past few years with the loss of the Kimball factories and all the other jobs that are gone," Wininger said.
"It's hard to get out of that survival mode sometimes. You can't blame people for being cautious. I think everyone is optimistic, but it makes sense to wait and see what happens."
Big change means big dollars
The town is forging ahead, though, with $15 million in upgrades that have been needed for decades but were not carried out for lack of funds.
Five million, for upgrading the town sewage treatment plant and to raise Ind. 56 near the casino 3-4 feet to bring it out of the flood plain, is being supplied by the hotel and casino developer.
The town has sold bonds for the remaining $10 million to finance a facelift that will include a village green, streetscaping in French Lick and sidewalks all through town.
Unlike small businesses that are hesitant to forge ahead with growth right now, the town has a guarantee of money coming in that will repay the bond issue and allow the changes to happen before gamblers come to roll the dice.
"We will pay the $10 million out of gaming revenue that will be diverted to the town. We know that revenue stream will be coming in," Wininger said.
"We have piecemealed everything together for so long that we are addressing 40 or 50 years' worth of neglect. We've waited long enough. We're getting all this stuff we have needed for decades down here in just a few months."
A wait-and-see attitude
Since 1957, Karen Henson and her husband Dow have been serving customers of their Villager Restaurant homemade pie, chicken and dumplings made from scratch and hamburger ground in their kitchen. They have added on to the building twice, and it now seats about 200 people.
They don't accept credit cards. And they serve banana cream pie with 4-inch-high meringue.
There's a lunch buffet every day. Karen Henson, who still does some of the cooking, has added a few menu selections, such as a popular taco salad, to help feed the hundreds of workers building the casino and refurbishing the old French Lick Springs Resort.
"We serve home-cooked meals, mostly, and we are thinking about expanding the menu," Henson said. "But I think people will still want to come some place like this for meals that you can't get anywhere else around."
They have no plans for big changes any time soon.
Regular customer Dody Conrad comes in almost every day for a piece of pie and coffee. Midafternoon Wednesday, she was one of six customers seated at the Villager.
She knows those quiet afternoons with her friends who work at the restaurant may be numbered. Soon, casino-goers seeking home cooking might take her seat at the counter in a place where she has been known to bus tables and take orders when the going gets busy.
"There's nothing I can do about the change that's coming, so I don't waste my time worrying," Conrad said. "I don't think people here in town know how much things will change."
Starting with small changes
Ruth Chaplin and her husband Randy manage Lane's Motel & Campground on Ind. 56 on the way into downtown French Lick. All 42 rooms and most of the campsites are full during the week, occupied by construction workers. On the weekends, fishermen - many who have come to the hotel for 20 years or longer - take over.
"Some of them you get to know like family," said Ruth Chaplin, who has worked at the motel 21 years.
The owners, who live in Ohio, "are just waiting to see how things go" when the casino opens, she said. "I think we will still get our fishermen and hunters."
Fifty dollars will buy a room at the motel for one night. Chaplin said the motel has not made big changes as far as upgrading their rooms, although they have installed small refrigerators and microwave ovens in each one.
"This past winter was the busiest since I've been here," she said. One company booked all of the motel's rooms for the month of January.
When the casino opens, she expects hardcore gamblers to stay at the casino resort, not her quaint motel. "I think more family-oriented people and those who don't want to pay as much will see us as an option," she said.
Thirty-five years ago, Eddie Kellams started a mom-and-pop service station. Today, Fast Eddie's Country Store and Deli is a full-service stop for fuel, snacks and more.
"We're always busy, but the casino could maybe hurt us some because with all the traffic, it will be hard to get in and out," Kellams said. "We'll have to change according to what happens. Then maybe in the end, it could be better for us."
Questions about the future
Late Wednesday afternoon, Mark Patterson of Carmel carried two cases of French Lick Winery wine out to his van. He and his family had spent a few days at his mother-in-law's condominium near the French Lick Springs Resort.
He acknowledged that their next vacation to the area might be less quiet.
"Things will really be changing," he said.