Tribe Scrambles To Open Airway Heights Casino Kalispels Gamble On Expensive Project To Boost Perennially Poor Reservation

What the Kalispel Tribe wants for Christmas is for its $29 million Northern Quest Casino to open without a hitch.

Santa may give the tribe that present, but it won’t show up on Christmas Day. The much-anticipated casino opening will be “sometime later in the week,” said Bruce Didesch, general manager. That was as specific as anyone on the project could be Friday, as staff and management scrambled to get the 59,500-square-foot casino and its 500-plus employees in order.

“I haven’t slept in about two weeks,” said Curt Holmes, tribal council member.

At the corner of Sprague and Hayford roads in Airway Heights, the casino is poised to be a giant economic engine for the tiny Kalispel Tribe, which has its main reservation 55 miles northeast at Usk.

The 280-member tribe has struggled with poverty for generations and hopes the casino will generate revenues for education, health care, job training and a variety of social programs.

“Each member, down to the children, are excited to see this happen,” Holmes said. “It’s been more than five years of waiting.”

Work to get the casino ready for a holiday opening is going on 18 to 22 hours a day, Didesch said.

“Until we have an opening we are still operating off the initial construction loan,” Holmes said. “As we get down to the wire, our funds are being depleted.”

The casino held a media walk-through Friday morning. As public relations coordinator Marianne Guenther shepherded a gaggle of TV cameramen, photographers and reporters around, workers hustled.

On the main gaming floor, yellow CAUTION tape roped off the 425 electronic slotlike machines as technicians ran them through their checks.

Construction workers and casino staff were trying to bring it together all at once. In an elegant lounge, men behind the bar wore coveralls and handled drills and wiring, but the lounge tables had already been set with napkins and silverware.

Everything is moving along smoothly from the state’s regulatory point of view, according to Amy Patjens, an attorney and spokeswoman for the Washington State Gambling Commission.

The biggest hurdle the tribe faces to opening is getting all its employees certified by the state, Patjens said.

The state does criminal background checks on employees for certification. On Thursday, the gambling commission got 296 applications from the tribe.

“That is a lot of try and certify quickly,” Patjens said.

The casino has 131 certified employees - not enough for an opening, Patjens said.

Jobs at the facility have been much sought after. The casino has more than 1,500 job applications on file, Didesch said.

The casino ran a dealer school for the past 10 weeks and just graduated 96 students, all of whom were offered jobs. There are about 20 members of the tribe working in the casino.

“That’s a significant amount when you consider that more than half of our membership is under the age of 18,” Holmes said.

The opening Christmas week will be a “soft opening,” which means it won’t be accompanied by much advertising. That will occur afterward, Didesch said.

“It’s a way of easing in the staff,” he said.

A grand opening will be sometime in 2001.

“Obviously, we’re very excited to have this place make some money,” Holmes said. “Basically, it will allow the tribe to take care of its needs.”