Ponca Indian Tribe officials have been invited to attend Tuesday’s Cowley County commission meeting to discuss the tribe’s proposal to fund improvements to some county roads as part of a $60 million casino and hotel project.
County Engineer Dale Steward said he extended the invitation several weeks ago during a telephone conversation with a tribal official but that he has not heard since then whether anyone involved in the $60 million project would attend the meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. at the courthouse.
County Administrator Leroy Alsup said commission chair Gary Wilson informed some landowners adjacent to State Line Road about the meeting. Ark City officials are also aware of the agenda item but do not need to attend unless new information has become available since the two commissions met in a special meeting, he said.
The tribe is interested in funding improvements to a nine-mile stretch of county roads that would connect U.S. 166 west of Ark City with the intersection of U.S. 77 and State Line Road. The 50,000 square foot casino, 100 room hotel and 20,000 square-foot event center will be constructed on 800 acres of land the tribe owns at the former Chilocco Indian School, just south of the Kansas-Oklahoma border.
Sunway-Postoak Advisory, Inc. with offices in Las Vegas, Nev., Overland Park and Lawrence, Kan. was selected by the Ponca Tribe Business Committee, the elected governing body of the tribe, to act as developers for the project.
A formal, written proposal has not been received by the commission, Alsup said.
