REGIONAL BIA, CASINO DEVELOPERS COOK BOOKS TRYING TO SAVE LA CENTER SITE

Two key reports that the Cowlitz casino developers should have released nearly a year ago were quietly issued last month to cooperating agencies by the regional office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). They were included in the preliminary Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The casino project’s Business Plan and so-called “Unmet Needs Report” contain highly controversial needs and numbers, and are being used by regional BIA in an attempt to justify its dismissal of a site for the proposed Cowlitz casino in the tribe’s aboriginal homeland. The report says a northern site would not make enough money to fulfill what the tribe calls its “unmet needs”—which add up to $113.6 million a year.

The Cowlitz Tribe’s unmet needs include:

• a horse program (cost: $22.6 million initially and $655,125 annually)
• two medical facilities plus wellness centers (cost: $41.1 million initially and $30.2 million annually).
• a library (cost: $1 million to acquire core holdings and $500,000 in acquisitions annually).

In written comments to BIA, Vancouver City Manager Pat McDonnell called the Unmet Needs Report “exaggerated.”

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