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East Oregonian
Friday, July 7, 2017
WILDHORSE: 32-lane bowling alley will serve public and league play
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may seem like overkill for
a resort 300 miles from any
large metro area, George
is quick to note that the old
courtyard rooms (built in
1996) will be demolished
and the net increase will be
115 rooms. That means the
overall number of rooms will
be 416.
George wouldn’t talk
about occupancy rates but
said every weekend all
current 301 hotel rooms have
been sold out and many more
rooms would have been sold
if they’d been available.
Regional
opportunities,
including more conferences
and conventions — even
large bowling tournaments
— could draw more people
to the hotel.
Toward one of those
goals, two more key parts
of expansion to draw more
patrons are a new multi-
events center and a powwow/
outdoor arena for concerts to
be located where the court-
yard now stands.
And outdoor swimming
pool will connect to the
multi-events center and face
a stage in the new outdoor
arena.
Bowling alley
The idea for a 32-lane
bowling alley has been tossed
around for two or three years
after Pendleton’s bowling
alley closed up shop.
When Pendleton’s alley
closed, then-BOT treasurer
Aaron Hines — an avid
bowler — suggested an alley
at Wildhorse.
George said he and others
visited several casinos that
have successful bowling
alleys. Those casinos were
attracting large tournaments
with people who tended to
gamble as well.
The bowling alley visits
actually led to the entire expan-
sion project, George said.
The new bowling alley
at Wildhorse likely will be
configured with two sets of
16 lanes for the public and
league play during week-
days.
And,
George
said,
Wildhorse wants to offer
“high quality” tournaments
for bowlers from across the
region. Some tribal bowling
alleys have been successful
in drawing larger Profes-
sional Bowling Association
tournaments.
Restaurants, cineplex
and gaming
Three
restaurants,
including some kind of
franchise, will be located in
a small food court. George
said Wildhorse has “reached
out to a couple” franchises
already. He named a handful
of well-known fast food
hamburger and noodle
outfits.
A fourth restaurant will
serve patrons of the bowling
alley and the movie theater.
And the fifth eatery will
be a sit-down affair over-
looking the swimming pool.
It will have a breakfast, lunch
and dinner menu.
The theater changes are
straightforward: Add four
more screens so more movies
can be offered.
However, George said,
they will be “more elegant.”
The state-of-the-art theaters
will accommodate audiences
of approximately 120.
Of course, all this new
stuff is designed to bring
more people to the casino
to spend more money
gambling.
The expansion will recon-
figure the floor to add 300
more slot machines, which
will bring the total to 1,500.
Another half dozen table
games will bring the total to
20 in the pit.
To date, George said, the
previous four expansions
have been “very successful”
and Wildhorse “expects to
have the same success.”
Parking
Where are all these people
going to park?
Well, the current pave-
ment isn’t going to spread
across the landscape.
“We want to quit building
surface and start building
up,” George said. “Otherwise
it’ll be nothing but blacktop.”
Instead, a parking garage
for customers and staff is
planned at the site of the
current pow wow grounds to
the south of the cineplex.
“The design will match
the casino building,” George
said. “It’s not going to be like
a standard concrete parking
garage. It will blend in with
the rest of the property.”
Timeline
The BOT resolution
authorized Wildhorse to
negotiate with Thalden Boyd
Emery Architects for design
development, construction
drawings and to develop final
costs and to begin developing
request for proposals for
the construction project and
general contractor.
The current Wells Fargo
loan, approved in May 2014,
funded the first phase of the
expansion and refinanced
the Nixyaawii Governance
Center and the Tamastslikt
Cultural Institute. Wildhorse
is paying $6.7 million a year
on that debt, which comes
due in May 2019 with a
balloon payment of $7.7
million.
“By the time we negotiate
the new loan, Wildhorse’s old
loan will be close to being
paid off,” George said. “This
new loan should not impact
the current distribution to
the CTUIR and should be
repaid within seven years
when the expansion project
is completed ready for full
operation.”
If
everything
goes
smoothly, George said,
construction could begin
in the summer of 2018 and
finish in 2020.
LAWS: Senate Bill 327 restores
recreational immunity to cities
Continued from 1A
disabilities and the LQBTQ
community — during social
studies after House Bill
2845, which directs the
Department of Education
to write statewide “ethnic
studies standards” for K-12
social studies curriculum,
with the help of a diverse
advisory group. The depart-
ment will also develop more
financial literacy curriculum
thanks to the passage of
House Bill 2229.
• Juniors and seniors in
high school will be able
to register to vote thanks
to Senate Bill 802, which
lowered the voter registra-
tion age to 16 starting in
January. The actual voting
age, however, remains at 18.
• If you forget to pay
your child’s lunch bill,
don’t worry about “lunch
shaming.”
House Bill
3454 bans schools from
making students do extra
chores, throwing away their
lunch or otherwise publicly
identifying them as having
an overdue balance on their
lunch accounts. Instead,
schools are directed to work
directly with parents on
settling the bill.
• Worried about police
interviewing your child
while they are at school?
House Bill 3242 requires
law enforcement to record
interviews with minors
when investigating a felony.
• School volunteers with
direct and unsupervised
contact with students will
also have to undergo a back-
ground check first thanks to
House Bill 2992.
Everywhere else
• Hermiston can finally
move forward on building a
new skate park after Senate
Bill 327 restored recre-
ational immunity to cities
and other property owners
who offer up their property
for free recreational use by
the public. The law removes
the threat of lawsuits that
has been hanging over cities
since the Oregon Supreme
Court ruled that a jogger
injured in a hole in a city
park could sue the worker
who left it unattended.
• 20-year-old smokers
will have trouble getting
their cigarettes after Senate
Bill 754, which raises the
minimum age for smoking
and buying tobacco prod-
ucts from 18 to 21 starting
in January.
• Planning a wedding
but not the religious type?
House Bill 2113 allows
a secular institution “that
occupies a place in the
lives of the organization’s
members parallel to that
filled by a church or partic-
ular religious authority” to
perform marriages starting
Jan. 1.
• Cans and bottles have
been worth a 10 cent deposit
— twice what they used to
be — since House Bill 2746
passed in April.
• Teens and young
adults who have hesitated
to report a sexual assault
because there was under-
aged drinking involved are
now being given immunity
from being prosecuted for
drinking if the drinking
only came to light because
someone contacted law
enforcement or emergency
medical services to report
a sexual assault. The victim
will also be protected from
such prosecution, even if
they were not the one to
report the assault.
• If you’ve decided the
time has come for a vasec-
tomy, you no longer have to
wait for a physician. House
Bill 2103 permits nurse
practitioners to perform
vasectomies starting Jan.
1, making Oregon the third
state in the country to do so.
Not passed yet
• Grand jury proceed-
ings will be required to be
recorded if Senate Bill 505,
which was passed by the
Senate but not yet by the
House, passes.
• The House has not yet
passed Senate Bill 1050,
which would require life-
time imprisonment without
the possibility of parole for
repeat sex offenders who
have been convicted of
first degree rape or sodomy
before.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
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