By Roger McKinney

rmckinney@joplinglobe.com

John Berrey, business chairman for the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma, on Monday led the Cherokee County, Kan., commissioners on a tour of the tribe’s new Downstream Casino Resort.

The casino is scheduled to open in less than a month, on July 5. A hotel under construction is scheduled to open in the fall. The price tag on the project is $301 million. The casino and hotel, just off Interstate 44 where Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas meet, is expected to hire 1,200 workers by the end of the year. The casino and hotel are in Oklahoma, while the parking lot is in Cherokee County.

“We’re just glad to show it off to you guys,” Berrey said.

Berrey said the casino will pay 100 percent of the benefits packages of employees. Each employee will be served a free meal during his or her shift, he said.

Berrey showed the commissioners room-size freezers and refrigerators. Employees use cards to clock in and clock out, for security purposes.

There are 420 video surveillance cameras on site, and Berrey showed the commissioners the room where security employees would be viewing the video screens.

Berrey said the information technology room contains $8 million to $10 million worth of computer servers, stacked floor to ceiling.

He showed the commissioners the counting rooms and poker rooms. He then showed them the gambling floor.

“We tried really hard to make it native and natural, and also pretty classy,” Berrey said of the decor.

The steakhouse seats 97 in its main room and has more seating in a private dining room, Berrey said.

The casino also has a sports bar, a buffet and a performance stage.

“I’ll need to know where the buffet is,” said Cherokee County Counselor Kevin Cure.

The gambling floor contains a large, circular bar in the center that includes what one might describe as a light sculpture reaching to the ceiling. Berrey said bartenders would be on duty all the way around the circle.

Some of the planned 2,000 slot machines are being installed this week.

The tour was not wasted on the commissioners.

“It’s pretty impressive,” said Commissioner Rodney Edmondson. “It’s definitely a high-end entertainment venue.”

“They’ve spared no expense,” said Commissioner Pat Collins. “It’s overwhelming.”

Commissioner Charlie Napier echoed the sentiment of the other two.

“I think it’s grand,” Napier said. “I was kind of overwhelmed by the size of it, especially the gaming part. It’s very impressive.”

Told of the reaction of the commissioners after the tour, Sean Harrison, spokesman for the casino, said: “That’s good. Maybe they’ll be nicer to us.”

Harrison referred to a lawsuit filed by Cherokee County against the U.S. Department of the Interior, alleging that the federal agency didn’t require the tribe to perform necessary environmental assessments before starting construction. The lawsuit also included a motion for an injunction to stop construction.

A federal government attorney has filed a motion to dismiss the case, but there has been no action on the motion.

The commissioners said after the tour and after leaving the site that while they want to be good neighbors, they also must protect county interests. Napier said he didn’t think anything would come of the lawsuit.

Berrey last month told the commissioners that the tribe would pay to upgrade and maintain County Road 110, which the tribe plans to use for heavy trucks making deliveries. Berrey also told the commissioners that the tribe wanted to widen Stateline Road leading to the Tri-State Monument on the casino property.

Cure was asked at the courthouse in Columbus, Kan., if he had made headway on drafting agreements with the tribe about the roads. He said he had been in discussion with David Cooper, the county’s attorney on gambling issues, to determine if the county could get more concessions from the tribe. Cherokee County is reimbursed for Cooper’s fees by Penn National Gaming.

Penn National Gaming plans to build a state-owned casino in Kansas, north of the tribal casino in Oklahoma, initially investing $125 million and investing an additional $100 million over the next several years.

Cure was on hand to make sure that neither the commissioners nor tribal officials discussed any county business during the visit, to ensure that it remained a private meeting rather than a meeting open to the general public. The Kansas open-meetings law defines public meetings as a majority of a quorum of a governmental body that has gathered to discuss matters pertaining to the governmental body. All those elements must be present to constitute a public meeting.

Berrey would not allow a Globe photographer inside the casino, saying that federal regulators were on site to oversee the installation of the slot machines and would not allow photography during the procedure. Two newspaper reporters were allowed along for the tour.





Other casino

Penn National Gaming last week paid its $25 million privilege fee to the state of Kansas for its planned $125 million Hollywood Casino in Cherokee County, north of Downstream Casino Resort.