In addition to donating $11,000 to the Nichols Fire Department for a new rescue boat this past weekend, Tioga Downs owner-operator Jeff Gural has stated that the current expansion plan for the raceway would probably be tweaked to incorporate more gaming if the state’s constitution

is amended.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in early December that he plans on pursuing the legalization of expanded gaming in the state.

"We were planning to build a hotel anyway, but if we're going to have live table games, we would probably increase the size of the hotel, and then we would have to expand the casino, so right off the bat, you have construction jobs," Gural was quoted as saying in an article on wbng.com.

The $11,000 Gural donated Saturday covered half the cost of the new 18-foot Rescue One Connector boat the Nichols Fire Department has purchased. The department’s other boat suffered extreme damage during area floods, which occurred this past fall.

An article on thedailyreview.com explains that the fire department had performed over 80 rescues during a 54-hour period during the worst days of the flood. One of the individuals rescued was a Tioga Downs employee that was on his way to work when flash flooding struck.

"His truck floated away and he was stuck up in a tree," said Gural. "These rescuers got him.”

(With files from wbng.com and thedailyreview.com)