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 http://www.spokane.net/news-story.asp?date=022600&ID=s748298
Construction begins on casino
Airway Heights site will employ 500 when it opens next year

Tracy Ellig - Staff writer
 

Work has finally begun on the Kalispel Tribe of Indians casino in Airway
Heights.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the 54,000-square-foot casino was held last
September, with talk of actual construction beginning a few weeks later.
However, a federal government decision that construction would not harm the
environment was slow in arriving.

"The bureaucracy just takes so long," said Dave Bonga, a member of the
Kalispel Casino development group.

The general contractor -- Lugo Construction Inc. of Fife, Wash. -- was given
notice to proceed Feb. 11. Bulldozers started moving dirt around on the site
this week, Bonga said.

Lugo's contract stipulates the facility must be completed by Feb. 11, 2001,
Bonga said.

The casino's design has not changed since it was unveiled last September.
The tribe still hopes to have room for 52 table games, which could include
blackjack, roulette and craps and up to 700 electronic machines that would
mimic a slot machine in play. It's estimated it will cost more than $20
million to get the facility open for gamblers.

The tribe arranged financing for the project with the help of Miller &
Schroeder Financial in Minneapolis, Bonga said.

The casino will be managed by Spirit Mountain Management and Consulting of
Grand Ronde, Ore. The company is an enterprise of the Confederated Tribes of
the Grand Ronde, owners of Spirit Mountain Casino in Oregon.

The Kalispels hope to employ 500 people with an annual payroll of $12
million at Northern Quest Casino.

The tribe is building the casino on 40 acres of land it acquired in 1994 and
then designated as part of its reservation. The Kalispels' main reservation
is a 10-mile-long strip of land near Usk, Wash., roughly 55 miles northeast
of Spokane.

Only one other tribe in the United States, the Potawatomi Tribe in
Wisconsin, has acquired land away from its reservation and then won
government approval for gambling on the property.
 

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