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Anyone know anything about the new casino going up west of Williston along highway 2 about 9 miles west of Williston? According to the Williams County Commission minutes from October, The Turtle Mountain band broke ground on a $150 million dollar casino on October 24th. I haven't read anything about this in the press? Here is the paragraph from the tribes Economic Development, Dave Blue, speaking at the Williams County commission meeting, and the link to the minutes. Go to page 8 of the link below.
"Dave Blue, Economic Development for Turtle Mountains in attendance today to explain that the tribe has purchased some Indian Trust Land and will be building a casino west of Williston east and south of Stat Oil. The project will cost approximately $150M. The project will be in phases and when they start turning dirt Phase I will be completed in 14 months and cost approximately $80M. This casino will be a state of the arts casino with hotel, resort, convention center, restaurant, and outlet mall. They will provide housing for their 300 employees. They are exempt from building permits or liquor license, but they want to be good neighbors and work in conjunction with the County. The liquor license will have to be issued by the tribe in Belcourt. They will contact the NDDOT and help with the 4 laning of Highway 2 west. They will have their own law enforcement at first then try and get an agreement with the Sheriff’s Department to assist. They will also do a small expansion of the casino in Trenton. The grand opening ceremony will take place October 24th beginning at noon and they are inviting the Commission to attend."
I would think they would almost have to provide some sort of housing for their employees if they plan to hire 300. Like many businesses in Williston do. When you have a housing shortage and plan to open a business that will employee 300 non-oil field paying jobs, it would be hard to find enough people to apply without some sort of housing or subsidized housing. I've heard Menards plans to bring in workers to fill positions as needed, and am sure there will be some sort of housing incentive for their employees as well.
There is also the chance the tribe will be hiring tribal members to fill many of the positions. I'm not sure how that works, but Prairie Knights Casino advertises regularly of hiring tribal members.
On the Prairie Knights Casino application, it states "Indian Preference Observed We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, or disability" http://prairieknights.com/data/upfil...pplication.pdf but clearly states there is Indian Preference in the hiring process.
I am guessing there is some sort of law that allows this? since tribal lands are considered sovereign nations . Probably the same reason the casino doesn't need to pull a building permit or liquor license from Williams County to operate the casino as indicated in the article. I know non tribal members work at reservation casinos as well as tribal members., so I'm sure none tribal members would be welcome to apply.
Roloff, I am not sure what kind of agreements the tribe has with the state, however, we just completed some construction projects on the Crow Reservation in Montana. Initially, we were required to hire x percentage of tribal members. As we we're gearing up, we couldn't reach the numbers. We offered more money and it didn't help, still not enough. The super went to the tribe and told them. They had a council meeting and gave us a waver so we had more realistic percentages. We still could reach the goals, so another Council meeting, another waver and once again the percentages were lowered. We still couldn't do it. The last waver was open ended saying to hire what we could and keep an ad open in the paper throughout the entire project. We finally started laying asphalt with 2 Tribal Members. On the second day, they didn't show up, but rather called in and said, "each week, send my check to this PO Box, we know you can't fire us, we're the only reason you can continue working, so as long as the checks continue, we'll keep our name on the employed list.". We finished 8 weeks later and never did see them again.
Elk Hunter, Yes, I have heard stories like that. My cousin has a construction company and had done work in New Town. He implied the same issues you were talking about. Usually, it was show up for work one day, and not the next, and then show up a week later, etc...
I was in Williston over the weekend and did find the location. It is pretty much across from Statoil's headquarters west of Williston. The big sign had blown over from the wind it appears, but it is a nice looking casino and hotel. It looks like it is right along highway 2 if it gets built.
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