sNok signflz
JUNE 1, 2020
7
Etched in
granite
Cemetery Service Technician Greg
Gnos with OM Stone cuts the
stencil before adding the names of
veterans Douglas D. Stake, Alden H.
Clark, Linden W. Frederic, Donald
E. Holsclaw, David W. Weaver and
Mervin J. Holmes to the Army pillar
of the West Valley Veterans Memorial
on Friday, May 15.
Photos by
Timothy J. Gonzalez
Tribal Council member and West Valley Veterans Memorial designer
Steve Bobb Sr. talks with Cemetery Service Technician Greg Gnos with
OM Stone before etching new names.
Cemetery Service Technician Greg Gnos with OM Stone makes sure the
names of veterans James F. Marks and Ramona L. Quenelle are in proper
alignment on the Navy pillar.
Improvements made during closure
CASINO continued
from front page
“We’re excited to welcome our
guests and employees back to Spirit
Mountain Casino,” said General
Manager Stan Dillon in a press
release. “We have used this closure
as an opportunity to make improve-
ments throughout the property. We
want all of our visitors to experi-
ence the best of Oregon’s premier
gaming destination.”
A blessing and cleansing cere-
mony was held Tuesday, May 26,
before the re-opening.
During a Facebook Live event
held on Wednesday, May 27, Dillon
said the casino has removed less
popular slot machines to accommo-
date social distancing requirements
and capacity has been reduced in
restaurants. For instance, seating
at the Cedar Plank Buffett has
been reduced from 384 to 248, and
diners will order from a selection
of three-course entrees instead of
eating buffet style and handling
utensils other people have touched.
Three Oregon Tribal casinos re-
opened during the week of May
18-22.
The Coquille Indian Tribe’s Mill
Casino in North Bend re-opened on
Monday, May 18, while the Siletz
Tribe’s Chinook Winds Casino
in Lincoln City opened its doors
More info
To review Spirit Mountain
Casino’s entire Health & Safety
Plan, visit www.spiritmountain.
com/images/uploads/pdfs/
SMC_Health-and-Safety-
Plan_2020-05-21.pdf.
on Thursday, May 21, and the
Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw
Indians’ Three Rivers Casino in
Florence and Coos Bay started
welcoming customers starting on
Friday, May 22.
The Cowlitz Tribe’s Ilani Casino
north of the Portland-Vancouver
metropolitan area in Washington
state announced on Monday, May
18, that it would open on Thursday,
May 28, and the Cow Creek Band
of Umpqua Indians’ Seven Feathers
Casino near Roseburg off Interstate
5 opened recently.
In a press release, Ilani stated it
also would open with safety pro-
tocols in place, including reduced
and distanced seating at its restau-
rants, guest temperature checks at
the entrances, face masks for team
members and frequent sanitizing of
frequently touched surface.
The local announcements mirror
Tribal casino re-openings that are
occurring nationwide from Connecti-
cut to the Seattle metropolitan area.
The Grand Ronde Tribe cautious-
ly re-opened its Tribal government
on Monday, May 18, bringing back
almost 500 employees who have
been idled since mid-March. Tribal
governmental employees continued
to receive their salaries and were
granted 320 hours – eight weeks –
of extra paid time off to ensure they
continued to receive paychecks.
Employees are undergoing a tem-
perature check when they arrive for
work and social distancing, mask
wearing, and frequent handwash-
ing and cleaning are encouraged.
Spirit Mountain Casino’s 1,100
employees also were idled in mid-
March and have been receiving
their usual paychecks plus consid-
eration for lost tips during the 74-
day closure. Casino employees were
granted 400 hours – 10 weeks – of
extra paid time off to ensure they
continued being paid.
In the days before announcing the
re-opening date, Tribal Council met
with Dillon on Monday, May 18,
and later that day the SMGI Board
of Directors met. Both meetings
were held in executive session.
On Tuesday, May 19, investment
bank Goldman Sachs sponsored a
teleconference titled “The Gaming
Industry and Approaching the
Re-opening of Casinos” and the
Oregon Tribal Gaming Alliance met
on the same day.
Grand Ronde Tribal Council
Vice Chair Chris Mercier, who also
serves as vice chair of the Oregon
Tribal Gaming Alliance, said he
was not “hugely surprised” that
other Tribes decided to start open-
ing instead of all Oregon Tribes
opening their casinos in unison.
“Who knows what kind of pres-
sures other Tribes are under,”
Mercier said. He also acknowledged
that the Siletz Tribe’s re-opening
of Chinook Winds “might” have
influenced the Grand Ronde Tribe
decision to re-open Spirit Mountain
Casino. The two casinos are approx-
imately 26 miles apart.
Spirit Mountain Casino is located
in Polk County, which is one of the
Oregon counties Gov. Kate Brown
gave permission to begin re-opening
on Friday, May 22. Nearby Yamhill
County was granted permission to
start re-opening a week earlier.
However, casinos are not subject to
state law. Brown previously acknowl-
edged in March that Oregon Tribal
casinos are operated by sovereign
nations and that she does not have
control over when they open or close.
Grand Ronde Station, the Trib-
ally owned convenience store ad-
jacent to Spirit Mountain Casino
along Salmon River Highway, has
remained open during the casino’s
closure because it sells essential
items like food and fuel.
