January 2, 2008
By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer

City Administrator Bernard Seeger spent his first Christmas in Cascade Locks trying to soothe citizen ire over a comment attributed to him in the Oregonian.

Seeger found himself at the center of controversy when the article, “Odds grow long on Gorge casino,” hit newsstands on Dec. 24. He is quoted by a reporter as saying, “Nobody loves Cascade Locks. Nobody wants to live in a town that nobody loves.”

“I don’t have a rote memory so I can’t be 100 percent sure that I didn’t say that but I’m about 98 percent sure,” said Seeger.

“Either way, I am 100 percent sure that the comment would have been part of an overall message that wasn’t reflected in the article.”

Seeger said his statements during an interview about one month ago centered on the economic benefits that a casino would bring to Cascade Locks. As an example, he referred to nearby Stevenson, Wash., as a place that tourists loved to visit because of Skamania Lodge, a world-class destination resort built in 1993.

“I was trying to point out that this project had tremendous potential to move our community forward as Stevenson had done,” said Seeger.

“I was not trying to insult Cascade Locks at all. I have never done anything but praise and express my pride in this community.”

The subject of the article was the proposal by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to site a 500,000 square foot casino/convention center on 60 acres within the Port of Cascade Locks’ industrial park. The project was approved by Gov. Ted Kulongoski in the spring of 2005 and has garnered support from almost every government official representing Gorge communities at the local, state and federal levels. The application for the project was sent to the Department of the Interior, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, more than two years ago for consideration.

Port Director Chuck Daughtry said the recent article presented the issues in a way that supported the headline and the “other side of the story” was not told.

For example, he said anyone reading the article would be left with the impression that the project had fallen out of favor with local residents because its progress had been stalled by reluctant federal officials.

He said a politician who campaigns against the casino does not get the majority vote in Cascade Locks. He believes the election results are the best indicator of how citizens weigh in on the issue.

Daughtry said it was accurate for the Oregonian to point out that Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne appeared unwilling to move the Draft Environmental Impact Study of the casino forward for public review. However, he said the article failed to mention that agencies throughout the Mid-Columbia were growing increasingly vocal in their protests to Kempthorne’s inaction.

“It should have been told that Hood River County, the City of Cascade Locks, the Port of Cascade Locks and the State of Oregon are also now pressuring the Secretary for their right under federal law to see this analysis,” said Daughtry.

According to Daughtry, even Friends of the Columbia Gorge, opponents of the project, filed a Freedom of Information Act that requested the Interior office provide them with data contained in the completed DEIS.

Len Bergstein, tribal spokesperson, said the Warm Springs is sending a letter to Kempthorne this week requesting a timeline for the DEIS presentation. He said the National Environmental Protection Act requires that the Secretary schedule a date for the project to be scrutinized by citizens. Bergstein expects to know when the information will be publicly aired within the next month.

“We are not asking for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the casino in this letter, we are asking that Oregonians be allowed to have the robust debate granted by NEPA,” said Bergstein.

He said the Warm Springs are hesitant to follow the lead of other tribes across the nation and use a lawsuit to compel the Secretary to adhere to federal law. He is hopeful that the situation can be resolved without the tribes having to take their case to court.