10.03.07 Tribe inks new deal with Blue Water Resorts, LLC
By Kalvin Perron
Staff Reporter
BAY MILLS - According to Bay Mills Indian Community Tribal Chairman Jeffrey Parker, the tribe and Blue Water Resorts, LLC have renewed their contract for a casino in Port Huron. The Bay Mills Executive Council approved the new arrangement on Monday, Sept. 24. The new contract will expire in 2010.
Parker said that the new contract is a consulting arrangement, whereas the previous one had been a management contract for five-years. Blue Water has been paying the monthly option on the property in Port Huron, the location of the Thomas Edison Inn, since 2002. Under the terms of the new contract Parker said the tribe would be able to pay back any money borrowed for the development of a casino in Port Huron in a 20 to 30 year time frame. Under the previous contract, the tribe would have had to pay back any money borrowed in five years, he added.
"Based on the compact we have, this could result in up to 48 million dollars for the tribe," Parker said. "There is a big difference between five years and 20 to 30."
Although the tribe recently signed a new contract, Parker is quick to point out that it does not mean a Port Huron casino is in the immediate future for Bay Mills. Because of the U.S. Trade and Intercourse Act, which states that tribes cannot dispose of property without an act of Congress, Parker said that Bay Mills would still need a settlement agreement with their land claim to Charlotte Beach to go through Congress.
But even though the odds of a settlement agreement making it through Congress unscathed may seem farfetched to some, Parker said recent developments have given him, and the tribe hope that it will happen soon.
"Senator Carl Levin has publicly supported our project," he said. "Levin, by virtue of his years of experience, gives some impetus to getting this done. We've now got both Senators from Michigan and both Congresspeople supporting this. That's something we've never had before."
And although he is excited that the tribe now has both Michigan Senators in Levin and Stabenow publicly supporting their project, Parker said Bay Mills would have never gotten this close to developing a casino in Port Huron had they not had the support of one certain member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
"Bart (Stupak) has been our champion all along," Parker said. "He has been very supportive, not just to the people in our tribe, but for the people in his district, for the benefit of everyone."
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