The Utah-based Ute Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation has applied to the Bureau of Land Management to buy 2,453 acres that would allow it to build a casino near Dinosaur, Colorado.
The land would stretch across the Colorado, Utah border, allowing the tribe to be located physically next to Colorado, which would address the objections of Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, who opposes off-reservation casinos.
The tribe wants to buy private land in Dinosaur and apply to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to put it into trust. This is the second attempt by the tribe to develop a casino, which it cannot due in Utah because all forms of gaming are banned there.
Dinosaur Mayor Richard Blakley, whose town has about 300 residents, supports a project that would create as many as 400 jobs. “It’d be really good. We already have the infrastructure and everything in place for it,” he told the Grand Junction Sentinel.
The mayor said his town council supports the proposal, but he is unsure whether Moffat County officials support it. “I think they’re kind of looking forward to it,” he said. “I can’t say for sure.”
BLM evaluation of the proposed sale to the tribe could take as long as two years, according to a spokesman for the bureau. David Boyd, a spokesman for the BLM told the Standard in an email: “We are reviewing the proposal and will decide whether to move forward with a formal evaluation, (like an EA or EIS, for instance),” adding, “If we move forward with a formal evaluation, there will be several opportunities for public involvement.”
The tribe has requested that the land be sold without a bidding process, something that is allowed by the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act because the tribe is sovereign. The law obliges the tribe to show that it would not be able to achieve the same economic development without the sale.
The city has informally discussed providing some services to the casino, such as emergency services. “We’ve only touched on it a little bit, maybe talked about them contracting the town or whoever (to provide emergency services),” said the mayor. “All that kind of stuff we haven’t really got into yet.”
When the tribe first introduced the idea of a casino in 2011, the town’s residents were divided. “We have some naysayers now still, sure. What do you do that you don’t have naysayers?” Blakley said. “As a leader, I have to look at the jobs and the betterment, and what it’s going to create for our town and our citizens. Sitting in this position you’ve got to look at the pros and the cons. I’m seeing the pros outweighing the cons by quite a bit.”
