I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Sept. 17, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe is negotiating to build a small-scale casino on 40 acres of tribally owned land adjacent to Deer River, Tribal Chairman Eli Hunt said Thursday.
Hunt said the band is discussing the project with the Deer River City Council and has several questions to answer, but if the project goes as planned, they could break ground within 90 to 100 days.
"There's a very good chance this project will go through," Hunt said. "On a scale of one to 10, I'd give it a nine."
The proposed facility would be a one-story, 8,000-square-foot building on tribal trust land at the intersection of U.S. Highway 2 and state Highway 46, which is adjacent to the city of Deer River. The building would hold slot machines, blackjack tables, a small gift shop, a snack bar and a 10-seat bar. It would hold 200 to 300 people.
Hunt said construction is estimated to cost about $1.5 million, with another $1.5 million needed for start-up, operating and equipment needs.
One of the casino's main purposes would be to provide jobs for not only tribal members but others in the area, Hunt said. The casino should be hiring about 115 people, who would make salaries starting at $7 an hour. The casino's manager would make $30,000 to $40,000.
The casino would employ two shifts of workers and be open about 16 hours a day.
The Deer River City Council and Leech Lake representatives most recently discussed the project at a special meeting held Monday in Deer River.
Both Hunt and Leech Lake Public Relations Director Judy Hanks said before the Leech Lake Tribal Council approves the new casino, there are important questions that have to be answered.
Those include:
Whether the casino would be connected to Deer River's sewer and water system. The Grand Rapids Herald Review reported Wednesday that Deer River's city engineer is concerned the city's current system could not handle a projected 10,000 gallons of sewage a day created by a casino.
Hunt said one option is to build an on-site sewer and water system, but the band prefers to connect to the city's.
Leech Lake Special Projects Coordinator Bob Goggleye said at Monday's meeting the band would be willing to provide some money to the city to help with the project in lieu of taxes because casinos are not required to pay state taxes in Minnesota, according to the Herald Review story.
The band has to perform and pass an environmental impact statement for the proposed casino. Hunt said that could take about 90 days to complete and it needs to be done before any groundbreaking takes place.
Negotiations with tribal members who own some of the land where the proposed casino would sit have to be finalized.
"If those terms are satisfying to all parties, the Tribal Council would take the next step," he said. "We don't want to move forward with this thing until these agreements are in place."
This is the second major announcement concerning casinos the Leech Lake Band has made in three weeks.
On Aug. 31, Leech Lake members narrowly approved a referendum to spend up to $30 million on a new Northern Lights Casino in Walker.
The proposed facility includes a larger casino, a hotel, a restaurant and convention center with daycare facilities and a recreational vehicle park.
Hunt said the Deer River proposal could affect the new Northern Lights plan and, if approved, ground would be broken on the Deer River casino first.
In addition, he said if the Deer River project is approved, the band may have to scale back the new proposed Northern Lights Casino because another casino may change the market area for Northern Lights. The Deer River project would also decrease the workforce needed to build the Northern Lights.
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