An Oklahoma Indian tribe is interested in improving a number of rural Cowley County roads that would bring visitors to a $60 million casino and hotel the tribe intends to build near the Kansas-Oklahoma line south of Arkansas City.
County manager Leroy Alsup and commission chairman Gary Wilson met with Kay County and Ponca tribe officials last week to discuss potential improvements. Tribe officials first approached Cowley County officials about the improvements in 2006 and talks have ramped up now that plans for the 50,000 square-foot Ponca Fancy Dance Casino have solidified.
“It appears they are in a position to move forward,” Alsup said Thursday. “So the discussions have picked up again. Of course any discussion so far has been very preliminary.”
The tribe would probably use at least some federal funds for the project, Alsup said. Cowley County would not pay for any portion of the work.
Ponca tribe officials are focused on a network of Cowley County roads that provides a makeshift bypass connecting U.S. 166 west of Ark City with U.S. 77 near an area that once was the site of the Chilocco Indian School. The project would fund improvements up to 8.7 miles of road in Kansas.
It’s too early to know an exact cost for the road project, but Alsup said earlier estimates indicated as much as $3 million in roadwork would be necessary.
The route would start at U.S. 77 and Stateline Road and continue west 1.7 miles to 41st Road. From 41st Road imrpovements would continue north from one mile to 322nd Road, which is also known as Cowley 22. The work would continue for three miles west to 11th road, better known as Cowley 10.
From there the route would be improved for another three miles north to a connection point with U.S. 166 highway. The project is likely to include drainage improvements, funding to purchase further road right-of-way, widening of the road and improvements to the road surface.
“Right now those roads are not designed for buses or heavier traffic,” Alsup said. “There would have to be improvements.”
A spokesperson for the Ponca Tribe was not immediately available for comment.
Even if the entire road improvement project is not feasible, casino officials would have to make improvements to State Line road because it is the main road serving the facility.
Officials with Kay and Cowley Counties and the tribe have agreed to consult an engineer that is familiar with projects funded by the United States Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The new casino ? like others in the area ? sits on Chilocco school property. But unlike those other casinos, the new facility is about 1.3 miles from U.S. 77. Improving the roads would mean that some traffic from the north would pass by the Fancy Dance Casino before reaching the others.
“Obviously it would be advantageous to the Ponca Tribe to have traffic from Wichita and other areas northwest of here pass their casino first,” Alsup said. “(Cowley County) wouldn’t have any reason to improve those roads but we really don’t have any reason to object to someone else paying to improve those roads.”
Construction of the casino hotel is scheduled to commence in Spring 2008 with completion anticipated within one year, according to a report in the Ponca City News.
Sunway-Postoak Advisory, Inc. with offices in Las Vegas, Nev., Overland Park and Lawrence was selected by the Ponca Tribe Business Committee, the elected governing body of the tribe, to act as developers for the project.
The casino will join several casinos already located on Chilocco land including The Tonkawa Tribe’s Native Lights Casino and the Otoe Missouria Tribe’s Lil Bit of Paradise Casino. The Otoe’s First Council Casino, also located on the strip of land, opened last month.
“We are very pleased to go forward with this project as it will greatly enhance our economic development and affect many programs that will help our tribal members for many years,” Earl “Trey” Howe III, chairman of the Ponca Tribe, told the Ponca News. “With increased opportunities for employment we will be able to employ our young people to administer our new programs and be better able to control our own destiny in the business world.”
