Monticello – Roberta Lockwood, the president of the Sullivan County Visitors Association, is ready to roll up her shirtsleeves and get to work promoting the county and the Catskills to the casino crowd.

Lockwood said Monday’s announced deal between Governor Spitzer and the St. Regis Mohawks to build a $600 million gaming resort at Monticello Raceway will mean a boon to the regional economy.

And that starts, she said, with the 3,000 jobs at the casino. “Then you take that and look at the development that is going to be spurred off of that; you’re going to take a look at the existing businesses that we have here that are going to have the opportunity to see growth and new dollars coming into our backyards that will be spent in their stores and in their businesses, and people to come back for additional visits,” she said. As Lockwood puts it, her message to the visitor is to “put their head on a bed in our backyard and dine in our restaurants and enjoy what we know is so precious and so beautiful.”

The federal government must now give its final approvals before the project can move forward. And it is now also facing a challenge from an environmental consortium, which believes the Bureau of Indian Affairs did not take enough of an in-depth look into the impacts on the region.

Meanwhile, Congressman Maurice Hinchey said he is optimistic that the US Department of the Interior will “now move forward expeditiously to take land into trust for this proposed casino, recognizing that the St. Regis Mohawk tribe has acted in good faith and complied with all federal and state requirements necessary for advancing their casino proposal through … the process.”

Bureau of Indian affairs officials did not return a phone call for comment Tuesday.