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Voters in the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community have approved a proposal to modify the tribe’s anticipated investment in its casinos. Unofficial results from Saturday’s election posted by the KBIC show a 168-107 vote in favor of the latest plan. The language caps spending on the Baraga project at 6.5-million dollars, and the Marquette project at 33.5-million. The vote endorses a change in direction from earlier plans, which had called for construction of a new casino in Baraga. The new plan calls for a much more modest expansion and renovation of the current facility. The more ambitious Marquette project will include a 100-room hotel, a 1,200 seat performance venue, and a 400 seat conference center at the current Harvey location. The tribe had hoped to replace the Harvey facility with a new casino on the former airport property in Negaunee, but Governor Rick Snyder has twice denied the request.
If Saturday’s request had failed, the earlier plan would have remained in place.
Two other proposals on Saturday’s ballot failed. Voters rejected a request to offer 1.55-million dollars to purchase seven acres of land at Pequaming. The property includes buildings and the Pequaming marina. The vote failed 109-166.
Tribal members also turned down a request to limit the Secretary of the Interior review process over tribal ordinances. The proposal was put forward after the Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected the tribe’s medical marijuana ordinance. It failed by a vote of 91-183.
