Tesuque BETS on new casino
Pueblo starts work next to SF Opera
TESUQUE — The development of a new casino for Tesuque Pueblo, located next to the Santa Fe Opera, is all about investing in the future generations of the tribe, the pueblo governor said Wednesday.
Gov. Frederick Vigil spoke at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility that will go up off U.S. 84/285 north of Santa Fe, on a site previously used for the pueblo flea market.
Vigil told the crowd — which included Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales, City Councilors Signe Lindell and Ron Trujillo and District Attorney Marco Serna — that revenue generated by the casino will go toward funding the Te Tsu Geh Oweenge Day School, providing scholarships for college students and investing in bringing tribal members with degrees to work for the pueblo.
“That’s the future,” Vigil told the Journal after the ceremony. “I have several of my granddaughters and grandsons dancing and going to the small community school, run by the Bureau of Indian Education, and it’s one of the biggest facilities that we have since back in the 1950s, so we want to look at the enhancement of it.”
Many pueblo members have college degrees, Vigil said. “But the challenge is to bring these men and women back to work for us, and we have to pay them what they’re worth. So with this new development, you’re going to enhance more revenue to where you’re bringing the resources to pay adequate salaries for these folks.”
Charles MacKay, the Santa Fe Opera’s general director, previously has said the opera has concerns about noise and light pollution from the casino. Kubiak said Wednesday the pueblo is working with the opera to mitigate those concerns.
“I would say that we have a very positive relationship with the opera, and we
intend to be good neighbors with the opera and build some synergies with their operation and our operation,” Kubiak said.
Mayor Gonzales addressed the casino’s impact on the opera — which is known for its scenic views as well as its world-class musical productions — in a tweet earlier Wednesday. “Pueblo made a real commitment to lowering lighting impact and I believe we can trust them to be good neighbors,” the mayor said. The opera’s MacKay couldn’t be reached for comment.
John Kubiak, chairman of the board of the Pueblo of Tesuque Development Corp., said the pueblo would like to see the new casino open this fall, but added that construction crews believe the project will take 11 or 12 months to complete. It will replace Camel Rock Casino, which is also on Tesuque land several miles farther north along the highway.
Kubiak said the casino is being built with plans for a hotel, but it’s all conceptual right now. “It’s probably years away, so there’s been no determination of size, number of stories, number of rooms or any of that at this point,” Kubiak said.