Lemoore
– Since The Palace Indian Gaming Center opened its doors to a
full-blown casino four years ago, residents of nearby Lemoore have
formed strong opinions.
Lemoore – Since The Palace Indian Gaming Center opened its doors to a full-blown casino four years ago, residents of nearby Lemoore have formed strong opinions.
Some people eagerly welcomed the casino and continue to support it today, saying the Tachi Yokut tribe that runs the gaming center deserves far more than the desolation they lived in for decades prior to the casino. Other residents remain icy and almost hostile to the impacts they think the casino has had on Lemoore’s social fabric.
From the outside looking in, The Palace seems much like any other casino. Purple and yellow neon lights line the walls in a never-ending pattern of diamonds. Gamblers sit and play and sit and play, some laughing lightly at their luck and others transfixed, locked in a dead stare with the spinning mirage of rainbow lights before them.
The casino sits a mere three miles outside the city limits of Lemoore, a sleepy but quickly growing community of 21,900. Hanford, about nine miles east of Lemoore, is much like Gilroy: a bustling, increasingly commercial and industrial city of about 46,000. The California Valley Miwok tribe is working with about two dozen local investors to build a casino in San Benito County just north of Hollister near the Santa Clara County line. The group has said it expects the resort to compare to Yolo County’s casino, which is 66,000 square feet with 1,762 slots – about one-half the size of The Palace.
Meanwhile, downtown Lemoore hums quietly with a healthy mix of small businesses: seamstresses, photographers, gift shops, antique stores, small cafes and nail salons. But just a few miles away, on either side of Highway 41, lie acres of open land, with towering power poles almost the only passing sight.
Behind the glitz of The Palace and the pulse of Lemoore is a mosaic of rich, complex relationships.
History
For 70 years, the Tachi tribe has lived on the sprawling Santa Rosa Rancheria just off Highway 198 in unincorporated Kings County. Long-time residents of Lemoore say the tribe lived at or below poverty level for years.
“Many people felt they deserved more than what they had out there,” said Rudy Estrada, a Lemoore resident for 67 years who owns a local barber shop. “The land they had was in horrible condition. (The casino) has restored dignity to a very poor, struggling group of people.”
In 1983, a group of investors built a moderately sized bingo palace on the rancheria. Management of the facility changed hands for about 10 years, until the tribe took over and renamed it The Palace Indian Gaming Center in 1994.
The bingo hall expanded to a full, 140,000-square-foot gaming facility in 2000, complete with 24 table games, 2,000 slots, a food court, and a 10,000-seat events center. Alcohol is served at special events and in the casino’s second-floor restaurant and buffet but not on the main gaming floor, said the casino’s general manager Adam Gonzales.
Development of the rancheria – once 40 acres, now 1,800 acres – has spread to include a number of tribal facilities: a government center, community housing, a health clinic, an education center and several recreational areas. Farming remains difficult because of high levels of alkaline in the soil, Gonzales said, but the tribe has established its own environmental protection agency to study the feasibility of farming in the future.
In April, a ceremonial ground-breaking celebration took place to mark a $107 million casino expansion, which will construct 177,000 additional square feet of gaming space, a 250-room hotel with two swimming pools, a day spa, a business conference center and a 2,000-seat amphitheater, Gonzales said. The expansion, expected to open late 2005, will create up to 400 jobs in addition to its 1,300 employees.
In a small city where unemployment hovers between 12 and 15 percent, the casino provides stable income and security for its employees, 97 percent of which are full time and 95 percent of which come from the Lemoore/Hanford area, Gonzales said. Benefits include a full medical, dental and vision package, life insurance and a 401(k) plan and an incentive program.
Community relationship
The barber shop owner’s son, Eric Estrada, is a 30-year-old Lemoore native. He said jobs aren’t the only contribution tribe members have given the community of Lemoore.
“Everyone in town knows about the tribe and who they are. They’ve been really good neighbors,” he said. “People here are pretty receptive to them because they’re so involved in the community.”
And examples of community involvement abound. The tribe supports little league teams in Lemoore and Hanford, sponsors an annual charity golf tournament and organizes a $15,000 sober graduation ceremony for Hanford High School students, Gonzales said.
A few years ago, the tribe donated defibrillators and about $1 million to the Kings County Fire Department for a new fire truck.
For some people, community contributions are nice – but the recreation the casino provides residents of a quiet little town is even better.
“It’s added a whole new source of entertainment to the area,” said Sharon Ganiron, a Hanford resident.
But some Lemoore residents have cast a critical eye on both the casino and the tribe. A regular customer at a local bar said she’s watched a handful of people slowly waste what little money they have at the casino, and while the gaming center may have benefited the tribe, the cost for the rest of society is hardly worth it. The woman, a local government employee, did not want to be identified.
“You come here to this bar on any Friday night, and you’ll see people drinking and talking about how much they’re going to go win that night. But they never do,” she said. “They’re not feeding their kids. They’re not paying their rent. I know too many people in this town who’ve thrown away their lives because of that casino.”
Public safety
The social impacts of The Palace on Lemoore and its surrounding areas extend beyond problem gambling and wavering community relationships. In 2003, 10 percent of all calls to the Kings County Sheriff’s Department were directly related to the casino, said county sheriff Allan McClain. While the most common calls are for medical aid, McClain said other prominent calls to the casino include alcohol- and drug-related incidents, prostitution and recovery of stolen vehicles. Even so, he said, the relationship between the county and the tribe remains generally positive.
“They’ve done a lot to give to the community and make the community a better place,” he said. “But the majority of the people who go to the casino aren’t local.”
McClain said the sheriff’s department has been negotiating with the tribe since the casino opened to help with the costs of added manpower. He’ll soon hire four more deputies specifically to help handle calls from the casino, he said, and he also wants to hire one more member each for the county’s Narcotics Task Force and Gang Task Force – again, in direct correlation to The Palace.
Impacts on
traffic and revenue
The most salient effect of the casino in the eyes of many Lemoore residents is not the drugs or crime; it’s the significantly heightened traffic they’ve had to put up with since The Palace opened. Located off Highway 198, the gaming center is set back about a mile from a two-lane country road – much like Highway 25 from Hollister to Gilroy – that has no turn lanes or shoulders.
“Those roads simply were not designed for that kind of traffic,” said Lemoore City Manager Jeff Briltz. “They can’t handle it, and that’s been sort of a battle for us with the tribe in the past.”
The relationship between the tribe and the city, though steady, has been fairly cool. In recent years, the city approached the tribe requesting $160,000 to help pay for a city roads improvement project, Briltz said. The tribe declined, and to this day the city has received no income from the casino or the tribe.
“That was tough to swallow,” said Kim Hogue, chief executive officer of Lemoore’s Chamber of Commerce, which the casino joined this year.
In December 2003, the tribe finalized a 17-year agreement with Kings County to help mitigate impacts derived from the casino. Through the deal, the county receives a fixed total of $900,000 annually from state allocations and tribal contributions. The tribe – which approached the county to initiate its end of the deal – will contribute a total of $363,500 to the deal this fiscal year, said Mary Gallegos, the county’s deputy administrative officer.
The tribe’s seeming eager willingness to assist the county with impact mitigation leaves a bitter taste in Lemoore Mayor Ed Martin’s mouth. Although the tribal council meets with city officials as often as necessary, Martin said, communication between the city and the tribe isn’t always as clear as it could be. And just because The Palace technically is located in the county, there’s no denying it affects Lemoore.
“They could be more cooperative … Here I am, the mayor of the town, and it’s really hard to even get a phone call back (from the tribal council),” Martin said.
While he once considered himself a big supporter of Indian gaming, Martin said he now wonders if it’s “gotten out of hand.” Martin was quick to acknowledge the positive effects any casino could have on a city – creating jobs, for instance – but he said it’s crucial to address potential problems immediately.
“Any large gaming operation is going to have a huge impact on the community,” he said. “If I could give any piece of advice, it’s that any planning issues need to be settled and worked out in advance.”
For the most part, the casino’s close proximity to Lemoore has had little effect on the city’s economy, said a number of city officials.
“People going to the casino pass through Lemoore – on the highway. They don’t really stop in,” he said. “In a way, the casino is just another location for them to spend their money, and that’s money they could be spending in the city.”
Residents of Lemoore seem generally accepting of the Tachi tribe and its ever-evolving casino. But some fear for the future of Lemoore’s historically quiet, content community; others think the damage already has been done.
“There’s so much involved in something like a casino,” Sheriff McClain said. “It’s an interesting mix – both good and bad.”
Katie Niekerk is a staff writer. Reach her at 408-847-7097 or
kn******@gi************.com
