Editorial: Cowlitz Tribe needs new neighborhood

Monday, June 18, 2007  

"More than once in The Columbian’s editorial denunciation of the Cowlitz Tribe’s proposed casino we’ve mentioned a comment made by Jim Cason in February, 2006, when the U.S. Interior Department’s associate deputy secretary visited here. “A good-neighbor policy is important” in applications for tribal casinos, Cason said after he was asked if the feds paid much attention to official stances taken by local governments and organizations.

Well, some potential neighbors in Clark County aren’t getting along very well. On Wednesday, the La Center City Council voted 4-1 to terminate discussions with the Cowlitz over almost $18 million in sewer improvements that the tribe had been offering the city. Then on Thursday, an attorney for the tribe said “there is nothing left for the tribe to offer.”

If the Cowlitz and the city closest to the site of the tribe’s proposed mega-casino on Interstate 5 have stopped talking to each other, we wonder what kind of acceptance casino promoters hope to receive elsewhere in Clark County. And we hope the feds are wondering, too."

Get the Story:
In our view: Hardly neighborly (The Columbian 6/15)