Page 25 - Flathead Beacon // 11.26.14

FLATHEADBEACON.COM NEWS NOVEMBER 26, 2014 | 25 The Roundup
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FLATHEAD
CONSTRUCTION PLANNED FOR $27 MILLION CASINO IN EVARO
Construction of a $27 million, 40,000-square-foot casino and hotel in Evaro is scheduled to begin next year.
The new casino will replace the 7-year-old Gray Wolf Peak Casino and will include 70 hotel rooms. The casino itself will contain more than triple the 118 gambling machines now in use, and a new restaurant and lounge, spa ameni- ties, an RV park, a convenience store and a bank branch are also part of the plans.
The Confederated Salish and Koo- tenai Tribes say the facility will create more than 140 new jobs.
CSKT spokesman Rob McDonald says the current casino was always in- tended to be a temporary structure.
A $4.6 million renovation of the KwaTaqNuk Resort in Polson is also planned for next year.
NO CRIMINAL CHARGES IN GRIZZLY SHOOTING NEAR LOWER THOMPSON
State wildlife officers completed their investigation of a reported self- defense shooting of a male grizzly bear in the Lower Thompson River area last month and have cleared the hunter of any wrongdoing, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
FWP Game Warden Troy Hinck and Warden Sergeant Jon Obst corroborated the information given by the hunter and no criminal charges are being filed.
On Oct. 26, the hunter was deer hunting along the Lower Thompson Riv- er when a large bear came running out of the brush toward him. The man shot the grizzly in the chest from roughly 11 yards away with a .270 caliber rifle. The bear ran off into the brush. The hunter and a companion followed the tracks of the bear briefly until they realized it was a grizzly, at which time they left the area and reported it to FWP.
The bear was a collared male griz- zly. In 2011, it was first captured in a research trap in Elder Creek, British Columbia, Canada. There was no radio collar attached. On April 7, 2014, FWP captured the bear at a livestock depreda- tion site south of Eureka. The bear was collared and released along the Camas Creek Road in Glacier National Park. The bear was being monitored monthly and shown to be in the North Fork area until late April, then located in the Mid- dle Fork Flathead drainage. In Septem- ber, the bear’s last location was in the Star Meadows area west of Kalispell.
Grizzly bears are listed as threat- ened under the Endangered Species Act. Regional Warden Captain Lee An- derson noted that it is not illegal to shoot
an animal in defense of human life. The law does require these incidents be re- ported to FWP enforcement quickly so a thorough investigation can be conduct- ed.
MONTANA
BULLOCK TOUTS SPENDING PLAN AS OPPOSITION EMERGES
Gov. Steve Bullock last week sought to enlist the business community to help him promote to skeptical lawmak- ers a $300 million plan to upgrade state buildings, sewers, roads and other infra- structure across Montana.
Doubtful lawmakers have ques- tioned both the amount of spending and Bullock’s desire to use bonds to cover about two-thirds of the costs.
It’s shaping up to be a major point of friction for the Legislative session that starts in January. Republicans already have voiced opposition to the plan — a centerpiece of the Democratic gover- nor’s biennial budget proposal.
A similar impasse in 2013 culminat- ed in Bullock’s veto of a Republican pro- posal to pay for infrastructure improve- ments in eastern Montana’s oil patch with cash.
Bullock told a small gathering of business leaders in Billings he needed their backing to sell a spending package he said would expand Montana’s econo- my and generate new jobs.
The debate over how to pay for the improvements was based on a “false choice,” Bullock said, with lawmak- ers failing to recognize that using cash could be more expensive than bonds over the long-term.
Keeping that cash in investments, he argued, would generate more money than the state would have to pay in inter- est on bonds.
“It makes sense if we’re going to make long-term investments to also do it in a way that captures these dang-near record low interest rates, and pay for it over time,” he said.
Incoming Senate President Debby Barrett, a Dillon Republican, said Tues- day that the two sides are coming at funding infrastructure projects in dif- ferent ways.
She predicted Bullock would run into trouble trying to get the bonds through the Legislature. She also suggested he needs to pare back on spending.
“If we have a smaller list and pay cash and don’t increase our debt, that would be a more acceptable way to go for my caucus,” Barrett said.
The bulk of the package — more than $165 million — would go toward a long- range building program.
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