The Tule River Reservation has announced plans to relocate its Eagle Mountain Casino in Northern California away from the reservation to land near the Porterville Airport.
The tribe hopes to begin construction in 2020, but it requires that California Governor Gavin Newsom sign a new tribal state gaming compact. It plans a 250-room hotel, convention center, 1,700 seat entertainment center, wastewater treatment plant and fire station.
The new location won’t be at the end of a long, tortuous, hazardous and winding road, a trip that had inspired a t-shirt that said “I survived Tule River Tribe of California Road to Eagle Mountain Casino.”
But perhaps more compelling, from the tribe’s point of view is that the casino consumes 40,000 gallons of water daily, which means that there isn’t housing on the reservation for 200 tribal members.
The reservation is also difficult to build on because of the high granite content.
Tribal Chairman Neil Peyron told the Valley Voice, “The plan is when the casino relocates, the administration, the housing authority, and our medical services will move into the current casino site which is bigger so we can expand our services. And the buildings down there will be used for youth services and elder services more closely related to the school and to the gymnasium like our cultural programs.”
The move may also relieve tension with local residents who resent the traffic on the less than ideal roads. Because of those roads the casino does not serve alcohol.
Relocating the casino to the safer location will enable it to sell alcohol, rent rooms and book convention space. All these factors will help fund tribal services. The tribe gets 95 percent from casino revenue.
So far there has been little opposition to the project, according to Project Manager Matt Ross. He told the Valley Voice, “Any time we have, it’s been lack of information or misinformation. Some folks were worried this may impact some of their businesses like holding weddings and things like that…And then they started looking and realized, ‘Wait, actually we can have more weddings and they can actually have a spot to stay.’ So there’s synergy rather than competition.”
The locals will also approve of the fact that the water treatment plant included in the plans means no impact on the local water system.
The relocated casino will also contribute to the local economy by providing 400 new jobs, said Ross.
Meantime, the tribe is waiting to negotiate with the governor. Eagle Mountain Casino General Manager Matthew Mingrone observed, “We got our fingers crossed. When everything is approved and we have everything ready to go, the tribal council will have to go back and sit with the governor to negotiate a new compact, which is an agreement having to do with the casino.”
