PALMER, Mass. (AP) – Developer Leon Dragone envisions a shining hotel and casino complex on a hill just off the Massachusetts Turnpike, a tourist destination that will bring jobs and money to the struggling economy of western Massachusetts.

Kathleen Norbut, a member of the Board of Selectmen in neighboring Monson, sees a behemoth that will put an unbearable burden on roads, public safety, schools and housing and will change forever her quiet New England town.

Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed licensing three resort casinos in Massachusetts – one specifically in the western part of the state. Though his plan needs legislative approval, and it could be years before any casino would be built, developers already are eyeing possible sites as towns debate whether they should embrace gambling.

“We do not have the infrastructure to support something of that magnitude,” Norbut said. “The town of Palmer doesn’t even have a full-time board of health. The average taxpayer, the working middle class, like myself, I don’t want to be supporting the profits that will be going to the casino owners.”

Dragone’s Northeast Realty and the Mohegan Indian tribe, which runs the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., want to build a $1 billion resort casino on a 150-acre wooded site in Palmer, just 50 yards from the current turnpike toll booths. Preliminary plans envision a gaming floor with up to 4,000 slot machines and table games, a 600-room hotel and a retail center on land that now has vistas of rolling hills and the small former mill town it overlooks.

It would mean about 2,000 construction jobs and between 4,000 to 5,000 permanent jobs at the casino, with another 5,000 ancillary jobs in the area, as well as work for local vendors, Dragone said.

Traffic concerns, he said, would be mitigated because a fly-over ramp could be built directly from the turnpike to the casino.

“It’s a major juggernaut of economic vitality,” he said.

Palmer, a town of about 12,900 people, passed a referendum in 1996 supporting a possible casino development. John Lizak, who owns about 2,000 acres on either side of the turnpike, said he sold the casino developers the 150-acred parcel this year for about $4 million.

“I’ve been here since 1945,” the 90-year-old said Tuesday as he sat in the McDonald’s across the street from the property sipping coffee. “I’ve sold land to General Motors. I’ve sold to McDonald’s. I’ve sold to Wendy’s. I’ve sold to the Big Y supermarket. This will bring a lot here. Not just a casino, but stores and entertainment. I’ve got about 200 acres that could be used to build an airport. I might build a hotel.”

But some in town worry it also would bring crime, traffic and other unwanted development.

“I told my husband that if a casino goes into Palmer, we’ll put the house up for sale,” said Sheri Linn, 30, of Munson as she loaded groceries into her car. “I have three small girls. I moved here to be in a bedroom community where it’s nice and quiet and there are more churches than bar rooms. I’m not interested in the hubbub of a resort.”

Palmer is not the only town where a casino might go. Several developers are expected to compete with Northeast Realty for the right to build the western Massachusetts casino.

Chicopee Mayor Michael Bissonnette said he knew of three developers interested in putting the gaming facility in his town, at a site near the turnpike and the Westover Metropolitan Airport.

Studies show the casino could generate up to $12 million per year in local tax revenue and benefit attractions in nearby Springfield, he said.

“It would make the MassMutual Convention Center a little more attractive to bring in conventions, it would help the hotels and other tourist attractions such as the Basketball Hall of Fame,” he said. “I like to look at this as 40,000 vehicles a day, which will be a rising tide that will lift all our boats in the region.”

Bissonnette said if lawmakers approved a casino plan, they also should consider putting together a regional planning board to discuss how to mitigate the negative impacts of a casino and how to share revenues among the neighboring towns.

He plans to gauge local support for a casino with a nonbinding question on the November ballot, but cautioned any casino still faced major hurdles, including state legislative approval, competitive bidding and regulatory approval.

“We are five to 10 years out before anyone puts a quarter in a one-armed bandit,” he said.

A decade after Palmer’s referendum, Town Manager Richard Fitzgerald said he doesn’t know whether the majority of residents would still embrace a casino. He anticipates the town will be required to have another vote if the state legislature passes Patrick’s plan.

“It would bring jobs, but it also would bring a host of other things – a requirement for infrastructure rebuild, school growth, usage of land,” he said. “It would change the town of Palmer from what it is today to, I don’t know what it would change it to. But it would change it.”

AP-ES-09-18-07 1637EDT