"The mega-casino proposed for Highway 99 in Madera County is the wrong place for such a huge enterprise, and the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians should be looking at other locations. One of them is the Old Mill site in North Fork, and it now appears the federal government will require a closer examination of that location.

An Interior Department official has ordered the Bureau of Indian Affairs' regional office in Sacramento to study whether the 135-acre Old Mill site is appropriate for a Las Vegas-style casino. The North Fork Rancheria has rejected that site, but Assistant Secretary of the Interior Carl Artman says it needs more examination.

It may prove to be the wrong place for a casino because the former lumber facility is considered a potentially contaminated site. But the public deserves to know whether that's the case, and be confident that all potential casino locations were examined. Because of Artman's intervention, a new study and an additional public comment period will be added to the environmental impact statement process.

That will slow down the already lengthy casino approval process, and the tribe and its supporters are complaining about more delays. But this is too big of a decision to jam it through the process. If casino proponents had formally studied the Old Mill site in the first place, we would not have come to this point."

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Editorial: Casino location needs closer look (The Fresno Bee 5/24)
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