The Enterprise Rancheria plans to build the Fire Mountain Casino at this site along Forty Mile Road south of Yuba City, California. Image from Google Maps
Correction: The Enterprise Rancheria has an agreement with Yuba County and will be sharing revenues with Yuba County -- not Madera County as incorrectly stated in an earlier verion of the post. The Enterprise Rancheria of California will break ground on a $170 million Class II gaming facility on Friday. The long-awaited Fire Mountain Casino will be located on the tribe's 40-acre reservation. At full build-out, it will create 1,700 permanent and construction jobs, support $21 million in annual payroll and contribute more than $5 million to local communities, according to a media advisory. "The project will also promote economic self-sufficiency for the tribe through critical funding for tribal education, housing, health, environmental protection, elder care, and other tribal programs," the advisory states. The payments to local communities have already started flowing. The tribe will present more than $800,000 to the city of Marysville and Yuba County as part of the groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow.
The groundbreaking for the Fire Mountain Casino takes place at 7am on April 8, 2016. Image courtesy Enterprise Rancheria
Plans originally called for a Class III facility but the tribe's gaming compact was not ratified by the California Legislature amid concerns about "off-reservation" casinos. Rival tribes with existing casinos and some local groups have been fighting the project. By failing to approve the agreement, a federal judge ruled that the state failed to act in "good faith" as required by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Chairwoman Glenda Nelson, who will be leading the groundbreaking, has said she looks forward to returning to the negotiating table. Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, Estom Yumeka Maidu Tribe of the Enterprise Rancheria v. State of California. Bureau of Indian Affairs Documents:
Press Release | Fact Sheet | Two-Part Determination Letter Federal Register Notice:
Land Acquisitions; Enterprise Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California (December 3, 2012)
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