Tuesday, November 21, 2006
One more step before Kenosha gets its stupid casino
Wow, to think that I could come home to a casino just a mile or so from where I grew up. This really upsets me beyond all belief. There is no Indian reservation in sight. There is a casino a half-hour drive north of Kenosha. Yet, we will be getting one any way, because someone lined the pockets of Jim Doyle's re-election campaign. I think from now on, I will call Pleasant Prairie home--not Kenosha.
Plans for proposed off-reservation tribal casinos in Beloit and Kenosha have advanced, with environmental reviews completed by the regional Bureau of Indian Affairs, a bureau official said today
The step means that a series of environmental questions on the projects were successfully answered and now go for final review in Washington, D.C., said Herb Nelson, a regional environmental scientist for the bureau
The broader review on the full proposal for the Beloit casino, a joint project of the St. Croix and Bad River Chippewa tribes, will likely be completed by the regional Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Minneapolis this week or next, Nelson said.
A time frame for completion of the regional review for the entire Kenosha casino plan has not been given, Nelson said.
"It's done when it's done," he said.
The Menominee tribe has proposed an $808 million casino-hotel complex for the site of the Dairyland Greyhound Park dog track, about 35 miles south of Milwaukee on I-94.
In a statement, Menominee Tribal Chairwoman Karen Washinwatok called the completion of the environmental review by the regional Bureau of Indian Affairs staff "a major milestone."
The tribes hope to win federal approval for taking land into trust for the casinos, which has happened rarely. The bureau must find that the planned off-reservation casinos would benefit the tribes and not harm the local communities. Beloit and Kenosha voters have backed the casino plans.
The bureau also takes into account potential harm the casinos might cause other tribes. The Forest County Potawatomi tribes has objected, saying a Kenosha
casino would cut into business at the Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee.Washinawatok said a Kenosha casino could "peacefully co-exist" with the Milwaukee casino.
Gov. Jim Doyle gets the final say on the projects, if they receive federal approval.
Labels: SE Wisconsin
