Casino almost ready to open in Jones Co.

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Jones County Board of Supervisors President Andy Dial said the tribe has agreed to fund widening the road leading to the casino site to 22 feet of paved surface.

Strain also said the tribe drilled its own wells for water service and has sewer plans in place.

"We are handling the wastewater in EPA-recommended systems," he said.But he did say the tribe was still in communication with the board regarding the bridges leading to the site, which Dial said are rated at 6,000 pounds.Dial said the bridges are currently sufficient for car traffic, but that large trucks would have to use alternate routes.He said the board started discussions with the tribe concerning how to address the bridges about two weeks ago, and that the issue remains open."Well, basically, we haven't gotten back together." he said. "We're still in the same place on that."He added that time still remains to upgrade the roads before the casino opens."It could be done, but not if we don't get started on it pretty quick," Dial said.At the near-final count, the casino will house about 775 slot machines, two electronic blackjack machines, an electronic roulette machine and several video poker kiosks, Strain said.The Jones County facility will get about 300 new slot machines, with the remainder coming from the Golden Moon Casino, which currently is undergoing "repurposing" to become the Golden Moon Event Center.The Golden Moon casino was opened by the Choctaws in Philadelphia in 2002. It became the tribe's second casino to open in Philadelphia, the first being the Silver Star in 1994.The Jones County site also will house what Strain called a moderately-priced, "quick-serve" restaurant."It's not just hot dogs and hamburgers," he said. "It'll have hot dogs and hamburgers, but the menu will be expanded from there."Callen said the coalition will remain active after the casino's opening."We will still be here and we plan on continuing to point out the inequities of a sovereign state building something that will cause detrimental things to flow over to Jones County and Sandersville and Laurel," he said. "And we will continue to hold our officials' feet to the fire."

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Casino almost ready to open in Jones Co. - Hattiesburg American