Smoke signals., June 01, 2015, Image 10

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S moke S ignals
JUNE 1, 2015
Improvements begin at casino
By Brent Merrill
Smoke Signals staff writer
Spirit Mountain Casino is re-
ceiving a facelift and several
much-needed and delayed upgrades
in the coming months.
“We have lots of projects,” said
Spirit Mountain Casino General
Manager Stan Dillon. “The council
approved up to $8 million for a mul-
titude of different capital projects
for 2015.”
Tribal Council passed a resolu-
tion in February authorizing the
capital expenditures.
Casino guests will see some of the
improvements and some they won’t.
The two most visible upgrades to
the property are the new exterior
paint and the refurbished parking
lots.
The improvements most people
won’t necessarily see are the re-
modeled kitchen and the upgrades
to the casino’s information technol-
ogy system.
“One of the projects is in the IT
infrastructure,” said Dillon. “There
are a lot of upgrades to be done
behind the scenes and they need
to be done to protect our systems.”
“Those IT upgrades were things
we put in this package that we
just needed to catch up on,” said
Tribal Council Chairman and Spirit
Mountain Gaming Inc.’s Board
Chairman Reyn Leno.
One of the main IT systems need-
ing upgraded was the slot machine
system.
“We put a lot of emphasis on that
to make sure it’s protected,” said
Dillon.
The upgrades to the IT system
are scheduled to be completed by
October.
The casino also will be getting
150 new slot machines out on the
floor.
“We have been trying to upgrade
our product for the last five years,”
said Dillon. “We didn’t buy a lot of
machines when the economy was
down. So today, to make sure we
are competitive with everybody,
we are making sure that we get the
machines in.”
“A lot of what we are doing is just
catching up on what we have done
during a bad economy,” said Leno.
“We had been putting things off and
now it’s time to catch up on a lot of
maintenance and things like that.
I think it is important to point out
that during tough times we made
the commitment to keep as many
people working as possible and we
put off projects so we could make
sure that we did that.”
Part of the upgrades to the gam-
ing floor will include new chairs at
the slot machines and table games.
“When you are talking about
guests’ comfort level, the guest has
to be comfortable sitting there,”
said Dillon.
Dillon said the chairs are larger
and have better back support, and
are therefore more comfortable. He
said the chairs are a key component
to making a guest’s gaming experi-
ence more pleasurable.
“We are getting all new ones,”
said Dillon. “We are getting 1,850
slot machine chairs and 175 table
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
The exterior of Spirit Mountain Casino receives a new coat of paint on
Tuesday, May 19. The exterior paint job is just one of several improvements
happening at the casino.
games chairs.”
Dillon said guests should be see-
ing the new chairs soon.
“We should have a signed con-
tract any day now and it usually
takes about 10 weeks to get those
manufactured and delivered,” he
said.
Behind the scenes, a kitchen
remodel has been taking place
for about a month and is nearly
complete.
“We had some pretty major work
done in the kitchen areas,” said
Dillon. “What facilitated this re-
model project was plumbing issues
mainly.”
Decaying pipes that were almost
20 years old in some cases were re-
placed, as well as new ceilings and
light fixtures were installed. Much
of the kitchen equipment also was
replaced.
“You’re talking about original
kitchen equipment that was at the
end of its life,” said Dillon.
The kitchen has been modified to
make the operation more efficient.
Renovation efforts concentrated on
the kitchen that serves the sports
bar because it also serves the Rock
Creek Deli, the Poker Express
kiosk on the gaming floor and the
employee dining room.
“That kitchen is huge and han-
dles a lot of volume,” said Dillon.
“There is a lot of food that comes
out of that area. It has been tough
over the last five weeks to have that
down, but for what it handles that
needs to be an efficient kitchen. It
now has a much better work space
for the employees.”
The casino kitchen areas now
have the latest fire suppression
systems and the new flooring is
slip-resistant.
“One of the key things in all of
this is there is much more safety,”
said Dillon. “We replaced all the
fire suppression systems. They
have all been updated to the newest
and greatest to make sure that any
fire would be put out immediately.
We have newer floors now that are
slip-resistant and we have better
lighting and it is just an overall
better work space for our employ-
ees. The kitchen remodel was about
safety, improving the working con-
ditions and increasing how fast we
are able to serve our guests.”
“There were really some safety
issues for our employees down
there,” said Leno. “That is one of the
reasons that got done first because
it was a priority for safety and after
it was completed to provide faster
service and better quality product.”
One of the more visible chang-
es at the casino won’t really be a
change at all. The exterior paint
will remain the same color scheme
only it will be receive an updated,
fresher look.
After looking at different artist’s
renditions that would have seen
the casino painted different colors,
it was decided the colors currently
in use would remain, but be bolder
and brighter.
“The off-white color in the first
rendition just didn’t have the same
appeal and the more modern colors
chosen for the second rendition
made it look like an apartment
complex or a shopping mall, and
we didn’t want to go with that,”
said Dillon.
“My belief was that these colors
and the representation that we
have today have been good for 20
years so we decided to stick with the
current colors. In order to enhance
the building, we went with a darker
orange and a brighter blue. It is
much more intense color and more
clean and bright. It looks clean.”
Dillon said the exterior work
appears to be getting done on time
and potentially under budget.
“Everything looks to be on time
with the painting,” said Dillon.
“The rain slowed us up a few days,
but so far everything seems to be
on schedule.”
The upgrades to the casino park-
ing lots, like the exterior painting,
are weather dependent but so far
moving along smoothly, said Dillon.
“The parking lot overlay is a huge
process because we can only take
down so much of our lot at any one
time. We are going through all the
lots and cutting out the bad spots
and patching those areas.”
Dillon said once the problem ar-
eas of the parking lots are patched,
the lots will get a new overlay. The
casino property’s outer lots will re-
ceive a sealer coat to protect them
from any further damage and the
new overlay will be focused on the
main parking lots and through-
ways.
Lastly, the list of projects at
Spirit Mountain that have not been
started yet includes a renovation of
the current host office area. Dillon
said that guests end up having to
line up because of the small area
and that is not the representation
he wants for guests using that host
station.
“We are looking at more than
doubling the size of the office,” said
Dillon. “We are going to take one of
the walls out and extend the area
across the back.”
Dillon said everything is going as
planned with the projects and he
said there are many reasons to do
the upgrades now.
“We are doing good based on our
projections,” said Dillon. “So far
it looks like everything is getting
in under budget, which is good
because when you get into these
types of projects you never know
what you are going to find.”
Dillon sees the capital expendi-
tures not only as a chance to up-
grade the casino in many different
areas, but he also sees the projects
as a measure of protection for the
future.
“If someone wanted to know why
we are doing all this, the fact is we
are 20 years old now and it is one of
those things where we really want
to protect our building and to take
care of it,” said Dillon.
“It’s important that we stay com-
petitive and if we are going to say
we are the premier casino in Or-
egon then we don’t want to have
paint peeling off the building and
holes in the parking lot. We need
to be doing that preventive main-
tenance, it goes a long way. The
message we send is ‘we care.’ It’s
really important to take care of it
and maintain our presence as a
premier destination.”
“I think we have to be prepared
in case there is competition because
we want to be a premier casino,”
said Leno. “We have always had
a commitment to excellence and I
don’t think that has ever changed.
We have other projects coming in
2016 that will hopefully complete
the renovation of our casino.” n
Graduation ceremony set for June 19
The Education Department’s Graduation Ceremony will be held
at 6 p.m. Friday, June 19, in the Tribal gym.
Dinner will be provided. The ceremony will recognize Grand
Ronde students who have reached an educational milestone in K-3
Chinuk language class, eighth-grade, high school, GED completion,
certificates and college. If you graduated or will be graduating in the
2014-15 academic year, contact Education via e-mail at education@
grandronde.org or call 503-879-2275 or 800-422-0232, ext. 2275. n