The North Carolina Department of Transportation has agreed to pay for a road and bridge to the new casino that's being developed by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
The tribe approved plans for the $110 million casino earlier this month. Since the facility is expected to create about 800 jobs and boost the economy, the state DOT has put it at the top of its incentive list. “This project was necessary to secure the enterprise, and it creates so many jobs at such a high wage that the state government did offer the incentive,” Joel Setzer, a division director for DOT, told The Smoky Mountain News. The tribe plans to erect a temporary casino within six months of groundbreaking. A permanent building will follow a year later. Get the Story: